Robert Lebel (born in Paris 11 January 5, 1901 and died February 28, 1986) was a art historian, specializing in modern

French art French art consists of the visual and plastic arts (including French architecture, woodwork, textiles, and ceramics) originating from the geographical area of France. Modern France was the main centre for the European art of the Upper Paleolit ...

. He was also an essayist, poet, novelist, and art collector, He wrote the first fundamental essay on

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

and remained close to the artists and poets of

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

. For example, Lebel was the friend and advisor of

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

and close to

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brussel ...

and

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

Biography

Exiled to New York during the Second World War from 1940 to 1944, Lebel and his wife Nina lived in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

on West 11th Street. There Lebel, father of

Jean-Jacques Lebel Jean-Jacques Lebel (born in Paris on June 30, 1936) is a French artist. His father was also a poet, translator, poetry publisher, political activist, art collector, and art historian. Besides his heterogeneous artworks and poetry, Lebel is also k ...

, regularly met with Duchamp"The artist and his critic stripped bare : the correspondence of Marcel Duchamp and Robert Lebel,

Bibliothèque Kandinsky The Kandinsky Library (or ''Bibliothèque Kandinsky'' in French) is a library of 20th and 21st century visual arts located at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, France. It also serves as the Documentation and Research Centre of the French National Mus ...

" and the other artist intellectuals who had fled Europe for New York. With them, he discovered

Native American art Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes C ...

. On his return to Paris, Lebel worked as an expert in classical paintings. In 1950, he launched, with Patrick Waldberg, the magazine "Encyclopedic Da Costa" that was published by Jean Aubier.

Published Works

* ''

Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

''. Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, New York, Marie Harriman Gallery, 1940 * '' The

Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

'', New York, Marie Harriman Gallery, 1941 * '' Mask with a blade '', New York, Éditions Hémisphères, 1943 * ''

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

or the end of humility '', Paris, 1952 * '' First assessment of current art '' (s / d Robert Lebel), The Black Sun - Positions n ° 3-4, 1953 * '' Blackmail of beauty''. Small initial conference by André Breton, Paris, Editions de Beaune, coll. "The New Manifestos", 1955 * '' On Marcel Duchamp '', with texts by Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and

Henri-Pierre Roché Henri-Pierre Roché (28 May 1879 – 9 April 1959) was a French author who was involved with the artistic avant-garde in Paris and the Dada movement. Late in life, Roché published two novels: his first was ''Jules et Jim'' (1953), a semi-autobiog ...

, Paris and London, Éditions du Trianon, 1959. * '' Géricault, his monumental ambitions and Italian inspiration '', Paris, R. Legueltel, 1961 * '' Anthology of invented forms. Half a century of sculpture'', Paris, Ed. of the Circle Gallery, 1962 * '' What is art criticism '', suppl. to the magazine '' Preuves '', Paris, 1962 * '' The back of the painting. Morals and customs of the tableauistes '', Monaco, Le Rocher, 1964 (only volume I has been published) * '' Dorothea Tanning. Recent paintings, small gold sculptures '', Paris, Le Point Cardinal, 1966 * '' Magritte. Paintings '', Paris, Fernand Hazan, 1969 * '' Traite des passions par personne interposée '', Paris,

Eric Losfeld The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

, coll. "The Mess", 1972 * '' Dada - Surrealism '' with Patrick Waldberg & Michel Sanouillet, Paris, ed. Left Bank, 1981 * '' Marcel Duchamp '', Paris, Belfond, 1985 * '' The Surreal Adventure Around André Breton '' with José Pierre, Paris, Filipacchi, 1986

Fiction

* '' The Double View '' followed by '' The Inventor of Free Time '', cover illustrated by

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...

, with the inset 'The Clock in Profile' by

, Paris, The Black Sun, 1964, repr. 1977 * '' L'Oiseau-caramel '', cover illustrated by

, with a lithograph of

Erró Erró (born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland) is a visual artist and painter, who is best known for his painted pop art collages of images from comic books and advertisements.

, Paris, Le Soleil Noir, 1969 * '' Saint-Charlemagne '', cover illustrated by Marx Ernst, Paris, The Black Sun, 1976

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebel, Robert 1901 births 1986 deaths French art critics French art historians Cultural historians French art curators French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French male writers