Art of the Everyday: The Quotidian in Postwar French Culture

Published in conjunction with an exhibition of contemporary French artists at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University, The Art of the Everyday features essays by prominent writers on the topic of the quotidian in philosophy, cinema, theater, photography, and other visual arts of postwar France. It also presents a number of younger artists practicing today - Joel Bartolomeo, Rebecca Bournigault, Claude Closky, Frederic Coupet, Valerie Jouve, Philippe Mairesse, Jean-Luc Moulene, and Rainer Oldendorf - who find inspiration in the stuff of everyday life, rejecting an outmoded reverence for le grand gout. In their work, the sophisticated, urbane nineteenth-century flaneur has mutated into a city dweller well acquainted with the often unpleasant requirements of contemporary life. A panorama of an important aspect of postwar French culture, The Art of the Everyday brings to light the work of a new generation of contemporary French artists viewed through the lens of daily experience.