Background
Isidore Isou was born on January 29, 1925 in Botosani, Romania, into a Jewish family. He moved to Paris on August 23,1945, after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation.
artist dramaturge novelist poet
Isidore Isou was born on January 29, 1925 in Botosani, Romania, into a Jewish family. He moved to Paris on August 23,1945, after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation.
Isidore Goldstein began his literary career as an avant-garde art journalist during World War II, shortly after the 23 August coup saw Romania joining the Allies. With the future social psychologist Serge Moscovici, he founded the magazine Da, which was soon after closed down by the authorities. Prior to his clandestine migration to Paris with a suitcase full of early manuscripts in August, 1945, he had already developed many of the key concepts which played a role his later work. Intending a total artistic renewal starting from the most basic elements of writing and visual communication, he soon began publishing and exhibiting under the pseudonym "Isidore Isou." On January 8, 1946 Isidore Isou organized the first Lettriste manifestation in Paris along with Gabriel Pommerand, his principle disciple at that time. With the help of Jean Paulhan and Raymond Queneau, who placed his work in La Nouvelle Revue in April, 1947, and the scandal that broke out at Theatre du Vieux-Colombier where he staged a performance, he came to the attention of Gaston Gallimard, who then accepted his memoire "L'Agrégation d'un Nom et d'un Messie" for publication.
The next year, Gallimard publishes his Introduction to a "New Poetry and a New Music", which contains "Manifesto of Lettrist Poetry." He would eventually publish over 200 books, containing his "hypergraphic" writings, "metagraphic" images, plays, theoretical writings, polemics, wall posters, etc. In 1950, the Lettrist group also included Maurice Lemaitre, Jean-Louis Brau, Gil J Wolman, and Francois Dufrene; in 1951, Guy Debord would join. In 1951, Isou released his experimental and revolutionary film "Traité de bave et d'éternité", work deemed revolting by many critics present at the premiere. Despite the formation of the Lettrist International in 1952, Isou's lettrist group would continue through the rest of the decade. In the 1960s Lettrist, Lettrist-influenced works and Isidore Isou gained a great deal of respect in France. Isou's final public appearance was at the University of Paris on October 21, 2000, aged 82. In the 1980s Isidore Isou was accorded French citizenship. He died in Paris on July 28, 2007.
Untitled
Les Nombres XXXII
Untitled
Signes fauves
La télévision dechiquetée ou l’anti-crétinisation (Jagged Television or Anti-Cretinization)
Comment on Van Gogh (V.)
Variations commentées
Portrait Hypographique de Van Gogh
Untitled (from Les Nombres)
Comment on Van Gogh (XIV.)
Échiquier brodé 42
Hypergraphie/Pour Virginie Nr. 9
Hypergraphie
Amos
Chronographismes
Power as it is
Untitled (from Les Journaux des Dieux)
Hypergraphies Polylogue
Self-Portrait
Rebus a Insinuation
Isidore had a daughter Catherine Goldstein, who is a mathematician.
