Brassaï: Graffiti

The signs and images drawn or scratched on the walls of Paris fascinated the Hungarian-born Brassaï from the early 1930s to the end of his life. He monitored these constantly, taking countless photographs from which he selected several exhibitions and a book. Drawing on its extensive photography collection, the Centre Pompidou is able to propose a thematically organised exhibition of Brassaï’s “Graffiti” pictures. This relates the series to the fascination with outsider art that he shared with the artists and writers he was close to, notably Raymond Queneau, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso and Jacques Prévert.

Selected documentary materials afford the visitor greater insight into this context and so into the work.