Jean Khalfa is a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge who specialises in the history of philosophy, modern literature (in particular contemporary poetry and writing in French from North Africa and the Caribbean), aesthetics and anthropology. He is also a member of the Council of the Ecole Normale Supérieure.
Jean will give us a talk on Wifredo Lam and XXth century livres d’artiste at the Amphithéâtre Marie Curie, 1 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris (RER B Luxembourg, Metro line 7 Place Monge, Metro line 10 Cardinal Lemoine). This is the lecture hall where Marie Curie gave her lectures in the first decade of the 20th Century and it retains much of the format and atmosphere from that time. Jean’s topic would follow well the current Picasso exhibition (https://www.palais-portedoree.fr/fr/node/109187) for those who have been or are planning to go to that – it runs until 13th February at the Palais de la Porte Dorée.
The Wren library at Trinity College has one of the greatest collections of XXth century artists’ books. A set of books by the Cuban/French painter Wifredo Lam has recently been added to the collection. Lam was a protégé of Picasso before WWII and became one of the greatest painters of the second half of the century.
His painting La Jungle is usually displayed in New York’s MoMA next to Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. His work as a painter was considerable and is on display in countless museums, but what is less well known is that Lam produced some of the greatest books of the period, in dialogue with the most significant poets.
This talk will be an opportunity to discover this artist, to better understand the genre of the “livre d’artiste”, and to learn how I managed to get these extraordinary books to Cambridge.
To find out more about the collection:
Wilfredo Lam: Livres d’Artiste – part one of article published on 29th May 2018
Wilfredo Lam: Livres d’Artiste – part two of article published on 4th June 2018
Participants will be welcomed with a coffee, available from 6pm, and the lecture will begin at 7pm. Tickets are €25 per person and can be booked using the link below (click on the “+” button to select the number of tickets required).