Essays in Aesthetics

by Jean-Paul Sartre, Wade Baskin (Editor)

Renowned French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre references artists such as Tintoretto, Calder, Lapoujade, Titian, Raphael, and Michaelangelo in discussing how great art of the past relates to the challenges of his eraEssays in Aesthetics is a provocative collection that considers the nature of art and its meaning. Sartre considers the artist’s “function,” and the relation of art and the artist to the human condition. Sartre integrates his deep concern for the sensibilities of the artist with a fascinating analysis of the techniques of the artist as creator. The result is a vibrant manifesto of existentialist aesthetics. By looking at existentialism through the lens of great art, Essays in Aesthetics is just as valuable a read to the artist as it is to the philosopher.

Genres: Philosophy, Art, France, Essays, Nonfiction, Art History

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, 'bad faith') and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness (L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism Is a Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946), originally presented as a lecture.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Statue of Jean-Paul Sartre in Paris

Essays in Aesthetics by Jean-Paul Sartre is a collection of five superbly written essays penned in the style of an art historian or art critic, worlds away from academic writing, containing no references to other aestheticians and only several footnotes for the purpose of historical exactitude. There is one long essay in four parts on the fifteenth century renaissance painter Jacopo Tintoretto, two essays on Alberto Giacometti, one on Robert Lapoujade, and one on Alexander Calder. A reader will find plenty of ideas on art and artists, on creativity and freedom, on beauty and space, but the ideas are always formulated in the context of the artist and historical period being addressed. To provide a modest taste, below are four Sartre quotes with my brief comments.

From the essay on Tintoretto, "I am aware of the tastes of his age. My aim here is not to judge him but to determine whether his age could identify itself with him without discomfort. And on this point the evidence is explicit: his conduct shocked his contemporaries and turned them against him. A little disloyalty would perhaps have been tolerated, but Tintoretto went too far, throughout Venice, a single complaint was voiced: "He goes too far!" Even in that commercial city such shrewdness in commerce is unique."

Sartre writes with the authority of an art historian; quite refreshing for a man who is a leading twentieth century philosopher and author of celebrated novels, plays and short stories.

"We are aware of the success of Arcimboldo - his jumbled vegetables and cluttered fish. Why do we find this artifice so appealing? Is it perhaps because the procedure has long been familiar to us? In their own way, have all painters been Arcimboldos? Have they not fashioned, day after day, face after face, each with a pair of eyes, a nose, two ears and thirty-two teeth? Wherein lies the difference? He takes a round cut of red meat, makes two holes in it, sets in each of them a white marble, carves out a nasal appendage, inserts it like a false nose under the ocular spheres, bores a third hole and provides it with white pebbles. Is he not substituting for the indissoluble unity of a face an assortment of heterogeneous objects?"

Now these reflections on Arcimboldo are worth chewing on (no pun intended); matter of fact, one could delve into an entire phenomenology of perception based on what Sartre is saying here.

"The sculptor is supposed to imbue something immobile with movement, but it would be wrong to compare Calder's art with the sculptor's. Calder captures movement rather than suggest it; he has no intention of entombing it forever in bronze or gold, those glorious, asinine materials that are by nature immobile."

Consider this Sartre quote in relation to Antoine Roquentin, first-person narrator of Sartre’s novel, Nausea, saying he is afraid of being in contact with objects as though they were living beasts. And also, at another point in the novel, Roquentin reflecting on how, when it is dark, both he and objects come out of limbo.

"By reversing classicism, Giacometti has restored to statues an imaginary, indivisible space. His unequivocal acceptance of relativity has revealed the absolute. The fact is that he was the first to sculpture man as he is seen - from a distance. He confers absolute distance on his images just as the painter confers absolute distance on the inhabitants of his canvas."

Again, think of this quote coupled with the reflection of the narrator in Nausea when he says how, when looking in a mirror, his glance moves over his forehead and cheeks and finds nothing firm.. What would Antoine Roquentin find if he saw his reflection from a distance?

I'll let Jean-Paul Sartre have the last words here by citing two sentences from this collection worthy of appearing on a Sartre list of memorable quotes:

"Beauty is not the object of art but its flesh and blood, its being."

"No one paints to create art or to make it be. The artist simply paints."

[H.A. Leuschel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting selection of essays where Jean-Paul Sartre mainly analyses the works of Tintoretto, Giacometti, Lapoujade and Calder. It's worth either knowing a bit about the artists' work or checking them out on the internet as it does add to the enjoyment of the different threads of discussion that the philosopher explores.

[Sadra Kharrazi · Rating 2 out of 5]

قبلا خیلی میونه خوبی با نقاشی نداشتم و فکر می‌کردم که به اصطلاح ادایی‌ترین نوع هنره
ولی چند وقته به شدت دوست دارم برم یه گالری نقاشی ( البته جایی که نقاشیای درست و حسابی داره نه از این پست مدرنای مسخره) و فقط غرق نقاشیا بشم
نکات ریزش رو کشف کنم و به این فکر کنم که نقاش موقع خلق اثرش به چی فکر می‌کرده
به خصوص نقاشیایی که از آدماست

[صان · Rating 2 out of 5]

درمورد زیبایی شناسی نبود اصلن!
درباره نقد و تاریخ و فلسفه چنتا هنرمند بود
تین‌تورتو، جاکومتی، لاپوجاد و کالدر.
بعضی قسمت‌هاش هم خوب بود.

[stephanie suh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Paul Sartre was something of a celebrity in the intellectual circle in the Sixties; he was brought into celebratory limelight with a panoply of illustrious epithets- l’enfant terrible of the European intelligentsia, a precursor of modern existentialism, and husband of Simone de Beauvoir, a trailblazer of modern feminism - The truth of the matter is that Sartre loved the attentions bestowed upon him. In fact, he thrived on it. On a question of fame relating to his celebratory statue as an intellectual, Sartre answered with forthrightness: “Fame is good, even at forty or fifty is desirable; there is happiness, an intense enjoyment, in pushing one’s way into the spotlight like this.” It is this unusual, frank feistiness in conjunction with his audacious existentialism vis-a-vis Viktor E. Frankl’s Logotheraphy that I was piqued to find out more about the man’s school of thought in this book written by Sartre himself.

This light volume of essay collection draws on Sartre’s exceptional knowledge of the arts and the creators and yokes it to the tenets of existentialism, which means that the reader should have at least rudimentary knowledge about existentialism. The substratum of existentialism is the experience, the action taken by himself, that constitutes a man’s identity in the world. This might sound materialistic and even bathetic at first blush. However, do we not tend to judge our own self or other people based upon the deeds, regardless of the character, personality, and/or other planes of circumstances pushing the doer into such actions? With every one of our actions, we particularize our self, thus creating a ‘self’. Thus, our experience precedes our essence, establishing our own self identity in society.

In terms of existential analysis of a meaning of life or a sense of purpose in life, our actions becoming our experience make us responsible for our own lives, including our missteps and achievements. In other words, this explication of existence shows us how we look and what we are like as the touchstone of your existential self in everyday life, as the Russian writer Anton Chekhov once said: “”Man will become better when you show him what he is like.” In this regard, existentialism coincides with Logotheraphy, which identifies a meaning of life, freedom of will, and will to meaning with fulfilling demands placed upon our daily tasks, to achieve ego qua meaningfulness.

In sum, Sartre’s existentialism strikes the zeitgeist of our time convoluted with reality shows, fake news, selfies, social media approbation, and grand collapsed narratives in which we often find ourselves uprooted in the midst of inflated self-aggrandization, however overtly and incorrectly exalted. Sartre tells us: “Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself in the midst of his infinite possibilities without help.” That is, the purpose of our life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost by actualizing our purposes amid our daily lives, for we are what we do and creates our own reality of the world. This book will be a good primer on more in-depth world of Sartre’s existentialism with his no-nonsense perspective on the nature of humanity and proverbial touchy-feely approach to the real world and a man’s place as a human being therein, all marked in his literary craftsmanship that is all the more enjoyable to the reader.

[Nick Mehalick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An overall "quest for the absolute," I was immediately drawn to the artists Sartre chooses to examine: Giacometti, Dostoevsky, Titan, etc. Yet the tread of art as a reaction to societal construct and need for destruction to enable artistic birth finds a way throughout the entire complex text. Incredibly satisfying and perceptively altering, a great read that needs to be given appropriate time to digest.

[Kevin Booker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected it to be dry, uninteresting and intellectual. I found it lively, original and intellectual. And not intellectual in a way that is condescending or unapproachable, but stimulating and enjoyable. I imagine it would be wonderful for those that study art or have true passion for art, or are artists.

[Nikola Bojanic · Rating 3 out of 5]

General Thoughts.
These essays can get a bit tedious and honestly I don't quite have the attention span to listen to philosopher discuss art for more than an hour, and certain sections drag on particularly long. Sometimes he'll discuss an artist's history/context for too long, but sometimes it feels like it pays off with insights into how they approach art, or delving into the particular meaning of their art. I think Sartre is really good at grasping and then communicating the significance of an artist's work.

Favorite Quotes.
Calder Mobiles and Nature
My understanding is that Sartre is particularly well known for his existentialist writings, and he ties into this somewhat here. For instance he discusses the connection of Calder's mobiles to Nature. The mobiles are intricately balanced hanging sculptures, which move and react to disturbances in the air around them, and in this way have some form of life beyond human control. Sartre ties this to the question of Nature .

"Whether she is the blind concatenation of causes and effects or the gradual unfolding, forever retarded, disconcerted and thwarted, of an Idea."

Giacometti's Quest for the Absolute
He discusses Giacommeti's process of sculpting for a while, which I enjoyed. How previous sculptors sculpted from models that they witnessed from a distance, but hoped to create statues that could be perceived from any distance. While Giacometti developed sculptures as he saw them, a model ten feet away would result in a sculpture best perceived from a distance, and giving the impression of a man seen at a distance. Giacometti's work process is also interesting, obsessed with the goal of capturing a true impression of man in stone, not producing statues to live on forever.

"Maillol's statues insolently fling in our eyes their heavy eternity. But the eternity of stone is synonymous with inertia; it is the present forever solidified. Giacometti never speaks of eternity, never thinks of eternity. I was pleased by what he had said to me one day concerning some statues that he had just destroyed: 'I was happy with them, but they were made to last only a few hours.' A few hours-like the dawn, like sadness, like ephemera. And his creations, because they were destined to perish on the very night of their birth, are the only ones among all the sculptures that I know to retain the ineffable charm of transiency. Never was substance less eternal, more fragile, more nearly human."

Art and God
I wasn't expecting to find discussion of older artists and their relation to the Church interesting, but Sartre has some really interesting takes. For instance discussing perspective, and how artist's increased understanding of our perception, and how to replicate it in paintings complicated their relation to God.

"Perspective is profane; sometimes even, it is a profanation. Observe Mantegna's Christ lying feet first and head remote; do you think that the Father is satisfied with a foreshortened Son?? God is absolute proximity, universal envelopment by love; can He be shown from a distance the Universe that He has created and that he is at each instant saving from annihilation"

Also the irony of their quest to improve art-in order to glorify God-resulting in observations and perceptions of the world and how we experience it, that suggest answer's to the world's questions other than god.

"In sixteenth-century Italy Faith still burns in the artist's hearts, combatting the atheism of their hands and eyes. In their attempt to get a firmer grasp on the Absolute, they perfect techniques which force upon them a Relativism which they detest. These mystified dogmatists can neither push forward nor retrace their steps. If god no longer looks at the images that they paint, who will replace Him? Their images are but the reflection of man's impotence; what will validate them? If the sole aim of painting is to gauge our myopia, it is not worth one hour's labor, To reveal man to the Omnipotent One who deigned to raise him from the clay was an act of thanks-giving, a sacrifice. But why reveal man to man! Why reveal him as he is not?"

[Sinan Öner]

French Philosopher, Journalist, Novelist Jean Paul Sartre's "Essays in Aesthetics" is very useful study to think about aesthetics' questions for modernity, aesthetical thoughts of Sartre about the modern artistic works, and Sartre's contributions to critique of modern artists' works. For Sartre, what is aesthetics? What are the main rules of modern aesthetics? For comprehensing the modern aesthetical concepts, categories and descriptions, Sartre writes the different thoughts (which source from his artistic experiences!), the different philosophical and aesthetical approachs, the different ways of thoughts for the modern art historical subjects. "Essays in Aesthetics" is one of the best selections of a modern philosopher about aesthetics, art history and philosophy - with Sartre's magical studying!

[MJD · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of Sartre's thoughts on the life and works of some artists. Even though I don't always agree on the positions that Sartre took during his life (i.e. I'm on the Camus side of the "Sartre vs Camus" debate myself), I always admire and appreciate the passion that he brings to anything he writes about.

His writings on art in this collection of essays is no exception to his passionate style of writing, and it is a contagious passion at that.

[Banu · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Eğri bir dalı ağaçtan çekip alabilirim, fakat kaldırılmış bir kolu ya da inançla sıkılmış bir yumruğu asla ayrı düşünemem.”

j.p.s

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to say that this work may be dated.

[Leonard Klossner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth it just for Fartre's pinche ese's on Giacometti alone.

[Matthew Giobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A great example of the phenomenological essay on art. Contextual, political, historical, and sensitive. Wish there was more of it!

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This read was above my appreciation of art and artist.