Prehistoric Painting: Lascaux or the Birth of Art

by Georges Bataille

Les grands siècles de la peinture (1)

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w/cardboard sleeve - French language
Boek over de grotschilderingen in Lascaux dat ik kocht voor de mooie prentjes, maar al evenzeer voor het inleidende essay van Georges Bataille. Ik ben er niet zo zeker van dat dat laatste een goede reden was. Het essay van Bataille is onderhoudend, maar schematisch en weinig informatief. Het verhaal over de ontdekking, de beschrijving van de gebruikte technieken en de verklaringen voor de raadselachtige tekening van 'de man in de put' worden naar noten achteraan verschoven. Bataille filosofeert liever over wat de mens tot mens maakt. Hij komt uit bij de creatie van het taboe, een drang naar (rituele of symbolische) overschrijding ervan en de mens als 'homo ludens' eerder dan 'homo sapiens': schepper van religie en kunst, die zich door show more zijn 'spel' onderscheidt van zijn voorgangers. Aan het einde van de rit blijft de tekst wat oppervlakkig, wat van de schilderingen niet gezegd kan worden. show less
½
> Georges Bataille : Lascaux ou la Naissance de l’Art (Skira).
Se reporter au compte rendu de Genon CATELOT
In: Revue Esprit Nouvelle série, No. 233 (12) (DÉCEMBRE 1955), pp. 1961-1963… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://esprit.presse.fr/article/genon-catelot-guy/georges-bataille-lascaux-ou-l...

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243+ Works 12,440 Members
Georges Bataille was a French poet, novelist, and philosopher. He was born in Billon, Puy-de-Dome, in central France on September 10, 1897. His father was already blind and paralyzed from syphilis when Bataille was born. In 1915, Bataille's father died, his mind destroyed by his illness. The death marked his son for life. While working at the show more Bibliotheque National in Paris during the 1920s, Bataille underwent psychoanalysis and became involved with some of the intellectuals in the Surrealist movement, from whom he learned the concept of incongruous imagery in art. In 1946 he founded the journal Critique, which published the early work of some of his contemporaries in French intellectual life, including Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida. Bataille believed that in the darkest moments of human existence-in orgiastic sex and terrible death-lay ultimate reality. By observing them and even by experiencing them, actually in sex and vicariously in death, he felt that one could come as close as possible to fully experiencing life in all its dimensions. Bataille's works include The Naked Beast at Heaven's Gate (1956), A Tale of Satisfied Desire (1953), Death and Sensuality: A Study of Eroticism and the Taboo (1962), and The Birth of Art: Prehistoric Painting (1955). Bataille died in Paris on July 8, 1962. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Hinz, Hans (Photographer)
Lascaux (Illustrator)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Prehistoric Painting: Lascaux or the Birth of Art
Original publication date
1955
Important places
Lascaux cave, France
First words
La caverne de Lascaux, dans la vallée de la Vézère, a deux kilomètres de la petite ville de Montignac, n'est pas seulement la plus belle, la plus riche des cavernes préhistoriques a peintures, c'est, a l'origine, le prem... (show all)ier signe sensible qui nous soit parvenu de l'homme et de l'art.

Classifications

Genres
Art & Design, Nonfiction, History
DDC/MDS
759.01Arts & recreationPaintingHistory, geographic treatment, biographyPeriods of developmentNon-literate peoples and to 499
LCC
N5310 .B38Fine ArtsVisual artsHistory

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101
Popularity
321,005
Reviews
3
Rating
(4.07)
Languages
5 — English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Media
Paper
ISBNs
6
ASINs
8