Malraux, Literature and Art
 
‘Great artists are not transcribers of the world, they are its rivals.’
 Malraux, The Voices of Silence
Essays on
  • André Malraux
  • the theory of art and literature
by Derek Allan
Australian National University
    André Malraux in a television program about art (1975)




Malraux and the theory of art


NEW: Myths about Malraux's Theory of Art

NEW:  André Malraux's Theory of Art - Challenges to Traditional Aesthetics (avec version française)

Interview about Malraux
Rick Visser from the weblog Artrift asks me a series of questions about Malraux and art.

"Reckless Inaccuracies Abounding": André Malraux and the Birth of a Myth.  Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Vol. 67, Issue 2. pp 147-158. Counters the persistent myth, fostered by E.H. Gombrich and others, that Malraux's use of art history is unreliable. Also discusses certain issues at the intersection of art history and aesthetics.  Abstract





Art and Time

 The general relationship between art and time - the temporal nature of art - is a crucial aspect of the nature of art, but it is almost completely neglected in contemporary aesthetics (whether 'analytic' or 'continental'). These articles, which are influenced in different ways by Malraux's thinking, address key aspects of the question:

 An intellectual revolution: André Malraux and the temporal nature of art. Journal of European Studies.2009; 39: 198-224. Explains Malraux's revolutionary understanding of the relationship between art and time. Also discusses certain responses to this aspect of Malraux's thought - e.g. by Maurice Blanchot - and an attempt in 'analytic' aesthetics to come to grips with the question of art and time. Abstract

Art and History: Taking the Past Seriously  Examines certain arguments in contemporary aesthetics which marginalize historical and anthropological evidence concerning art.

André Malraux, l’art et le temps  Paper in French presented in 2005 at the Sorbonne under the auspices of the Amitiés Internationales André Malraux.






My publications and conference papers

My profile on Philpapers

My academia.edu page


NEW BOOK  

Art and the Human Adventure: André Malraux's Theory of Art.

Derek Allan


For the first time, a comprehensive, step by step exposition of Malraux’s theory of art as presented in The Voices of Silence and The Metamorphosis of the Gods. Suitable for both newcomers to Malraux and more advanced students, the study also examines critical responses by figures such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Bourdieu, and E. H. Gombrich, and compares Malraux’s thinking  with aspects of contemporary Anglo-American aesthetics.

The  book includes a substantial section on the much misunderstood topic of the musée imaginaire ("Museum without Walls").

E. H. Gombrich once dismissed Malraux's account of art as “sophisticated double-talk”. This study reveals that, on the contrary, Malraux offers us a thoroughly coherent and highly enlightening system of thought, with revolutionary implications for the way we think about art.

30 illustrations, 23 in colour.

Link to publisher: Rodopi
Link to Amazon


Malraux's first three novels La Condition Humaine - Cover
Theory of literature

Other issues


Art and Freedom 


Letter to Quadrant (an Australian monthly) concerning an article on Malraux in their May 2007 issue.
 
Pharaoh Sesostris III, c 1850 BC. Louvre


 

Links

Thanks
Some painting and sculpture I like:

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Email:  derek.allan@anu.edu.au
derek.allan@netspeed.com.au
Updated: 28 July 2010