Draft:Thomas Schlesser

Thomas Schlesser (born in Paris on December 8, 1977) is an art historian, writer and director of the Fondation Hartung-Bergman, where his "mission is to ensure the conservation and valorization of the thousands of works, archives and architectural heritage of the Antibes property designed by Hartung ". Since 2014, he has also been a professor at the École Polytechnique. He previously worked as a journalist for Beaux Arts magazine and Radio Nova.

Life
In 2006, Thomas Schlesser defended a doctorate in history and civilization at the &Eacute;cole des hautes &eacute;tudes en sciences sociales on the realist artist Gustave Courbet. His thesis is published under the title R&eacute;ceptions de Courbet, fantasmes r&eacute;alistes et paradoxes de la d&eacute;mocratie (Les Presses du r&eacute;el, 2007). Thomas Schlesser focuses more specifically on the relationship between "aesthetic and political fields." He has published studies on caricature, censorship and, as part of a grant from the Centre d'Histoire de Sciences-Po7, on the career of Lyonnais artist Paul Chenavard (Paul Chenavard, Monuments de l'&eacute;chec, Presses du r&eacute;el, 2009), "symptomatic of the widening chasm between the historical pretensions that construct the modern myth of the artist and his almost non-existent effectiveness." He also worked at the Institut national d'histoire de l'art as a research fellow (2002-2006) and then as a boarder (2010). Since 2014, Thomas Schlesser has directed the Fondation Hartung-Bergman in Antibes, where he succeeded Fran&ccedil;ois Hers. The author of several essays, in November 2017 he was awarded the Prix Bernier by the Acad&eacute;mie des Beaux-Arts for his book L'Univers sans l'homme (2016). This work, inspired by Quentin Meillassoux's speculative realism10, examines the works of artists who, since the 18th century, have been "breaking the sense of centrality of all humanity. " Thomas Schlesser is the grandson of singer and cabaret performer Andr&eacute; Schlesser, and the son of writer Gilles Schlesser and Fran&ccedil;oise Schlesser.

Performance Art
Thomas Schlesser is the creator of several performances pieces: at the G&eacute;n&eacute;rateur in Gentilly, with Alberto Sorbelli, in L'Esth&eacute;tique de la folie (2011); during the Nuit blanche 2012, with Le Saviez-vous? consisting of "delivering absolutely all his knowledge to the point of exhaustion " ; and in 2016 with In Memoriam: 10 ans/10 heures, whose protocol consists of "the oral restitution, for ten hours, and without interruption, of the last ten years of his life in a chronological order", without repetition and without having "any note or document in front of me."

Courbet's Pantheonization
Since 2013, Thomas Schlesser has been campaigning with psychiatrist Yves Sarfati for the pantheonization of Gustave Courbet. They co-signed a column in Le Monde that was included in Ne&iuml;l Beloufa's exhibition "L'ennemi de mon ennemi" (Palais de Tokyo, 2018), then amended and declaimed to Emmanuel Macron on June 10, 2019, during the artist's "bicentenary banquet " celebrated in front of the Mus&eacute;e d'Orsay.

Exhibition Curation
In 2021, Schlesser will curate the exhibition "Rothko-Hartung: une amitié multiforme", at Galerie Perrotin (Paris).

Distinctions

 * 2022: Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
 * 2017: Prix Bernier de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts pour L'Univers sans l'homme
 * 2004: Prix du Premier Roman du Salon de Draveil pour La Vierge maculée