Isidore Isou
Penser l'art et le monde après 1945
Author(s) Frédéric Alix
Format paperback
Year 2017
Language(s) French
Pages 512 pages
Description
An analysis of the theoretical and aesthetic thought of the founder of Lettrism in the intellectual context of the post-war period up to 1968.
This reflection aims to understand the theoretical functioning of Lettrism through a study of Isidore Isou's intellectual substrate between 1945 and 1968. Isou's artistic and intellectual activity is fully inscribed in the context of these years. But at the important moment of a reconsideration and questioning of Western universalist values, the Lettrist shows a clear intellectual filiation with them. Isou's goal was clearly to bring to light universal laws of analysis and functioning, both concerning matters of art and every domain of knowledge—laws of functioning derived from a teleological and evolutionist reading of "History," allowing the development of criteria, particularly formal ones, of novelty. In the global field of post-World War II avant-gardes, Isidore Isou is a restorer of a certain type of values and certain traditions that forged the culture of Western humanism. But while being an extension of "traditions," he was connected to the problematics of his time. That of communication, the new utopia of the 20th century. That of the secretion of a permutational aesthetic. Of an aesthetic of the sign and more so of the linguistic sign. Hypergraphy itself being connected to contemporary research on language, on semiotics, as a new grand utopia of integral communication.
Frédéric Alix holds a doctorate in contemporary art history and is a specialist and theorist of aesthetic avant-gardes of the second half of the 20th century. His research tends to privilege and construct a multidisciplinary approach to this history.
ISBN: 978-2-84066-926-5
EAN: 9782840669265