ArtistLemaitre, Maurice Bismuth

Artist Years1926-2018

Artist NationalityFrench

TitleMarais Basse en Bretagne

Year1971

MediumPainting > Oil

DimensionsCanvas: 19.5 X 24 inches

Accession NumberRC1918

NotesMultidisplinary artist; playwright and filmmaker Lemaitre was born in Paris in 1926. Studies at I'Ecole des Arts et Metiers and I'Ecole des Travaux Publics. After taking part in the Liberation of Paris, Maurice Lemaitre starts studying philosophy in the Sorbonne. ln 1949, he joins the Libertarian Movement and goes in for journalism contributing articles to the paper of this movement. In early1950, he joins the Avant-garde lettrist group and launches two magazines simultaneously: Front de la jeunesse and Ur; one was political and the other, which was literary and pictorial is still regarded as the "Minotaure• of Lettrism. Ever since, he has kept creating and working for this movement in the different fields it has dealt with :poetry, drama, painting, photography, cinema, dancing as well as economics, philosophy and recently sychopathology and psychotherapy.

Known as a poet and a novelist, he is mentioned in all the surveys of contemporary literature (Hachette, Larousse, etc ... ) in France, in the West and the East. Very much concerned with plastic arts and photography, he participated in more than a hundred painting and sculpture exhibitions and organized about ten shows of his own works (Salon de Mai, Comparaisons, ete ... ) His works have been purchased by museums (Museum of Modem Art of Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, ete ... ), shown abroad in many exhibitions, (Berlin, Hambourg, Cologne, Mannheim, London, Turin, New-York, Chicago, Los Angeles, ete ... ) and acquired by many famous private collectors.

Maurice Lemattre pioneered research in experimental cinema as he created "Syncinema" and was one of the founders of the Screen Lettrist School.

The different dramatic works of Maurice Lemaitre were performed in various places and at the Biennial of Paris, in particular those integrating the audience, a new device, he was one of the first to introduce. He wrote more than forty books and published numerous pamphlets, articles, magazines, handouts. He also published a new review, along with Lettrism, La Revue d'Histoire du Cin6ma, L 'Avant-Garde/Arts Plastiques, L 'Avant-Garde Audiovisuel/e, Le Bonheur Mental .... which came after Front de Ia Jeunesse, Ur, L 'Art du Cinema, Cinema Marginal, Ia Revue de Psychokladologie et de Psychotheie, Ecritures, Poesie Nouvelle, Le Cinema meme, Culture et Vie, etc ...
Source: CCCB.org)