Louis Soutter or the Writing of Desire. Studiolo.
The Contemporary Workshop| N° d'inventaire | 25663 |
| Format | 11.5 x 16 |
| Détails | 414 p., illustrated, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2022 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782850350801 |
Art historian and sociologist Pierre Francastel liked to declare that it had become absurd to write a monograph on an artist today. By this, he meant that structural ethnology, sociology, psychoanalysis, and linguistics, as they have developed over the past half century, have rendered obsolete the concept of the creative individual as the absolute and sovereign origin of the work of art. Therefore, it would be appropriate to resort to more relevant units of analysis.
Mr. Thévoz has repeatedly experienced the accuracy of this remark in the course of his work, which is its demonstration. Indeed, he has constantly "exceeded" his subject. His analyses can sometimes be applied to other works, or they pose more general problems. Why then have he persisted in dealing with an artist? Precisely because, with Soutter, we are dealing with a particularly "centrifugal" case, more resistant than any other to the categories and procedures of aesthetics, and also more likely to lead us towards fertile digressions. We could therefore say, in the manner of Magritte: this is not a monograph.
The first part of this study, entitled "Previous Suicide," is documentary and methodological in nature. It begins with a biography, which includes numerous direct testimonies from people who knew Louis Soutter. Given the importance that certain psychological or sociological determinations can have in this case, as much information as possible is gathered.
In the second chapter of this first part, a first psychological and sociological interpretation of these documents is proposed, emphasizing that, in such a complex case, these can only be conjectures. Finally, through the critical reading of the works and texts already published on Louis Soutter, an overview of the work is outlined and the author raises the problem of its links with the artistic tradition and context, adding some methodological considerations.
The second part, entitled "The Writing of Desire," is devoted to the study of graphic design and plastic agents. It highlights the psychomotor origin of the line, the relationship between imaginary space and that of the body itself, the anagrammatic structure of figures, and the analogy between the scenography of drawings and that of dreams.
In the third part, "The Figure and the Text," Mr. Thévoz begins with an iconographic inventory of the principal themes. He then endeavors to highlight their metaphorical convertibility, as well as the underlying action of certain "prefigurative" schemes that ensure this convertibility. Finally, after an analysis of the complex relationships between the figures and the inscriptions, he shows that Soutter's production as a whole can be assimilated to an indefinitely expansive plastic writing: its origin is lost in psychophysiological darkness, and it continues its movement beyond the drawing itself in the reading it involves. Thus, it exceeds and calls into question the terms on which aesthetic analysis is ordinarily articulated: the work, the artist, the real.
Art historian and sociologist Pierre Francastel liked to declare that it had become absurd to write a monograph on an artist today. By this, he meant that structural ethnology, sociology, psychoanalysis, and linguistics, as they have developed over the past half century, have rendered obsolete the concept of the creative individual as the absolute and sovereign origin of the work of art. Therefore, it would be appropriate to resort to more relevant units of analysis.
Mr. Thévoz has repeatedly experienced the accuracy of this remark in the course of his work, which is its demonstration. Indeed, he has constantly "exceeded" his subject. His analyses can sometimes be applied to other works, or they pose more general problems. Why then have he persisted in dealing with an artist? Precisely because, with Soutter, we are dealing with a particularly "centrifugal" case, more resistant than any other to the categories and procedures of aesthetics, and also more likely to lead us towards fertile digressions. We could therefore say, in the manner of Magritte: this is not a monograph.
The first part of this study, entitled "Previous Suicide," is documentary and methodological in nature. It begins with a biography, which includes numerous direct testimonies from people who knew Louis Soutter. Given the importance that certain psychological or sociological determinations can have in this case, as much information as possible is gathered.
In the second chapter of this first part, a first psychological and sociological interpretation of these documents is proposed, emphasizing that, in such a complex case, these can only be conjectures. Finally, through the critical reading of the works and texts already published on Louis Soutter, an overview of the work is outlined and the author raises the problem of its links with the artistic tradition and context, adding some methodological considerations.
The second part, entitled "The Writing of Desire," is devoted to the study of graphic design and plastic agents. It highlights the psychomotor origin of the line, the relationship between imaginary space and that of the body itself, the anagrammatic structure of figures, and the analogy between the scenography of drawings and that of dreams.
In the third part, "The Figure and the Text," Mr. Thévoz begins with an iconographic inventory of the principal themes. He then endeavors to highlight their metaphorical convertibility, as well as the underlying action of certain "prefigurative" schemes that ensure this convertibility. Finally, after an analysis of the complex relationships between the figures and the inscriptions, he shows that Soutter's production as a whole can be assimilated to an indefinitely expansive plastic writing: its origin is lost in psychophysiological darkness, and it continues its movement beyond the drawing itself in the reading it involves. Thus, it exceeds and calls into question the terms on which aesthetic analysis is ordinarily articulated: the work, the artist, the real.