Peter Freeman, Inc. is pleased to announce Une histoire chuchotée de l’art, an exhibition dedicated to Robert Filliou (1926–1987), with works spanning the years 1966 to 1984.
The gallery has represented the Estate of Robert Filliou since the 1990s. On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, the gallery is presenting his first exhibition in our Paris space since 2012.
Active from the 1950s onward, Filliou was a self-taught artist interested in fields as varied as economics—in which he had been trained and had worked—philosophy, linguistics, metaphysics, Buddhism, and the sciences. Describing himself as a “genius without talent,” he developed a multifaceted body of work that includes plays, happenings, poems, mail art, writings, assemblages, multiples, environments, films, and videos.
Often associated with Fluxus, Filliou remained independent from the movement while still sharing its interest in experimentation, play, and breaking down the boundaries between art and life. Poetry and the circulation of ideas were guiding principles in his work. Favoring an economy of means and simple materials—cardboard, string, found objects, ordinary hardware—he conceived of his practice as an open process based on making, exchange, and transformation.
This exhibition brings together several key bodies of work by Filliou, from his 1960s and 1970s works combining language and elements of everyday life, to his cardboard boxes from the 1970s incorporating drawings, collages, and objects, and his brick installations—Briquolages—from the 1980s.
At a time when notions of value, labor, and exchange are being profoundly reconsidered, Filliou’s ideas resonate with particular acuity.
Robert Filliou (b. 1926, Sauve, France; d. 1987, Les Eyzies, France) has had numerous solo presentations, notably at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris – ARC and Sprengel Museum, Hannover (1984), Centre Pompidou, Paris (1991), MACBA, Barcelona (2003), and M HKA, Antwerp (2016). Filliou’s work and thought have a significant presence at the 18th Biennale de Lyon – Art Contemporain (19 September – 13 December 2026). He is represented in the collections of several international museums, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum Basel; MAMCO, Geneva; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
