In 1975, GRATALOUP participated in the group exhibition The Tree, organized by Galerie Marquet in Paris. Bringing together several major figures of the French and international art scene, the exhibition explored the theme of the tree as a visual subject, a universal symbol, and a source of poetic inspiration.

Presented in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the exhibition featured artists including Jean-Michel Folon, Yaacov Agam, Roland Topor, André François, Michel Granger, and Jacques Fiade, alongside GRATALOUP. The diversity of artistic approaches reflected the richness of interpretations inspired by a shared theme.

For GRATALOUP, this participation formed part of the ongoing research he had pursued since the early 1970s into natural forms, the memory of landscape, and the transformation of reality through painting. Following his series devoted to the Irish Sea, the tree emerged as another fundamental structure through which to explore growth, rootedness, rhythm, and the organization of pictorial space.

More than a simple botanical motif, the tree became for the artist a genuine archetype. It connects earth and sky, the visible and the invisible, human time and the time of nature. Through this image, several themes that would continue to shape his work become apparent: the memory of forms, the permanence of symbols, and the correspondences between the natural world and inner experience.

This exhibition reflects GRATALOUP’s growing presence within the Parisian art scene of the mid-1970s. Two years after his first solo exhibition at Galerie Marquet, his inclusion alongside recognized figures from illustration, kinetic art, painting, and drawing confirmed the increasing recognition of his work within contemporary French art.