SETE
Jean Vilar and the Painters: An Aesthetic Revolution
Jean Vilar was a major figure in postwar contemporary theater. Founder of the Avignon Festival in 1947 and director of the Théâtre National Populaire from 1951 to 1963, he simultaneously pursued his own aesthetic vision, combining a nuanced reading of texts with a visual conception of the stage informed by his interest in the visual arts. The exhibition explores the theater director’s ongoing dialogue with artists who claimed to be not merely set designers, but rather “theater painters” who would make color “an actor.”
A Constellation of Artists from the New School of Paris
From his circle of friends formed during the war emerged a constellation of artists—primarily Léon Gischia, Édouard Pignon, Mario Prassinos, Gustave Singier, Alfred Manessier, and Jacques Lagrange—that would nourish Vilar’s aesthetic thinking and transform his stages into spaces imbued with a radical modernity.
A journey in eight sections
From his encounter with Léon Gischia and the birth of the Avignon Festival to the battle standards as a visual signature, via Pignon’s expressionist color, Lagrange’s burlesque, Prassinos’s fantasy, Singier’s coloristic sounds, and Manessier’s spirituality—eight chapters recounting an aesthetic revolution in theater.
Jean Vilar and Sète: An Unbreakable Bond
Born in Sète on March 25, 1912, Jean Vilar spent his summers there and served as a bridge between the artists of the École de Paris and those of the city. He is buried in the Sète Maritime Cemetery. The Paul Valéry Museum, inaugurated in 1970, overlooks the Sète Maritime Cemetery, not far from his home, “Midi le Juste.”
Spoken languages : French
