Was a Romanian poet, film critic and visual artist. At the start of the Second World War, he left for Paris, where he launched the Lettrism movement. For a time, he was the only member of this movement, which was later joined by others, creating an avant-garde artistic movement that theorized all areas of culture. In 1949, Isou published Le Soulèvement de la jeunesse – Traité d’économie nucléaire, political and economic theories. After the end of the war, Isidore Isou became increasingly active and socially committed, and dedicated himself to the changes he was able to make in this area.

Isidore Isou is the founder of Lettrism. “It’s about making people understand that letters have another purpose than words”, he declared in Le Manifeste de la poésie lettriste, written in 1942. The Romanian poet called for a new aesthetic that would no longer be defined by figurative or “abstract” art, but based on the letter and the graphic sign.

Signes fauves here hijacks sign and transforms them into writing, the presentation giving them an almost scientific veracity. The painting is filled with ideographic drawings, graffiti-like signs and Egyptian hieroglyphs.