René-Yves Creston (1898-1964) : artist, ethnologist, theorist

• Main Author: Creston, Saphyr
• Other Authors: Paris 4, Andrieux, Jean-Yves
• Format: Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Bretagne; Musée de l’Homme; Arts and Crafts; Musées; Ethnologie; Ar Seiz Breur; Georges-Henri Rivière; Marcel Mauss; Brittany; Museum; Ethnology; anthro-se; art; Greenland
• Online Access: http://www.theses.fr/2017PA040012

This study approaches the career and work of René-Yves Creston : this artist, who, in the twenties co-created the group of Seiz Breur. Strongly involved in local cultural life, the group-artists took part in the revival of decorative crafts in Brittany: engraving, painting, earthenware, furniture, so many areas in which they affect the regional aesthetics of the first mid-twentieth century, in the same spirit as Arts and Crafts or Zakopane school or other european movements. Taking part in parisian intellectual life, René-Yves Creston became a leader, without equal organiser so he leaded Seiz Breur to take part in famous international exhibitions. In the thirties, his own interest for the maritim world leads him to take part in 1933 in a trip to Greenland. He then discovered the ethnographic practice. He joins then the ethnological institute and at the end of thirties follows Marcel Mauss’s lessons and fit in “musée de l’Homme” for which he was involved in a mission in Feröe islands. During the world war two, he took part in setting up the “Réseau du musée de l’Homme”. He then follows on his searches about breton ethnography. After the war, Georges Henri Rivière introduced him in thesociety-museums circles. René-Yves Creston leaded to many collections in breton museums and Arts and popular Traditions museum. Deeply involved in the study of brittany, he carries on taking part in european maritim ethnology studies. From the end of 19th century to second part of 20th, this work reads the process of this man, starting as an artist, who becomes an ethnologist using his realism in art as a tool for his study of man. Cette étude aborde la carrière et l’oeuvre de René-Yves Creston, artiste qui dans les années vingt, fonde le groupe Ar Seiz Breur. Impliqués dans la vie culturelle locale, les artistes du groupe participent au renouveau des arts décoratifs en Bretagne. Gravure, peinture, faïence, meuble sont autant de domaines dans lesquels ils influencent l’esthétique régionale de la première moitié du XXe siècle dans ...