Greenberg on Jean Dubuffet

More of the same, from the same 1946 review:

“Dubuffet is the only French painter who, to my knowledge, has consulted Klee, but he has made of Klee’s influence something monumental and far more physical, and he has taken advantage of the license won by Klee’s whimsy and by children’s art for the purpose of a savage attack on the human image.”

Right on target, and brilliantly phrased.

Greenberg on André Marchand

Whatever you think of Greenberg’s views on art (and they’re better than recent fashion allows), he really is one of the most powerful writers of the 20th century.

Here’s an excerpt on André Marchand that made me laugh out loud. Looking at some of Marchand’s paintings on the web, I find I don’t mind them as much as Greenberg does, but his description is still brilliant:

“André Marchand is presented as one of the best of the younger generation of Parisian painters. In him the pleasure principle according to the physical tradition is revealed nakedly and decadently. Marchand’s drawing owes almost everything to Picasso, while his color has absorbed all that is rich and juicy in French painting since Renoir and boiled it down to slick, fatty tones through which shine brilliant and exquisite but meaningless intensities of hue. Not all Marchand’s tact, expertise, and taste can save his art from being confectionary.”

I especially love the concept of “brilliant and exquisite but meaningless intensities of hue.”

and while we’re at it

Tristan Garcia, Forme et objet, is finally up on Amazon.fr, HERE. Release date October 26.

However, Amazon release dates must always be taken with a grain of salt. Tool-Being was up on Amazon about 18 months before it actually appeared, and I think there was another case where they had one of my books up before it was even written. In other cases, books are not yet on Amazon even though they are just days away from hitting the shelves.

This has to do with communications and miscommunications between Amazon and the publishers.

Le nombre et la sirène

Meillassoux has a new book advertised on Amazon.fr, with a release date of September 28. This is presumably the book on Mallarmé that he’s been speaking of over the past year or so. Click HERE.

Hat tip, Simi.

Warsaw again soon

That’s a nice coincidence… My flight route to the McLuhan conference in Belgium (October) happens to include two extremely long layovers in Warsaw. Always a pleasure to see the delightful Kronos gang, assuming they’re free that day.

Along with their own articles (which I can’t read, not knowing Polish myself), they do a lot of important translation of contemporary philosophy into Polish.

Levi on objects and commodities

Click HERE.