2010 marks the Fiftieth Anniversary of France’s New Realism movement. The Georges- Philippe & Nathalie Vallois Gallery has opted for beginning the year with a retrospective devoted to pioneer New Realist François Dufrêne, who died prematurely in 1982.
Dufrêne gave his first Lettrist recitals in 1950, followed up with his Crirhythm sound poetry in 1954, and in 1957 started on his «dessous» («undersides»): where Raymond Hains and Jacques de la Villeglé were producing «readymade pictures» from posters ripped by passers-by, Dufrêne planted his flag in unexplored territory by working on the backs of posters.
Late in the winter of 1958 Dufrêne invited Villeglé and Hains to show as the «Lacéré Ano- nyme» in his apartment at 4 rue Vercingétorix in Paris. Urged on by Villeglé, Dufrêne also contributed to the exhibition, which opened on 19 June 1959. In addition to the backs of four big posters, he presented Ma Palissade, a fence made of four boards bought from workmen in the street. This was intended to provoke a reaction from Hains, which came when the three showed together in the «Salle des Informels» at the first Paris Biennale.
Paradoxically Dufrêne – a poet and writer – approached his posters as a painter or an archaeologist, working on the substrate much more than Hains and Villeglé. Scraping the paper back layer by layer, he exhumed the ghostly images of pictures which, while made of the same material as the others’ lacerated posters, were characterised by nuances, pastel tones and fragile shapes to be found nowhere else.
For the retrospective the gallery has brought together works covering the period 1958– 1981 – backs of posters, stencils, postcards, soundwork etc. – that set out to convey the splendid singularity of François Dufrêne’s oeuvre.
The exhibition catalogue will contain a preface by Aude Bodet.