In the 1940s and 1950s he is associated with Tachisme, though that describes only a small part of his artistic achievement, such as his hallucinatory representations of faces and heads; his work often uses dense, suggestively gestural strokes that incorporate calligraphy, asemic writing and abstract expressionism.
1954
First experiment with mescaline
He tries mescaline for the first time, as an experiment; he will describe his drug experiments in the book “Misérable Miracle” (1956).
c. 1955
Friendship with Emil Cioran
Around the same time he befriends the Romanian pessimist philosopher Emil Cioran, along with other literary luminaries in France.
1955
Becomes a French citizen
He becomes a citizen of France and lives there for the rest of his life.
1956
“Misérable Miracle” appears
A book of essays on the effects of drugs, with forty-eight of his own drawings.
