The liberation of painting : modernism and anarchism in avant-guerre Paris

269 Pages·2013·13.39 MB·English

by  Leighten

The LiberaTion of painTing

T h e L i b e r aT i o n o f
Painting
Modernism and anarchism
in avant-guerre paris
Patricia Leighten
University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Patricia Leighten is professor of art history and visual
studies at Duke University. She is the author of Re-Ordering
the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1894–1914; coauthor
of Cubism and Culture; and coeditor of A Cubism Reader:
Documents and Criticism, 1906–1914.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2013 by Patricia Leighten
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in China.
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-47138-9 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-00242-2 (e-book)
isbn-10: 0-226-47138-1 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Leighten, Patricia Dee, 1946–
The liberation of painting : modernism and anarchism in
avant-guerre Paris / Patricia Leighten.
pages. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-47138-9 (hardcover : alkaline paper)—
isbn 978-0-226-00242-2 (e-book) 1. Painting, French—
20th century. 2. Modernism (Art)—France—Paris. 3.
Modernism (Aesthetics)—France—Paris. 4. Anarchism and
art—France—Paris—History—20th century. 5. Art—Political
aspects—France—Paris—History—20th century. I. Title.
ND550.L45 2013
759.4’36109041—dc23
∞ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso
Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Frontispiece
Juan Gris, “Bruits de Guerre et Bruits de Paix” (Noises of
war and noises of peace), cover, L’assiette au beurre, no. 392,
October 3, 1908.
to Mark

I regularly gave drawings to the journals, from 1895 to 1910. This
led me to pay a lot of attention to the streets. I also had to make up
the caption, to create a complete situation, in short to grasp reality.
There was an equal spirit of protest in my drawings. . . . In this
period, the influence of the journals on art is incontestable. Thanks
to them, painting was liberated more rapidly from academicism.
Above all, one can’t compare the attitude of the journals then with
those of today. The press had a progressive spirit and the drawings
were not made as now, but with love.
Jacques ViLLon, c.1957

Contents
xi List of illustrations
xvii preface and acknowledgments
1 introduction. Modernist heteroglossia
ChaPter 1
17 Languages of art and politics: Salon painting, Caricature, Modernism
ChaPter 2
57 The White peril: Colonialism, L’art nègre, and Les Demoiselles d’avignon
ChaPter 3
85 a rationale of Ugliness: Cubism and its Critical reception
ChaPter 4
111 politics and Counterpolitics of Collage: picasso, gris, and the effects of War
ChaPter 5
145 abstracting anarchism: františek Kupka and the project of Modernism
177 Conclusion. a politics of form
181 notes
205 bibliography
223 index