Sartre on Art

Author: (French) Sartre, (American) Bakst
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-18
Features: In this book, Sartre discusses Tintoretto, the "vagrant of Venice," Jacometti, who pursues the absolute; Calder, who shapes kinetic sculptures; and Lapugard, the "painter without privilege," and expresses his views on fundamental issues such as the nature of art and the status of artists in the human condition. Tintoretto is a product of class conflict; he is desperate and must resort to fraudulent means to prove himself. Jacometti is obsessed with his solitude in all things, believing that reality is absolute, and thus seeks to depict this void of the world, revealing signs of language in the silent things. Calder creates between freedom and constraint, seeking to discover how to fill still things with movement and confirm his existence through self-movement. Lapugard strives to combine creativity and beauty, giving an infinitely divisible appearance an indivisible unity.