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64Malraux, Art, and Modernityla Revue des Lettres Modernes 2024. forthcoming.For Malraux, modernity in art is not only about modern art; it is also about the birth of what he aptly terms “the first universal world of art.” This event was a consequence of the process of metamorphosis which is central to Malraux’s account of the relationship between art and time. The article explains this event, noting also that modern aesthetics has not provided an explanation. (This is the English version of the final which will be in French.)
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118A Necessary Transgression: Malraux, Art, and Historyla Revue des Lettres Modernes 2023 – 9. L’Homme Précaire Et la Littérature 9. 2023.Modern aesthetics is divided into two branches – the Anglo-American and the Continental. A major cause of this division is their divergent views about the place of history in aesthetics, the first tending to minimize historical considerations, while the second readily embraces them. This article explores the place of history in André Malraux's theory of art and argues that his thinking quickly resolves this long-standing disagreement. (This text is a translation of the published French version.)
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167Donald Preziosi, an influential modern voice in art history, argues that his discipline has proved ‘particularly effective in naturalizing and validating the very idea of art as a “universal” human phenomenon’. If this claim is true, it would mean, in my view, that art history has done a serious disservice to our modern understanding of art. For as the French art theorist, André Malraux, points out, the idea of art is definitely not a universal human phenomenon, there being ample evidence that t…Read more
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48André Malraux and Art: An Intellectual RevolutionPeter Lang. 2021.This study provides a step by step explanation of André Malraux’s theory of art. Drawing on his major works, such as "The Voices of Silence" and "The Metamorphosis of the Gods," it examines topics such as the nature of artistic creation, the psychology of our response to art, the birth of the notion of “art” itself and its transformation after Manet, the birth and death of the idea of beauty, the neglected question of the relationship between art and the passage of time, the emergence of our “fi…Read more
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37André Malraux et l’Art : Une Révolution IntellectuellePeter Lang. 2021.Cette étude présente une explication systématique des éléments clés de la théorie de l’art d’André Malraux. Se basant sur des œuvres telles que Les Voix du silence, Le Surnaturel, L’Irréel et L’Intemporel, elle aborde des sujets cruciaux comme la nature de la création artistique, la psychologie de notre réaction à l’art, la naissance de la notion d’« art » et sa transformation après Manet, la naissance et la mort de l’idée de beauté, la question cruellement négligée de la relation entre l’art et…Read more
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5Critics often situate "Les Liaisons dangereuses" within the tradition of the novel of libertinage. Many consider it to be superior to its predecessors but argue nonetheless that it is part of an established tradition, not the beginning of something new. Malraux demurs. While noting similarities with the novel of libertinage, he contends that Laclos’ novel links up much more significantly with the novel of the future, its descendants including Julien Sorel and even Raskolnikov.
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Beauty, Art and the Western TraditionIn Matthew Del Nevo, Robert Andrews & Rohan Curnow (eds.), Beauty and the Christian Tradition, St Paul's Publications. pp. 1-21. 2020.Examines the birth of art-as-beauty in Western art and the concomitant birth of the idea of art itself. Also discusses the death of art-as-beauty from Manet onward and certain implications for aesthetics (the philosophy of art). Includes relevant reproductions. (The essay is a longer version of my paper "The Birth and Death of Beauty in Western Art" also listed on PhilPapers.)
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Examines Malraux's theory of art and argues that it is neither aesthetics (philosophy of art) in the traditional sense, or history of art.
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83Has André Malraux’s imaginary museum come into its own?Apollo, an International Art Magazine. 2020.A brief discussion of André Malraux's concept of the musée imaginaire (Imaginary Museum or Museum without Walls) and a comment on the neglect of Malraux's theory of art. (Link provided)
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230It has long been recognised that great art, whether visual art, literature or music, has a special capacity to “live on” – to endure – long after the moment of its creation. Thus, our world of art today includes, for example, ancient Mesopotamian sculpture, Shakespeare’s plays, and the music of medieval times. How does this capacity to endure operate? Or to ask that question another way: what does “endure” mean in the case of art? The Renaissance concluded that art endures because it is timeles…Read more
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250Examines (1) the birth of art-as-beauty in Western art and the concomitant birth of the idea of art itself; (2) the death of art-of-beauty from Manet onwards. Also looks briefly at some major implications for aesthetics (the philosophy of art). Paper includes some relevant reproductions.
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525It’s common knowledge that those objects we regard as great works of art have a capacity to survive across time. But that observation is only a half-truth: it tells us nothing about the nature of this power of survival – about how art endures. This question was once at the heart of Western thinking about art. The Renaissance solved it by claiming that great art is “timeless”, “eternal” – impervious to time, a belief that exerted a powerful influence on Enlightenment philosophers and, later, on …Read more
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203A conference paper examining the relationship between art and what is loosely termed the “real world”.
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270From the Renaissance onwards, the Western tradition singled out the term beauty for a unique and highly prestigious role. As Christian belief began its gradual decline, Renaissance art invented a rival transcendence in the form of an exalted world of nobility, harmony and beauty – the world exemplified by the works of painters such as Raphael, Titian and Poussin. Beauty in this sense quickly became the ruling ideal of Western art, subsequently underpinning the explanations of the nature and func…Read more
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28The Psychology of a Terrorist: Tchen in 'La Condition Humaine'Nottingham French Studies 21 (1): 48-66. 1982.Discusses the psychology of the terrorist Tchen in Malraux's 'Man's Fate'
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42André Malraux: The Commitment to Action in 'La Condition Humaine'In Harold Bloom (ed.), André Malraux's Man's Fate, Chelsea House. 1988.Discusses the function of action in Malraux's third and most famous novel.
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10An Inhuman Transcendence: Perken in Malraux's 'La Voie Royale’Journal of European Studies 25 109-121. 1995.Examines an aspect of Malraux's exploration of action as a value.
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41Andre Malraux and the Modern, Transcultural Concept of ArtLiterature & Aesthetics 15 (1): 79-98. 2005.
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436Can novels, plays and poetry tell us something important and true about who we are, about others, and about life generally? The question seems to be of interest not only to writers on literary theory and aesthetics, but to people generally. This paper considers the issues involved.
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844The conventional view is that Enlightenment thinkers all believed that the fruits of Reason would always be beneficial. Is this accurate? Laclos's celebrated novel "Les Liaisons dangereueses", published in 1782, provides a perspective on the world of Reason that certainly does not square with that view. Working at the level of individual psychology, Reason in Laclos's novel divides the world into the strong and the weak – more specifically, the astute and the naïve. It defines human worth in ter…Read more
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1Malraux, l’art et le temps : Un défi à l’esthétique traditionnelleIn Évelyne Lantonnet (ed.), Malraux et le temps, La Revue des lettres modernes. Série: André Malraux, n° 14,, Garnier. pp. 99-111. 2018.One of the most remarkable contributions André Malraux makes to the theory of art is his explanation of the relationship between art and time: his argument that art transcends time through a process of metamorphosis. This proposition, which replaces the traditional belief that art resists time because it is eternal or immortal, poses a major challenge to traditional aesthetics. This article examines the notion of metamorphosis and the challenge it represents.
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19Finding the Battle: History and the Individual in 'Les Conquérants' and 'La Condition humaine’Australian Journal of French Studies (2): 173-181. 1990.Discusses the gulf between the individual and collective experience, and the way the gulf is bridged in two of Malraux's novels.
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42Art as Anti-Destiny: Foundations of André Malraux’s Theory of ArtLiterature and Aesthetics 13 (2): 7-16. 2003.
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767The question of whether or not art is essentially a representation of reality has long been a bone of contention among philosophers of art – especially in the major branch of that discipline called the analytic philosophy of art, or analytic aesthetics. This paper argues that art - visual art, literature or music - is never essentially representation. The argument is based on the thinking of André Malraux in "The Voices of Silence".
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“L’Art, le temps et la métamorphose : Un aspect révolutionnaire de la théorie de l'art d’André Malraux”Frankofoni 30 (Feb/March): 135-146. 2017.Explains a key aspect of Malraux's theory of art – his explanation of the nature of artistic creation. The question is widely neglected in modern aesthetics.
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535One might naturally suppose that philosophers of art would take a strong interest in the idea of creation in the context of art. In fact, this has often not been the case. In analytic aesthetics, the issue tends to dwell on the sidelines and in continental aesthetics a shadow has sometimes been cast over the topic by the notion of the “death of the author” and by the claim, as Roland Barthes put it, that the author is only ever able to “imitate a gesture that is always anterior, never original”.…Read more
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356The paper highlights analytic aesthetics’ unacknowledged assumption that art is timeless, a view it inherited from Enlightenment thinkers such as Hume and Kant, who in turn inherited it from the Renaissance. This view, I contend, is no longer tenable because it is at odds with our experience of the art of the past. Analytic aesthetics bypasses this dilemma because it confines its attention to topics such as the nature of aesthetic pleasure, whether the appreciation of art should be disinterested…Read more
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92The Death of Beauty: Goya's Etchings and Black Paintings through the Eyes of André MalrauxHistory of European Ideas 42 (7): 965-980. 2016.Modern critics often regard Goya's etchings and black paintings as satirical observations on the social and political conditions of his times. In a study of Goya first published in 1950, which seldom receives the attention it merits, the French author and art theorist André Malraux contends that these works have a much deeper significance. The etchings and black paintings, Malraux argues, represent a fundamental challenge to the humanist artistic tradition that began with the Renaissance - a tr…Read more
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49Art: A Rival World - An Aspect of André Malraux's Theory of ArtIn Jan Lloyd Jones & Julian Lamb (eds.), Art and Authenticity, Australian Scholarly Publishing. 2010.
Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Areas of Specialization
Aesthetics |
Literature |
Visual Arts |
Arts and Humanities, Misc |
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Philosophy of Religion |
Aesthetics |
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Visual Arts |
Arts and Humanities, Misc |
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