Lomholt Mail Art Archive

Index: Jean-Paul Thenot

Biography

Jean-Paul Thenot (born 1943, France) was trained as a psychotherapist, a profession he continued while producing art. Around 1969, he began creating artworks, beginning with his “Interventions in the Street,” which consisted of a series of scaled sculptures of everyday objects, such as mousetraps, set up in public space. Around 1970, he moved away from producing objects into largely textual and conceptual works, such as his “Constats d’existence,” typed pages of commentary on contemporary artists that were mailed to various figures in the art world. In 1972, he began conducting interactive surveys about art and perception. In response to the infamous, state-sponsored “Expo 72” (“Douze ans de l’art contemporain en France”), he carried out a large survey inviting respondents to select the most representative French artists and then declared the person whose submitted list was closest to the averaged, final list the honorary curator of a public exhibition opening that May.

Together with Hervé Fischer and Fred Forest, Thénot formed the Sociological Art Collective in 1974, as an artistic movement and approach to aesthetics that emerged in France. The history of sociological art might also be traced through the independent practices of Fischer, Forest, and Thenot, themselves engaged in a dialogue with broad international artistic tendencies towards social engagement and the social sciences, and the intellectual histories of social art history and sociology of art.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_art

Displaying all 13 posts by the networker in Lomholt Mail Art Archive
S 1978 00 00 thenot a length 001
1978-00-00
A Length
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1978 11 27 thenot 001
1978-11-27
Printed Matter from Thenot, 0001, 0004
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1981 11 10 thenot 001
1981-11-10
Invitation from Thenot
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1978 00 00 thenot sydney concealed 001
1978-00-00
Sydney Concealed
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1979 02 12 thenot 001
1979-02-12
Letter from Thenot
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1978 00 00 thenot sydneys concealment 001
1978-00-00
Sydney's Concealment
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1979 02 13 thenot the trans quiet dressingroom 001
1979-02-13
The Trans-Quiet Dressingroom
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1978 06 24 thenot 001
1978-06-24
Letter from Thenot
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1979 02 22 thenot a proepos 001
1979-02-22
a Proepos
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1978 08 16 thenot 001
1978-08-16
Letter from Thenot
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1981 00 00 thenot 001
1981-00-00
Homage to Unknown Artists
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1978 09 04 thenot 001
1978-09-04
Letter from Thenot
Jean-Paul Thenot
S 1981 06 19 thenot 001
1981-06-19
Homage to Unknown Artists
Jean-Paul Thenot