The subversive works and personality of the French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) were touchstones for Dada, Surrealism, and the Theatre of the Absurd; yet the breadth of his career is largely unknown. Jarry is most renowned for his play Ubu Roi, and the legend of its sensational premiere in 1896. To his contemporaries—figures such as Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau, Oscar Wilde, and Apollinaire—Jarry’s prestige extended beyond theater. He applied his genius and wit to poetry, the novel, and operettas; he was a graphic artist, actor, puppeteer, and critic, and the inventor of a science of “imaginary solutions” called pataphysics. Jarry’s works suggested that engagement with technology, popular imagery, and the performance of everyday life can constitute art. He also showed innovation in book design: one of the first writers to experiment with visual typography, Jarry forged relationships between image and text that employed anachronism, collage, and appropriation as bellwethers of modern and contemporary artists’ publications. By exploring his enterprises in print, this exhibition contributes to an ever-broadening appreciation that positions Jarry as a crucial hinge connecting the nineteenth century to the twentieth-century avant-garde.
Tue - Thu 10:30am - 5pm
Fri 10:30am - 9pm
Sat 10am - 6pm
Sun 11am - 6pm
$22 Adults
$14 Seniors (65 & over)
$13 Students (with current ID)
Free to members & children 12 & under (must be accompanied by an adult)
Free on Fridays from 7pm - 9pm
Discounted admission of $13 is available for disabled visitors, admission is free for accompanying caregivers.
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
40.7492094, -73.9815265
Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being
