Lettrism

Lettrism (French: Lettrisme), also known as Letterism, is a French avant-garde art and literary movement, founded in Paris in the mid-1940s by Isidore Isou. Lettrism initially concerned itself with letters and other visual or phonic signs, seeking to transcend conventional poetry and literature. Isou, seeing language as worn-out and inadequate, proposed to reduce poetic expression to its most basic elements: the letter and phonic sound. These elements, stripped of their semantic meaning, could then be used to construct new forms of artistic expression.

The Lettrist movement expanded beyond poetry to influence other art forms, including painting, film, and graphic design. In painting, Lettrist works often feature isolated letters and symbols combined in unconventional ways. Lettrist cinema similarly explores the disjunction between sound and image, often employing innovative editing techniques and nonsensical narratives.

Over time, Lettrism evolved into a broader and more diverse movement encompassing various artistic and philosophical concerns. It branched out into areas such as body modification, architecture, and social critique. Key figures associated with Lettrism, besides Isidore Isou, include Gabriel Pomerand, Maurice Lemaître, and François Dufrêne. The movement's influence can be seen in later artistic movements, such as Situationism and contemporary sound poetry. Despite its radical origins, Lettrism has had a significant impact on the development of avant-garde art and experimental literature.