Les Stratégies lettristes à l’égard de l’Amérique

Jeudi 15 mars 2012
18h
Terra Foundation for American Art Europe
29, rue des Pyramides
75001 Paris



Fabrice Flahutez, maître de conférences en histoire de l'art, Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense

This presentation examines the strategies in the United States of Lettrism, a literary movement founded in France that renounces the use of words. As early as the 1970s, Lettrists attempted to win the attention of influential American tastemakers. Their first major U.S. exhibition was held at the MoMA in 1968, entitled Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage and curated by William Rubin. Lettrists subsequently came into contact with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the New York Cultural Center, in their quest to promote their movement, which they saw as a continuation of Surrealism and Dada. A major Lettrist symposium was held in Portland in 1976. From these initial events the promoters of Lettrism launched a strategy to seduce the American art world, hoping thus to convince audiences of their conception of the avant-garde.

Fabrice Flahutez is maître de conférences at the Université de Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense. His research focuses on avant-garde movements after 1945. He has published Nouveau Monde et Nouveau Mythe. Mutations du surréalisme de l'exil américain à l'écart absolu 1941–1965 (Dijon, Les presses du réel, 2007) and Le lettrisme historique était une avant-garde (Dijon, Les presses du réel, 2011).

The workshop will be held in French.. Free admission
Terra Foundation for American Art Europe
29, rue des Pyramides
75001 Paris
Téléphone 01 43 20 67 01
Email information terraamericanart.eu
Website www.terraamericanart.org/europe