The series of lectures on the History of Art and Ideas that Villa Arson – a national higher school of art – is inaugurating this year is designed to support the teaching provided there.
Tonight at 7 PM the first lecture: Art and Life by Maurice Fréchuret.
From “L’Art dans tout,” a gathering of creators formed at the very end of the 19th century, to the protagonists of the Arts & Crafts movement and all other artists influenced by the thought of John Ruskin, a redefinition of art must necessarily be undertaken, often in conjunction with the most committed political movements.
In the 20th century, such questioning was at the heart of the reflection and practice of many artistic movements. The questioning is particularly poignant for the Dadaists and for numerous avant-garde movements from the early 20th century. After World War II, and probably because never before was the human being and their very existence so denied, the relationship between art and life is at the center of all inquiries. The revolutionary Lettrists then began a reflection that the Situationists would continue and develop in an exemplary manner.
At the same time, in Europe, the United States, South America, and Asia, movements formed with the objective of transcending artistic practice by transforming it into sequences of life. Fluxus, Gutaï, and other movements like the Neo Dada Organizers or the High Red Center, the Ecart and Untel groups… are, in this respect, the currents that contributed the most to this fusion.
Their proposals, like those of more individual creators, still resonate today in the works of young artists who, instead of producing new objects, prioritize the richness of exchanges and the quality of relationships.
