Michel Sanouillet

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Michel Sanouillet is a French art historian and one of the foremost specialist of the Dada movement.

Born in 1924 in Montélimar, Sanouillet joined the French Resistance in the Vercors in 1942. After a B.A. and an M.A. at the Sorbonne in 1945, he began working on 20th century avant-garde movements. In 1964, he was appointed research assistant at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research).

In June 1965 at the Sorbonne he defended his two State doctoral theses: "Dada à Paris" and "Francis Picabia et 391", thus becoming the first university scholar to introduce the Dada movement to the public at large. Published as a book, Dada à Paris was the founding work and the source of most of the research published on the subject since that time. The book makes use of exclusive first-hand documents summing up the information gleaned over twenty years from those of the Dada writers and artists who were still alive in the sixties and whom he knew personally, including Breton, Picabia, Tzara, Duchamp, Man Ray and Ribemont-Dessaignes.

From that time on he pursued his university career in France and abroad. From 1955 to 1970 he taught at the University of Toronto. From 1968 to 1990 he gave over a hundred courses or lectures in some forty universities or cultural centers on all five continents. In France, from 1968 on, he was appointed first at the Université de Reims where he was head of the French Department, then in 1969 at the Université de Nice, where he became director of the Centre du XXe siècle ("Center of 20th Century Studies") in 1974, then dean of the UER Civilisations ("Department of Civilizations") in 1983. In 1985 he became a consultant for the Ministry of Research and Universities.

Other Activities

1964: Expert in modern and contemporary art to the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal.
From 1975 to 1991: Member of the National University Council.
President, Vice-President or member of a dozen university appointment committees.
Founder and first President of the International Association for the Study of Dada and Surrealism.

[edit] Selected bibliography

Books

1958, Marchand du sel, Paris, Le Terrain Vague (writings of Marcel Duchamp, collected and presented by M.S. in collaboration with the author).
1960, Francis Picabia et 391, Vol. I. Paris, Le Terrain Vague
1964, Picabia, Paris, Editions du Temps (first book on the artist).
1965, Dada à Paris, Paris, Jean-Jacques Pauvert.
1968, Metafisica, Dada, Surrealismo, Milan, Fabbri (with Patrick Waldberg and Robert Lebel).
1969, Dada, Paris, Fernand Hazan.
1970, Il Movimento Dada, Milan, Fabbri.
1974, Documents Dada, Paris, Weber-Skira, (with Yves Poupard-Lieussou).
1975, Duchamp du signe, with Elmer Peterson, Paris, Flammarion (reprinted, adapted , translated or pirated many times).
1976, Dada, critical reprint of Tristan Tzara's periodical (1916-1922), Vol. I. Nice, Centre du XXe Siècle (with Dominique Baudouin).
1978, Proverbe, Nice, Centre du XXe Siècle, critical reprint of Paul Éluard's periodical (1920).
1979, Dada à Paris, Japanese translation, Tokyo, Hakusuisha.
1980, Francis Picabia et 391, Vol. II. Nice, Centre du XXe Siècle.
1980, Dada à Paris, Nice, Centre du XXe Siècle.
1984, Dada, critical reprint of Tristan Tzara's periodical (1916-1922), Vol. II. Nice, Centre du XXe Siècle
1993, Dada à Paris, Paris, Flammarion.
1999, Dada à Paris, Russian translation, Moscow, Ladomir.
2005, Dada à Paris, new edition, Paris, CNRS Editions.