Is it the privilege of age or my early research? The fact is that, during the Toulon colloquium on André Salmon (1881-1969), I was the only one to have met him. He had received me in his villa La Hune, in Sanary, in April 1964, and we had talked at length about the situation of French youth at that time. A subject that interested him much more than talking for the nth time about Apollinaire or even Picasso. However, he insisted on assuring me that he had ensured a report in Spain on the Franco side without being a partisan of the dictator Franco! In truth, I had not gone up to La Hune to see him, but to talk with Léo Meerle (1895-1991), his wife, who had previously been the companion of Roger Vitrac (1899-1952), on whom I was preparing a 3rd cycle Doctorate. As she was taking a nap when I arrived at their home, he had taken me aside on the terrace and had bombarded me with questions, as the good journalist he had remained. But let's get to the colloquium.

Salmon Colloquium Program of April 2-3-4, 2009:

Each communication should not exceed 30 minutes. A fairly long time (between 15 and 20 minutes) is planned after a set of 2 or 3 communications on related subjects to allow for real exchanges.

Thursday April 2 morning: lyricism and fantasy Session chair: Michèle Touret

9am opening of the colloquium: Monique Léonard, Claude Debon, Claude Pérez 9:15-10:30

1. Claude Pérez (Aix-en-Provence): Salmon in Vers et Prose: 1905-1914
2. Stéphanie Thonnerieux (Lyon II): On a fantastic aesthetic: learned and popular references in Credences

Break 10:45-12:45

3. Claude Debon (Paris III Sorbonne nouvelle): Salmon in Apollinaire's wheels: from the little car to the locomotive
4. Maria Dario (Padua): "Wagers held and bets won?": André Salmon and the stakes of lyrical modernity (the communication will be based on pre-war poems)
5. Elodie Bouygues (IMEC): "André Salmon, friend and mentor" (from Follain to Salmon: Salute to the Elders)

Thursday April 2 afternoon: writing in a disrupted world Session chair: Claude Pérez 14:30-15:45

6. Michel Blay (CNRS): Salmon between humanism and modernity in the Carreaux collection
7. Jean-Pierre Zubiate (Toulouse): Between exaltation and circumspection: André Salmon's poetic anxiety

Break 16:00-17:30

8. Guy Auroux (Toulon): Reinventing the world. Poetics and politics in Prikaz
9. Michèle Touret (Rennes): The poetic experience and Russia: Prikaz and The Prose of the Trans-Siberian

Friday April 3 morning: Fragmentation or unity of the work? Session chair: Michel Blay 8:30-10:30

10. Michèle Monte (Toulon): The heterogeneity of points of view in The Age of Humanity
11. Valérie Thévenon (Toulon): The poetry-prose relationship, in André Salmon's works published in 1921 (The Age of Humanity, Paint, The Illumination Contractor, The Lover of Amazons)
12. Antonio Rodriguez (Lausanne): Poetry as the art of disappointment, André Salmon and Max Jacob

Break

10:45-12:00

13. Joël July (Aix-en-Provence): The tone of casualness in Sylvère or the mocked life
14. André Alain Morello (Toulon): André Salmon novelist

Friday afternoon (Sanary): A crossing of the 20th century Session chair: Claude Debon

15:00-16:15

15. Michèle Gorenc (Toulon): A poet at La Hune: André Salmon in Sanary
16. Christine Dupouy (Metz): Salmon's Paris, or the capital seen by Follain's discoverer
17. Jacqueline Gojard (Paris III Sorbonne nouvelle): For a metapoetic reading of Salmon's work

Break 16:30-18:30

18. Henri Béhar (Paris III Sorbonne nouvelle): Salmon as memoirist
19. Marilena Pronesti (Turin): André Salmon's European spirit, poet and journalist

Dinner offered by the Sanary town hall

Saturday morning: André Salmon and painting (Sanary) Session chair: Jacqueline Gojard

8:30-9:45

20. Jean Arrouye (Aix-en-Provence): Paint: a poetic exposition of pictorial poiesis
21. Evelyne Lloze (Saint-Etienne): The art of image in Salmon

Break 10:00-12:00

22. Jean-Marc Pontier (Toulon): Salmon art critic
23. Beth S. Gersh-Nesic (New York): Salmon, Picasso and the history of cubism
24. Christian Lassalle (Paris Ouest Nanterre): a major poetic invention of André Salmon: The Ladies of Avignon

Read my contribution (in pdf)

Text published in: Essay on Cultural Analysis of Texts - André Salmon as Memoirist - About Arthur Cravan (classiques-garnier.com)

Read the colloquium proceedings:

M. Monte (ed.), André Salmon, Poet of Living Art (Collective) Texts edited by Michèle Monte, with the collaboration of Jacqueline Gojard, Toulon: Faculty of Letters of the University of the South Toulon Var, coll. "Var & poetry", 2010, 384 p.

Back cover André Salmon, born in Paris in 1881 and died in Sanary (Var) in 1969, is a poet, novelist and art critic still too little known. He participated in the Parisian cultural effervescence of the early 20th century with his friends Guillaume Apollinaire, Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, Moïse Kisling. He was one of the first to make cubist painting known and gave their title to the famous Ladies of Avignon. The collections he published between 1907 and 1922 – The Fairies, The Calumet, The Manuscript Found in a Hat, Prikaz, Paint, The Age of Humanity – take head-on the enthusiasms and disillusions of this era with an astonishing mixture of gravity and fantasy. Novels, tales, books on modern art, memoirs complete this multifaceted work and make Salmon a precious witness of this century, of which he knew the creative impulses as well as the destructive fury. This volume contains a vast collection of articles that illuminate his aesthetics and the evolution of his poetry, resituate him in his era and analyze his links with the painters and writers of Montmartre and Montparnasse.

Articles by J. Arrouye, G. Auroux, H. Béhar, M. Blay, E. Bouygues, M. Dario, C. Debon, C. Dupouy, B. Gersh-Nešić, J. Gojard, M. Gorenc, J. July, E. Lloze, M. Monte, A.-A. Morello, C.-P. Pérez, J.-M. Pontier, M. Pronesti, A. Rodriguez, V. Thévenon, S. Thonnerieux, J.-P. Zubiate. Table of contents: Foreword: André Salmon poet without a label by Michèle Monte A poet at La Hune: André Salmon in Sanary by Michèle Gorenc The poet's reasons for being: existential, ethical and aesthetic choices André Salmon or the fable of living art by Jacqueline Gojard Salmon between humanism and modernity in the collection The Age of Humanity by Michel Blay Between exaltation and circumspection: André Salmon's poetic anxiety by Jean-Pierre Zubiate The art of image in Salmon by Evelyne Lloze André Salmon's European spirit, poet and journalist by Marilena Pronesti The uncertainties of Credences (1905-1914) Salmon in Vers et Prose: 1905-1914, by Claude Pérez On a fantastic aesthetic: learned and popular references in Credences, by Stéphanie Thonnerieux "Wagers held and bets won?": André Salmon and the stakes of lyrical modernity: by Maria Dario Poetry as the art of disappointment, André Salmon and Max Jacob: by Antonio Rodriguez The coup d'éclat of Carreaux (1919-1921): Reinventing the world. Poetics and politics in Prikaz by Guy Auroux The heterogeneity of points of view in The Age of Humanity by Michèle Monte Paint: a poetic exposition of pictorial poiesis by Jean Arrouye The poet art critic, storyteller and novelist Salmon art critic by Jean-Marc Pontier From The Manuscript Found in a Hat to The Two-Shot Monocle, André Salmon novelist by André-Alain Morello The poetry-prose relationship, in André Salmon's works published in 1921 (The Age of Humanity, Paint, The Illumination Contractor, The Lover of Amazons) by Valérie Thévenon The tone of casualness in Sylvère or the mocked life by Joël July The spirit of the times: painters and poets from Montmartre to Montparnasse Salmon in Apollinaire's wheels by Claude Debon André Salmon, Pablo Picasso and the history of cubism by Beth Gersh-Nesic Salmon as memoirist: the case of Arthur Cravan by Henri Béhar Montparnasse, or Salmon's Paris by Christine Dupouy With Follain in the 1930s: Salmon, myth, mentor and friend by Élodie Bouygues Biography of André Salmon by Jacqueline Gojard Small biblio-iconographic index by Jacqueline Gojard Texts edited by Michèle Monte, with the collaboration of Jacqueline Gojard Reference URL: http://babel.univ-tln.fr/ Read: Guillaume Apollinaire & André Salmon: Correspondence 1903-1918 & Anthology 1918-1959, edition prefaced and annotated by Jacqueline Gojard, 124 photos and color facsimiles, Paris, ed. Claire Paulhan, 202, 488 p.

Complement here: Archinard, a mystification: Archinard, a mystification?