Fondation Giacometti

From 1948 until his death in 1987, James Baldwin lived in France, except for numerous trips and a decade-long return to his native country, the United States. This decisive choice, which he described as 'exile', was fundamental in his writing and understanding of contemporary society. In Paris, James Baldwin discovered himself as a foreigner among others in an international city, which particularly helped him grasp the racial issue from a different perspective and allowed him to write about his homosexuality. As a chronicler of the 'Congress of Black Writers and Artists' at the Sorbonne in 1956, Baldwin engaged with contemporary debates and grappled with Richard Wright as well as with writers of 'Négritude'. For him, the city was of a 'new lost generation', Paris allowed him countless friendships and exchanges with people like Beauford Delaney, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and later Saul Bellow, Camus, Marguerite Yourcenar, César... In St Paul de Vence, where he settled from 1971, he hosted figures such as Josephine Baker, Miles Davis, Toni Morrison, Simone Signoret...

Far from aiming for an exhaustive treatment, this study day seeks to open research on the richness of artistic exchanges around Baldwin in France.

Bringing together art historians and specialists of the writer, it will notably allow for the exploration of his lesser-known texts on visual arts.