Incoherents
Encyclopedia
The Incoherents was a short-lived French art movement founded by Parisian writer and publisher Jules Lévy
in 1882, which in its satirical irreverence anticipated many of the art techniques and attitudes later associated with avant-garde
and anti-art
.
Lévy coined the phrase "les arts incohérents" as a play on the common expression "les arts décoratifs
". The Incoherents presented work which was deliberately irrational and iconoclastic
, "found" art objects, the drawings of children, and drawings "made by people who don't know how to draw." Lévy exhibited an all-black painting by poet Paul Bilhaud called Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night. The early film animator Émile Cohl
contributed photographs which would later be called surreal
. In an 1883 show, the artist Sapeck (Eugène Bataille)(French) contributed Le rire, an 'augmented' Mona Lisa
smoking a pipe.
Although small and short-lived, the Incoherents were certainly well-known. The movement sprang from the same Montmartre
cabaret culture that spawned the Hydropathes and Alfred Jarry
's Ubu Roi
. The October 1882 show was attended by two thousand people, including Manet
, Renoir
, Camille Pissarro
, and Richard Wagner
. Beginning in 1883 there were annual shows, or masked balls, or both. The movement wound down in the mid 1890's.
Jules Levy
Jules Levy was a cornetist, teacher, and composer.Born in London, England, he reportedly began his study of the cornet with only its mouthpiece; his family could not afford the instrument itself. After immigrating to the United States, he began a significant musical career as a cornet soloist and...
in 1882, which in its satirical irreverence anticipated many of the art techniques and attitudes later associated with avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and anti-art
Anti-art
Anti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
.
Lévy coined the phrase "les arts incohérents" as a play on the common expression "les arts décoratifs
Les Arts Décoratifs
Les Arts Décoratifs is a private, non-profit museum of decorative arts located in Paris, France.The museum dates to 1882, when collectors with an interest in the applied arts formed the initial organization. For many years it was known as the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs , but in December...
". The Incoherents presented work which was deliberately irrational and iconoclastic
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
, "found" art objects, the drawings of children, and drawings "made by people who don't know how to draw." Lévy exhibited an all-black painting by poet Paul Bilhaud called Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night. The early film animator Émile Cohl
Émile Cohl
Émile Cohl , born Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet, was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Parisian".-Biography:Émile's father Elie was a rubber salesman, and his mother, Emilie...
contributed photographs which would later be called surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. In an 1883 show, the artist Sapeck (Eugène Bataille)(French) contributed Le rire, an 'augmented' Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
smoking a pipe.
Although small and short-lived, the Incoherents were certainly well-known. The movement sprang from the same Montmartre
Montmartre
Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
cabaret culture that spawned the Hydropathes and Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....
's Ubu Roi
Ubu Roi
Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry, premiered in 1896. It is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. It is the first of three stylised burlesques in which Jarry satirises power, greed, and their evil practices — in particular the propensity of the complacent bourgeois to abuse the...
. The October 1882 show was attended by two thousand people, including Manet
Manet
-MANET as an abbreviation:*MANET is a mobile ad hoc network, a self-configuring mobile wireless network.*MANET database or Molecular Ancestry Network, bioinformatics database-People with the surname Manet:*Édouard Manet, a 19th-century French painter....
, Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
, Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, and Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
. Beginning in 1883 there were annual shows, or masked balls, or both. The movement wound down in the mid 1890's.
See also
- Anti-artAnti-artAnti-art is a loosely-used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage point of art...
- Alphonse AllaisAlphonse AllaisAlphonse Allais was a French writer and humorist born in Honfleur, Calvados.He is the author of many collections of whimsical writings. A poet as much as a humorist, he in particular cultivated the verse form known as holorhyme, i.e. made up entirely of homophonous verses, where entire lines rhyme...
- Eugéne Bataille
- Found artFound artThe term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...