The French lyricist, poet, and author of plays, scripts and movie dialogue Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) is mostly known today for his writings. Part of the Surrealists’ circle in his youth, this fiercely independent yet politically committed man would maintain throughout his life strong ties with a number of friends who were prominent 20th century artists, and develop an extensive and wonderfully varied body of work that is shot through with humor, fantasy, and a complete disregard for conformity.

Starting in the mid-1940s, with the encouragement of Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, Prévert became an enthusiastic practitioner of collage. He would hunt for his images at flea markets and the booksellers along the Seine. His favorite sources included old engravings, anatomical and botanical plates, chromolithographs, popular or devotional images, reproductions of paintings by grand masters, postcards, pages from magazines, and photographs by his friends Brassaï, Doisneau, Izis and Villers. From this raw material, he would compose new images, playing with unexpected juxtapositions that transform platitudes and commonplaces, redirect and reappropriate expected meanings, and disorient viewers…

The papers of the poet and scriptwriter confirm this urge to produce images. Written out on large sheets of checkered Bristol board, his scripts are a token of a creative process in which drawing plays a significant part. His daybooks, made up of loose sheets in the same format and on which he would write out the day of the week, the only chronological point of reference to be found, also show that he made drawing a daily habit. His main motif was brightly colored flowers.

Collages, daily jottings and doodles, movie script pages teeming with illustrations, the exhibition Jacques Prévert ǀ Images features a collection of works and archival materials in which this prolific wordsmith proves a prodigious maker of images.