Alfred Jarry was a French writer whose work is often considered a precursor to absurdist theatre. Across genres including plays, novels, poetry, and essays, his texts pioneer absurdist literature through a distinctive style that embraces the grotesque and the misunderstood. Jarry also invented a pseudoscience known as 'pataphysics, further expanding the boundaries of his literary and intellectual world. His innovative approach and unique voice left an indelible mark on literary history.
Alfred Jarry's riotous, ground-breaking play, was a sensation upon first staging. This modern adaptation, which formed the basis of a short film, Roi, directed by acclaimed author, Neil Bartlett, brings a modernist classic to a contemporary audience.
A major survey of Dame Laura Knight, first female Royal Academician and popular British artist of the 20th century.Laura Knight (1877–1970) was one of the most famous and popular English artists of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, in 1965. In the following decades her realist style of painting fell out of fashion and her work become largely overlooked. A new generation has rediscovered her work, finding a contemporary resonance in her depictions of women at work, of people from marginalized communities and her contributions as a war artist.This beautifully illustrated book, which accompanies a major exhibition at MK Gallery, provides an overview of Knight's illustrious from her training at Nottingham Art School at the age of 13 and her time in North Yorkshire and Cornwall, to her visits to traveller communities and a segregated American hospital. It also features her circus, ballet and theatre scenes, paintings of women during the war and her late paintings of nature.The selection of over 160 works combines celebrated paintings with less known graphic and design works, including ceramics, jewellery and costumes that reflect the artist's enduring interest in the everyday activities of people from all walks of life.
Set against the backdrop of late 19th-century Paris, this work presents an irreverent take on the traditional almanac, blending humor and cultural critique. Alfred Jarry, along with notable contemporaries, crafted a multidimensional collage filled with puns, in-jokes, and contemporary references, reflecting the political turmoil of the Dreyfus Affair. The first accessible English translation retains the original's unique format, offering readers a glimpse into the vibrant and tumultuous artistic scene of the time.
How to Construct a Time Machine' is an exhibition of over 25 historical and contemporary artworks that explore how artists play with media in innovative ways to transform our experience of time. Artists John Cage, Katie Paterson, On Kawara, Mark Wallinger, Nam June Paik, Catherine Yass, and the Lumiere Brothers.
A stunning, controversial work that immediately outraged audiences with its scatological references during the 1896 premiere, the farce satirizes the tendency of the successful bourgeois to abuse his authority and become irresponsibly complacent. Championed by Dadaists and Surrealists as the first absurdist drama, Ubu Roifeatures a main character that is cruel, gluttonous, and grotesque--the author's metaphor for modern man.
Set in the decadent era of Rome, the novel unfolds as a series of episodic tableaux, showcasing Alfred Jarry's unique blend of humor and historical romance. Celebrated as a significant work from his mature period, it captures the vibrancy and complexities of life during a time of cultural decline, highlighting Jarry's innovative storytelling style and his contribution to literary tradition.
André Marcueil, who can perform the act of love indefinitely, becomes the focus of wild scientific experiments
The satirical farce now acclaimed as the touchstone for the Dada and Surrealist movements, the Theatre of the Absurd, and much of the rest of experimental theatre in the 20th century.
Alfred Jarry is best known as the author of the proto-Dada play "Ubu Roi," but this anarchic novel of absurdist philosophy is widely regarded as the central work to his oeuvre. Refused for publication in the author's lifetime, "Exploits and Opinion of Dr. Faustroll" recounts the adventures of the inventor of "Pataphysics . . . the science of imaginary solutions." Pataphysics has since inspired artists as diverse as Marcel Duchamp and the 60s rock band Soft Machine, as well as the mythic literary organization the College de Pataphysique. Simon Watson Taylor's superb annotated translation (which in turn inspired a new French edition of the text) was first published by Grove Press in 1965 as part of their now out-of-print collection, "Selected Works of Alfred Jarry." As a result, this most important novel by Jarry has never before been published under its own title in English.