François Morellet, Oulipo und Julio Cortázar : Ähnlichkeiten zwischen abstrakter Kunst und experimenteller Literatur der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts

Kurzfassung/Abstract

The creative principles of the French painter François Morellet (* 1926), regarded as one of the most influential artists of contemporary abstract art, show interesting parallels to currents of experimental literature in the second half of the 20th century. Similar to the members of Oulipo, Morellet uses contraintes to create his works of art, and in both cases mathematical principles are at the heart of these contraintes which aim at creating objectivity in art. Moreover, Morellet’s vision of art not only shows similarities to the French Oulipo group but also to the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, mainly because both artists are in search of a “lector cómplice” / a “spectateur complice” in their respective fields. Morellet’s affinity to literature comes to the fore with the publication of an interesting volume of his own texts (Mais comment taire mes commentaires). The example of Morellet underscores that a close-knit relation between literature and visual arts also exists in the field of abstract art. This relation is the subject of analysis in the following article.