ART CITIES:Paris-Daniel Spoerri
According to the manifesto of “Nouveau Réalisme” formulated in 1960, a work of art must come into being with as little intervention by the artist as possible. Within his circle of fellow artists and friends it was Daniel Spoerri who realized this maxim more radically than anyone else. He would declare a found object, a seller’s trestle table at a Parisian flea market, for example, to be a work of art simply by appending his signature to it.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Anne Barrault
The visitor on Daniel Spoerri’s solo exhibition, that is on presentation at Galerie Anne Barrault, has the opportunity to discover works done in the last thirty years, still never shown in France. Daniel Spoerri “mutated” into a visual artist in a small hotel room in Paris in 1960, becoming the co-founder of “Nouveau Réalisme” and henceforth leaving definite and enduring traces as an object and installation artist, as a cuisinier and restaurant owner, as an exhibition maker, as a maker of books, as a museum founder and garden architect. Daniel Spoerri published, in 1962, his first book “An Anecdoted Topography of Chance” (re-edited this year by Nouvel Attila editions). Exchanges with artists are a central feature of his work. This essential aspect will be seen thanks to the re-edition of a set of 22 postcards entitled “Monsters are Inoffensive”, first edited by Fluxus in 1967, spoofing the sexual standards of the time. Each card with a different small statement on the rear like “The fatter the men get the sillier they are but MONSTERS ARE INOFFENSIVE”. Most institutions note that their cards are housed in a translucent box, but the set in the Walker Art Center is also housed in a brown envelope. Initially, these postcards were presented in a transparent plastic box, but today they are in a dark brown envelope. Three postcards bear the name of one of the artists: Roland Topor, Daniel Spoerri and Robert Filliou. The others are adaptations of images such as a portrait drawn in haste with holes in place of the eyes. The action was then immortalized with two fingers inserted in the holes. On another postcard, Topor drew on photographic images manipulated by Filliou and Spoerri. The final result was photographed by Vera Spoerri.
Info: Galerie Anne Barrault, 51 rue des Archives, Paris, Duration: 2/9-28/10/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.galerieannebarrault.com
