Francois Dufrene (François Dufrêne) (born Paris, 21 September 1930; died Paris, 12 December 1982) was a French Nouveau realist visual artist,

Lettrist Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture ...

and

Ultra-Lettrist The Ultra-Lettrist art movement was developed by Jean-Louis Brau, Gil J. Wolman, and François Dufrêne in the 1950s when they split from Isidore Isou's Lettrism movement. Dufrêne created a phonetic poetry movement which breaks the structures ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. He is primarily known as a pioneer in

sound poetry Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poe ...

and for his use of

décollage ''Décollage'' is an art style that is the opposite of collage; instead of an image being built up of all or parts of existing images, it is created by ripping and tearing away or otherwise removing pieces of an original image.Nouveau réalisme A ''nouveau'' ( ), or ''vin (de) primeur'', is a wine which may be sold in the same year in which it was harvested. The most widely exported ''nouveau'' wine is French wine Beaujolais ''nouveau'' which is released on the third Thursday of ...

Lettrist, Ultra-Lettrist and Nouveau réalisme movements

Dufrene, along with Gil J. Wolman and

Brion Gysin Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices. He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...

, was one of the stalwarts of the experimental

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

in France. Dufrene's abstract poetry has led many to regard him as a member of the first generation

sound poets In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

- following in the footsteps of

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye de ...

Richard Huelsenbeck Carl Wilhelm Richard Hülsenbeck (aka Charles R. Hulbeck) (23 April 189220 April 1974) was a German writer, poet, and psychoanalyst born in Frankenau, Hessen-Nassau who was associated with the formation of the Dada movement. Life and work Afte ...

Hugo Ball Hugo Ball (; 22 February 1886 – 14 September 1927) was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry. ...

Tristan Tzara Tristan Tzara (; ; ; born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, c ...

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist. He was born in Hanover, Germany, but lived in exile from 1937. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, Constructivism (a ...

and

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

(among others). Francois Dufrene joined

Isidore Isou Isidore Isou (; 29 January 1925 – 28 July 2007), born Isidor Goldstein, was a Romanian-born French poet, dramaturge, novelist, film director, economist, and visual artist. He was the founder of Lettrism, an art and literary movement which ...

and the Lettrist movement in 1946 and continued to participate until 1964. Dufrene's talent was evident in the fact that he was already a member of the

Group at only 16 years old. Dufrene then created a

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

poetry which breaks the structures of language he called

. The Ultra-Lettrist movement was an art form developed by Dufrene along with Jean-Louis Brau and Gil J Wolman in the 1950s, when they split from Isidore Isou's Lettrism. Dufrene explored vocal possibilities of

concrete music Concrete is a composite material composed of construction aggregate, aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that curing (chemistry), cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used b ...

, a form of expression based on spontaneity directly recorded to tape, exploiting the

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

of sound, meaning and

nonsense Nonsense is a form of communication, via speech, writing, or any other formal logic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. In ordinary usage, nonsense is sometimes synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous. Many poets, novelists and songwri ...

. Dufrene became friends with

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein wa ...

in 1950 and with

Raymond Hains Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeglé and P ...

and

Jacques Villeglé Jacques Villeglé, born Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé (27 March 1926 – 6 June 2022) was a French mixed-media artist and affichiste famous for his alphabet with symbolic letters and decollage with ripped or lacerated posters. He was a member ...

in 1954. In 1957 he discovered décollage and in 1960 - with

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (22 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning ...

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century.Chilvers, Ian; Gl ...

Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French and American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') t ...

, Hains and Villeglé - and helped found the art group known as

Nouveau réalisme A ''nouveau'' ( ), or ''vin (de) primeur'', is a wine which may be sold in the same year in which it was harvested. The most widely exported ''nouveau'' wine is French wine Beaujolais ''nouveau'' which is released on the third Thursday of ...

. He is considered one of the important artists in that

Neo-Dada Neo-Dada was an art movement with audio, visual and literary manifestations that had similarities in method or intent with earlier Dada artwork. It sought to close the gap between art and daily life, and was a combination of playfulness, iconoclas ...

art movement.

Crirythme performances

Dufrene earned fame for his performances called ''Crirythmes'', which was in a vocal style of

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

different from those of his contemporaries. The ''Crirythme'' work inspired generations of experimental poets, such as Henri Chopin,

Bernard Heidsieck Bernard Heidsieck (November 28, 1928 – November 22, 2014) was a French sound poet, associated with various movements throughout a long career: including Beat, American Fluxus, and minimalism. Heidsieck was born in Paris. In the course of his ca ...

, Ake Hodell, Charles Amirkhanian,

Bob Cobbing Bob Cobbing (30 July 1920 – 29 September 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival. Early life Cobbing was born in Enfield. He attended Enfield Grammar School and ...

Gregory Whitehead Gregory Whitehead (Nantucket, MA) is a writer, radio program maker and audio artist based in Lenox, Massachusetts. Allen S. Weiss considers him to be a major figure in the fields of audio art and radio art.Allen S. Weiss, ''"Lost Tongues and Di ...

bpNichol Barrie Phillip Nichol (30 September 1944 – 25 September 1988), known as bpNichol, was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, creative writing teacher at York University in Toronto and grOnk/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work ...

, Tracie Morris,

Clive Fencott P. Clive Fencott
at

, Ada Verdun Howell,

Mitch Corber Mitch Corber is a New York City neo- Beat poet, an eccentric performance artist, and no wave videographer known for his rapid whimsically comical montage and collage style. He has been associated with Collaborative Projects, Inc. (aka Colab), pa ...

and

Jaap Blonk Jaap Blonk (born 1953, Woerden) is a Dutch avant-garde composer and performance artist. Blonk is primarily self-taught both as a sound artist and as a visual/stage performer. Jaap Blonkat Allmusic He studied physics, mathematics, and musicology ...

Film without a screen

Dufrene is the author of a film called ''Tambours du jugement premier'' (''Drums of the first judgment'') (1952), a fantasy film presented on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival the same year. In 1973 it was presented at the Atelier de Création (France Culture), in 1981 as part of the exhibition ''Paris-Paris'' at the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, and in 1982 at ''Thirty Years of Experimental Cinema in France'' also at the Centre Georges Pompidou. ''Tambours du jugement premier'' is a "film" without screen, projector or film, which eliminates not only the dictatorship of the image over the word, but abandons the projected image altogether, because it's no longer a matter of perceiving it passively, but rather one of imagining or recreating it. Originally however, Dufrene had indeed anticipated a visual part of the film, never taken to fruition, which was not even complete when the

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

was published. The weight of the work lay clearly in its

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

, which is all that the initial project finally became. It could therefore be considered a piece of

rather than a

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

in the conventional sense. The first presentation of ''Tambours du jugement premier'' as an ''imaginary film without screen or film'' took place in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

in 1952, at the Alexandre III cinema. The scant resources it required enabled the imaginary film to be improvised. The voices were situated in the four corners of the hall and while the performers recited the texts, the house lights flashed on and off and the

stage curtain Theater drapes and stage curtains are large pieces of cloth that are designed to mask backstage areas of a theater from spectators. They are designed for a variety of specific purposes, moving in different ways (if at all) and constructed from v ...

opened and closed repeatedly. Dufrene's ''Tambours du jugement premier'' is a play on the exhaustion of

cinematographic Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...

medium, situating itself as a film beyond film projection machinery. The frustration of the public's expectations - and its invitation to the viewer's imagination - is what creates a rupture and liberation from the impositions of the standard image. The soundtrack for ''Tambours du jugement premier'' contains an important phonetic work which includes almost all of the compositions and scores that Dufrene had produced up to that time in the form of lettrist poems and sung aphorisms as experimental

. The compositions renounced any type of discursive content and consisted in improvisations recorded on a

tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

, employing all the possible capabilities of voice and body.

Works

* ''Bottom'' (1960), torn posters pasted on wood; in the collection of the

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

Art Museum

François Dufrêne's ''Crirythmes'' on ''Cramps Records'' LP (1975), a disk curated by Maurizio Nannucci with assistance by Arrigo Lora-Totino and produced by

Giancarlo Bigazzi Giancarlo Bigazzi (5 September 1940 – 19 January 2012) was an Italian music producer and composer. He was a former member of comedy music group Squallor. Life and career Born in Florence, he was one of the best known Italian songwriters and ly ...

References

Sources

* ''Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', Paris, Éditions Hazan, 2006, p. 217

External links

François Dufrene official site

at

Ubuweb UbuWeb is a "a pirate shadow library consisting of hundreds of thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts." It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. The site was created by ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dufrene, Francois Nouveau réalisme French mixed-media artists 1930 births 1982 deaths Phonaesthetics Nouveau réalisme artists French sound artists 20th-century French poets French male poets French contemporary artists 20th-century French male writers