Drawing Blanks: Word and Image at the Expositions des Incohérents

ABSTRACT In the early 1890s, Jules Lévy organised a series of artistic exhibitions under the title of Les Arts Incohérents. Affiliated with Montmartre cabaret culture, the events lampooned the conventions of the Parisian salons and the conventions and institutions of the fine arts. This article explores the importance of the figure of the blank in a selection of art exhibited by the Incohérents. Adopting a word-and-image-based approach, and drawing on theories of comedy and laughter, the article shows how the Incéohérents' incipient avant-gardism interrogates the limits of the different arts and points to a novel inflection of humour in the period.