“Art is what makes life more interesting than art”– Robert Filliou

Robert Filliou first had the idea to found his own gallery in 1961 and Galerie Légitime (Legitimate Gallery) ‘opened’ in January 1962. It was a gallery in his hat, and over the years and different editions he used various different hats – the first edition was contained in his cap but later it would be a beret or a bowler hat. The gallery contained very small artworks that had been made by Filliou and he would carry it as he travelled around, approaching people on the street;

“Are you interested in art, monsieur or madame?” he would say. If they said, “Yes, yes,” he would say: “Well you know I have a gallery.” And if they expressed some interest he would say: “Here it is”.

For Filliou, a gallery in his hat was perfect, he was not constrained by a building and could move about the streets, go into houses. This portability also allowed for interesting things to happen to the gallery and the work contained within it. Filliou once lost an edition of the gallery while traveling in Frankfurt and on another occasion the work was stolen. In 1962 he exhibited Galerie Légitime at the Festival of Misfits held at The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and met with many of the members of the Fluxus movement. He subsequently made a lot of work for Fluxus events and collaborated with many of the artists involved, including a long term collaboration with artist George Brecht.

The edition you see here is from 1968, when Filliou decided to have six or seven plastic hats made that acted as further editions of Galerie Légitime. These more stationary and permanent homes for his gallery contained some of the orginal objects from his cap as well as other artists work such as Al Hansen, Alison Knowles and Dieter Roth (see the inventory inside this guide for the full list of works/artists).

This guide folds into a paper hat, fold along the dotted lines.

courtesy collection agnés b.

Branche Arnol�ni

COUV

RE CHEF(S) D'OUVRE(S)

GALERIELÉGITIME

Robert Filliou

ROBERT F

ILLIO

U

Galerie Légitime, 1968

Fold

1 Fold 2

Fold 3

05

01. Clear Plexiglas hat

02. White velvet

03. Scott Hyde, Untitled,

Undated

Cut paper, paint

04. Robert Filliou, Untitled,

Undated

Sandpaper Box

05. Al Hansen, Françoise

Hardy, 1966

Mixed Media on wood

06. Chieko Shiomi, Untitled

(‘Window to R. Filliou’),

1965

07. Dieter Roth, Sehnsucht

nach dem Sommer

(Longing for Summer),

1967

Framed Postcard

08. Dorothy Iannone,

Mary Green, 1966

Acrylic on paper, wood

09. Robert Filliou, La

Joconde revient tout

d’suite (The Mona Lisa

of all returns after),

Undated

Magic slate

10. Robert Filliou, Untitled,

Undated

Wood, cardboard

11. Alison Knowles,

Untitled, Undated

Tie

12. Robert Filliou, Untitled,

Undated

Tracing paper,

pigments, metal

13. Robert Filliou, Futura26

Galerie Légitime signed poster

04

03

12

10

13

0706

11

08

09

02

Fold

5

Fold

4