DEUX Fred. LA NOUVELLE VIE (OR TOWARDS A NEW LIFE - no. 4863), 2004. Watercolour and pencil on paper. Signed and dated lower right. 730 x 1040 mm. A handwritten poem accompanying the work is included: "If each drawing, from the smallest to the largest, is a story without words, it is never finished without accompaniment. Hence the need to give it, to offer it, what the artist lacks. Shapes open up paths, life opens up death. New life is not a new life it comes after a past that burnt itself out. I loved that past, without looking back to fix it. At no thirst quenches. It's an ordeal I can't live without. I rest little. I search and search. Towards the wound. At the end is death. I cannot be freed. [...]." Exhibition: La Ligne de partage, Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, 2009, n°122 (cat. p. 41, reproduced).