François Dufrêne

François Dufrêne was born in Paris in 1930 and joined Isidore Isou's Lettrist movement in 1946, as a teenager. In 1952 he made Tambours du jugement premier, an "imaginary film" with no screen or celluloid. After breaking with Isou he developed his crirythmes, ultra-lettrist improvisations of cries and breath recorded onto tape without a score. From 1957 he worked alongside Raymond Hains and Jacques Villeglé on torn posters, turning to their reverse sides; these dessous d'affiches were first shown at the 1959 Paris Biennale. In 1960 he signed the founding declaration of Nouveau Réalisme.