Lettrism is an artistic style which was created in Romania by Isidore Isou in 1942, when he was only sixteen years old, according to Jean-Paul Curtay in La Poesie Lettriste (Paris 1974). Lettrism was a response to what the Lettrists saw as André Breton's control of surrealism, as well as an attempt to make poetry more popular. The Lettrists worked in a variety of forms including sound as well as graphic arts involving letters.

Isou travelled to Paris where the Lettrist movement was formed. A split in the movement lead to the formation of the Lettrist International.

Lettrist works include Lexique Des Lettres Nouvelles, a sonic alphabet consisting of about 130 sounds which the Lettrists used in their poetry.

The film Irma Vep contains a sequence that evokes the Lettrist aesthetic...

External link

• Lettrism - French Avant-Garde Film and Visual Poetry (http://www.thing.net/~grist/l&d/lettrist/lettrist.htm)
• Lettrism (http://switch.sjsu.edu/switch/sound/articles/wendt/folder4/ng441.htm)