Avant-gardes

This book recounts Jean-Jacques Lebel's long and tumultuous passage through the powerful laboratory of ideas and experiments of surrealism that was the journal Front Unique (1955-1960), which heralded and sometimes prefigured his future protean activities in the fields of art, poetry and militancy (anticolonial and libertarian).

The first French translation of the texts of the Japanese artist and writer Akasegawa Genpei (Katsuhiko Akasegawa, aka Otsuji Katsuhiko, 1937-2014), a figure of the Tokyo avant-garde of the 1960s, on the concept of Tomason, with a rich iconography.

An in-depth historical study of the artistic and political project of the Situationist International (1952-1972).

Reference monograph of the most renowned Japanese artist-poet of the 20th century in Europe and the United States, active since the 1920s, a figure of visual poetry, linked to all the European and American literary and artistic avant-gardes, with numerous illustrations.

The life and work of the precursor of happening and streaking in Japan, Itoi Kanji (aka Dadakan, 1920-2021): the first comprehensive chrono-biographical study in Western language on the great Japanese Dadaist nudist ascetic, with a rare iconography.

An analysis of the true theoretical and commercial system developed by Michel Tapié de Céleyran (1909-1987), who invented his profession of art entrepreneur by combining several activities—art critic, editor, artistic advisor, broker and collector—, contributed to the international destiny of some 200 artists (including Dubuffet, Mathieu, Pollock, Tapiès, Saura, Fontana, and De Kooning) and was at the origin of "Informal Art".

Three perspectives (philosophical, sociological and artist's word) on the meaning of the avant-garde, and its relationship to the counter-culture.

A reevaluationof Surrealism since 1940: a large-scale, groundbreaking work covering seven decades, questioning the discourses, narratives, and debates on the poetic, political, and artistic commitments of the movement, in the context of the deep social and cultural mutations of the world of the second half of the 20th century.

An erudite investigation into the enigma of Marcel Duchamp's great testamentary work Étant donnés, an installation conceived for twenty years in the greatest secrecy before being unveiled to the public a year after the death of the inventor of the readymade, which gives the viewer new keys to interpretation, by examining both what the work concludes and what it opens.

A fascinating exploration of the utopian origins and tumultuous 130-year history of the largest and longest-lived artists' community in the world.

A journey through the years 1960-1980, following Pierre Tilman's friendships with the artists, poets, jazz musicians and creators who marked the artistic and literary landscape of the time.

A fascinating exploration of the utopian origins and tumultuous 130-year history of the largest and longest-lived artists' community in the world.

Reevaluating the scholarly knowledge about Dada and its legacy, this publication reconstructs how Dada was (re)invented in the 1950s and the 1960s, especially by the Dada protagonists themselves, and asks to what extent Dada's impulses are still relevant regarding current aesthetic, literary and cultural analyses.

Attempting to explore the transdisciplinary aspects of artistic practice, this book revisits a tipping point in art history: the invention of preconceptual and minimal art forms by George Brecht, a chemical engineer and artist.

A study and translation of a fundamental text on the “art of the insane” in Russia, re-establishing a whole section of Western history of the interest of psychiatrists in the relationship between creation and madness.

The main works of the artist in thirty-one short texts, without images.

A closer reading of the late poetry of Jean Hans Arp (1886-1966), major figure of the Dada movement in Zurich, a friend of the surrealists, painter, sculptor, also author of an important bilingual poetic work, which covers more than half a century of creation (with a choice of poems previously unpublished).

A collective reassessment of Gertrude Stein's relationship to the arts, allowing to understand the complexity of the relationship between writing and visual arts in her work.

First publication dedicated to Jamaican-born American photographer Percy Rainford, a longtime collaborator of both Marcel Duchamp and architect Frederick Kiesler. Drawing from extensive archival research and interviews, author Michael R. Taylor showcases the work of this remarkable avant-garde photographer, while also shedding new light on his collaborations with Duchamp and Kiesler.

An essay by Frédéric Valabrègue on the American avant-garde artist, one of the main actors of the Fluxus movement.

Narrative essay developping the notion of abhumanism, a critical philosophy which questions the centrality of mankind in our relationship to the world. With illustrations by Camille Bryen and a foreword by Michel Giroud.

A collective reflection on the historical stakes of French avant-garde movement Lettrism.

French translation of the Tulane Drama Review's 1965 issue on the happening (with John Cage, Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, George Maciunas, Robert Morris, Claes Oldenburg, Yvonne Rainer, La Monte Young…).

In her brilliant essay, Helen Molesworth pinpoints the significance of the return of the handmade in Duchamp's artistic oeuvre of his later years and, at the same time, and for the very first time, makes this fundamental paradigmatic change the focal point of academic debate.

A study on the relationship between literature and madness from the 18th century until now.

Analyzing the theoretical and aesthetic thought of the founder of Lettrism in the intellectual context of the post-war and up to 1968.

Outside museums, on the roadsides, a journey through the gardens and backyards of Europe and America to discover the "madmen's art": an illustrated essay on the birth and the future of Art Brut (new expanded edition).

Dedicated to the long-lasting ties between Mexico and France, this survey catalogue's common thread is the foundation of a Fourierist-inspired community in Jicaltepec in the 19th century. The historical event interacts throughout the volume with the works of artists questioning the notions of travel, exile, relationships and utopia.

This publication aims to explore how the multiple production of Raoul Hausmann, a central figure of Dada, has helped to shape the art of modernity.

A critical book: a reassessment of Julien Blaine's poetry and the aesthetic problems related to it.

A genealogy of cut-up: the history and development of a radical and pioneering literary technique, in Europe and the US, in the twentieth century (readings from William S. Burroughs).

Does Mona Lisa deserve her mustache? An erudite review of 180 pre- and post-Duchamp caricatures and misappropriations.

Science and Pataphysics, volume II: the birth of linguistics, as an academic field, in France, and the ideological and political issues that contribute to this implementation.

Science and Pataphysics, volume I: the history of the origin myths—how science is torn from what is now defined as pseudo-science.

In about 600 selected letters, this correspondence documents the biography, activities, career and work of the art historian Leo Rosenthal (1870-1932).

A real, potential and fictitious museum by Michel Giroud.

First monograph in a Western language on the subversive and radical Japanese avant-garde group Zero Jigen.

A collective publication that brings together artists and researchers on the issue of the body.

Raoul Hausmann's autobiographical novel.

Herminie Hanin (a figure of art brut, “fou littéraire” with a tendency to paranoia, inventor of the plane trap) inaugurates the series “Les Hétéroclites” (“Heterogeneous”), created by Marc Décimo to explore the relations between literature, art, insanity and creation.

The theatrical, poetical and musical work of Xavier Forneret, French Romantic writer, precursor of the Surrealist movement.

Stories, novels, correspondence and short texts by Xavier Forneret, French Romantic writer, precursor of the Surrealist movement.

Essay and interviews.

Émile Bernard's correspondence.