Lettrist

Lettrist refers to a member of the Lettrist movement, an avant-garde artistic current that emerged in Paris after World War II and is associated with the broader practice of Lettrism (Lettrisme). The movement was founded by Isidore Isou in the mid- to late 1940s and developed out of efforts to redefine poetry, art, and cinema by foregrounding the material significance of letters and language rather than traditional meaning or representation.

Core ideas of Lettrism center on language as a concrete material. Lettrist practice experiments with letters, typography, and phonetics, producing works that fragment or detach language from conventional syntax and narrative. The movement encompasses poetry, visual art, and performance, often employing isolated letters, fragments of words, and typographic experimentation to disrupt ordinary reading and interpretation. In cinema, Lettrist film emphasizes montage, phonetic sound, and non-narrative structure, presenting a cinema of the letters and sounds rather than conventional storytelling.

In the 1950s, Lettrists influenced and contributed to shifts within the postwar avant-garde, with several members later helping to form the Situationist International (SI) in 1957. The SI carried forward some Lettrist techniques while expanding critical and political aims related to urban life, spectatorship, and social critique.

Legacy and scope: Lettrism influenced later movements in poetry, typography, and film theory, and it contributed to anti-art and anti-representation approaches that would shape subsequent avant-garde currents. Notable figures associated with Lettrism include Isou and Maurice Lemaître. The term Lettrist can describe works or artists aligned with these practices as well as formal membership in the movement.