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Deep in the vast heart of Africa

Guy de Cointet. Deep in the vast heart of Africa. 1978

Guy de Cointet (French, 1934–1983). Deep in the vast heart of Africa. 1978. Ink and pencil on paper, 25 5/8 x 40" (65.1 x 101.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Drawings Funds. © 2012 The Estate of Guy de Cointet

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This drawing is an example of de Cointet’s script-based compositions, in which text is used as an abstract generative pattern. The rigorous structure of slanted lines registers the artist’s fascination with sign systems and invented and encrypted languages, modes of communication that dwell on the border between the legible and the purely visual. After settling in Los Angeles in 1968, de Cointet became fascinated with the English language and American popular culture. He collected phrases, words, and even single letters from television and literary sources and worked these elements into nonlinear narratives that he then performed as plays. The title of this work reappeared as a phrase spoken by an actor in the artist’s 1979 play Tell Me.