International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters

Parallel form(s) of name

  • Commission internationale de Coopération intellectuelle. Comité permanent des lettres et des arts

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Other form(s) of name

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Description area

Dates of existence

1931-1946

History

The desire to establish a Sub-Committee on Arts and Letters was mentioned by Jules Destrée at an International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation (ICIC) meeting in July 1925. The Sub-Committee was created in 1926, and the corresponding International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) Sections were founded that same year: the Arts Section and the Letters Section. The IIIC helped to execute the program established by the Committee.

The Sub-Committee on Arts and Letters counted among its members prestigious authors and artists, among them Paul Valéry, Thomas Mann, Henri Focillon, Jules Destrée, John Galsworthy, Salvador de Madariaga, Béla Bartók, and Karel Čapek. From 1931, the Sub-Committee was upgraded and adopted the name “Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters”, with Destrée as Chairman. The Committee had no fixed number of members; in 1932, for example, there were nineteen members.

The first projects of the Committee on Arts and Letters were to pursue a survey by the ICIC on the condition of intellectual and artistic life in the countries affected by the war, to investigate options for collaboration in the fields of music, literature and art, and to consider cinema as an element of the arts.

The Sub-Committee played an active role within the IIIC and allowed for the creation of new institutions: the International Museums Office (IMO) (1927–1946) and the International Committee of Popular Arts (1928–1964).

At the suggestion of Paul Valéry and Henri Focillon, the Committee organised “interviews”, gathering principle intellectuals of the time in order to stimulate discussion and reflection on various questions: "Entretiens sur Goethe" (Frankfurt/Main, 1932); "L’Avenir de la culture" (Madrid, 1933); "L’Avenir de l’esprit européen" (Paris, 1933); "L’Art et la réalité" et "L’Art et l’Etat" (Venice, 1934) ; "La Formation de l’homme moderne" (Nice, 1935); "Vers un nouvel humanisme" (Budapest, 1936); "Europe-Amérique latine" (Buenos Aires, 1936); "Le Destin prochain des Lettres" (Paris, 1937). The Committee also issued “correspondences”, published by the IIIC: "Pour une Société des Esprits" (1933); "Pourquoi la guerre ?" (letters between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, 1933); "L’Esprit, l’éthique et la guerre" (1934); "Civilisations" (1935).

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Relationships area

Related entity

International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Sub-committee on Arts and Letters (1925-1930)

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Category of the relationship

temporal

Dates of the relationship

Description of relationship

Related entity

Destrée, Jules (1863–1936)

Identifier of the related entity

Category of the relationship

associative

Dates of the relationship

1932 - 1936

Description of relationship

Related entity

Focillon, Henri (1881-1943)

Identifier of the related entity

Category of the relationship

associative

Dates of the relationship

1926-1939

Description of relationship

Henri Focillon was a member of the Committee on Arts and Letters.

Related entity

Mann, Thomas (1875-1955)

Identifier of the related entity

Category of the relationship

associative

Dates of the relationship

Description of relationship

Related entity

Bartók, Béla (1881-1945)

Identifier of the related entity

Category of the relationship

associative

Dates of the relationship

Description of relationship

Related entity

Čapek, Karel (1890-1938)

Identifier of the related entity

Category of the relationship

associative

Dates of the relationship

Description of relationship

Related entity

Costa du Rels, Adolfo (1891-1980)

Identifier of the related entity

Category of the relationship

associative

Dates of the relationship

Description of relationship

Costa du Rels was a member of the Permanent Committee on Arts and Letters.

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Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Written by M. Caillot November 2011. Revised by AWT 13 December 2011. English translation by Jan Stöckmann 11-08-2015.

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Sources


  • AG 1/1: IICI. Inventory of archives 1925-1946 (Volume I - II), 55 pages (UIS.90/WS/1). P. 65-89.
  • Renoliet, J.-J. (1999). L'UNESCO oubliée. La Société des Nations et la coopération intellectuelle (1919-1946). Paris : Publications de la Sorbonne. P. 317-322.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI 14/26. CICI. Congrès international des Arts populaires. Prague, 1928. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1928. 140 p.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/27. IICI. Travaux de l'Institut international de Coopération intellectuelle pendant l'année 1926. Paris: IICI. P. 19-20.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/01. IICI. Bulletin de la Section d’Information et de Documentation, novembre 1927. P. 2.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/01. IICI. Les Arts et les Lettres à la Société des Nations. Propositions de MM. Paul Valéry et Henri Focillon. 51 p.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/01/A. IICI. La Coopération intellectuelle, 15 février 1929. P. 105-106.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/01/A. IICI. La Coopération intellectuelle, 15 juin 1929. P. 745.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/01/A. IICI. Bulletin de la Coopération intellectuelle, n°2, février 1931. P. 51, 57.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1 : IICI/01/A. IICI. Bulletin de la Coopération intellectuelle, n°3, mars 1931. P. 104-108.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1: boîte 1. IICI. A. I. 4 (Règlement intérieur de l’IICI adopté par le Conseil de la SDN le 27.7.25 (1924-1925). CICI. Note du Secrétaire général et Règlement intérieur, Genève, 12 août 1925.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1: boîte 7. IICI.A.I.7 (Rapports de M. Luchaire au Conseil d’administration (1926).Exposé sur la situation et les travaux de l’Institut international de Coopération intellectuelle fait à MM. les Délégués des Etats le 21 mai 1926 par Monsieur Julien Luchaire, directeur de l’Institut. P.16-18, 43-47.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1: boîte 529. IICI-CICI.1925-1931 (Sous-Commission des Lettres et des Arts). LA/1. Rapport sur l’organisation de la Section des Relations artistiques soumis à la Sous-Commission des Lettres et des Arts par M. Richard Dupierreux… [1925] ; LA/2. Ordre du jour de la réunion qui aura lieu à Paris le 12 janvier 1926 à l’IICI, Palais-Royal.
  • UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1: boîte 530. IICI-CICI.1932-1938 (Sous-Commission des Lettres et des Arts). LA/91. Organisation des Entretiens (1938).
  • League of Nations, International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation 1932 (Paris, 1933).

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