27.9.03

Autumn Festival in Paris

Jean Tinguely, Poster for Festival d'Automne à Paris, 1977The Festival d'Automne has been an annual event in Paris since its inauguration in 1972, under the guidance of Michel Guy and with the support of arts-friendly French President Georges Pompidou. This festival sponsors a lot of new art, plays, films, dance, and music, and people like Merce Cunningham, Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varèse have been on the truly impressive list of regular invitees. Also interesting is the festival's annual contribution to l'art de l'affiche, the art of the poster, an artform which has been a French speciality. You can review past editions of the Festival d'Automne and their posters, made by artists like Joan Miró (1978), Cy Twombly (1979), Roy Lichtenstein (1982), Sigmar Polke (1988), Jasper Johns (1991), Bill Viola (1996), Martin Puryear (1999), and Anselm Kiefer (2000). The 1977 poster, designed by Jean Tinguely and featuring a Duchampesque machine infernale that looks like it was constructed of bicycle-part objets trouvés, is shown at left.

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