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Les Voix du Silence
Editeur : Gallimard Date de parution : 1951 Description : In-8, 658 pages, relié entoilé avec jaquette parfaite, occasion, très bon état. Envois quotidiens du mardi au samedi. Les commandes sont adressées sous enveloppes bulles. Photos supplémentaires de l'ouvrage sur simple demande. Réponses aux questions dans les 12h00. Librairie Le Piano-Livre. Merci. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thanks
657 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
20 people are currently reading
1158 people want to read
About the author
André Malraux
272 books401 followersMalraux was born in Paris during 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux and Berthe Lamy (Malraux). His parents separated during 1905 and eventually divorced. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, Berthe and Adrienne Lamy in the small town of Bondy. His father, a stockbroker, committed suicide in 1930. Andre had Tourette's Syndrome during his childhood, resulting in motor and vocal tics.
At the age of 21, Malraux left for Cambodia with his new wife Clara Goldschmidt. In Cambodia, he undertook an exploratory expedition into the Cambodian jungle. On his return he was arrested by French colonial authorities for removing bas-reliefs from one of the temples he discovered. Banteay Srei (The French government itself had removed large numbers of sculptures and artifacts from already discovered sites such as Angkor Wat around this time). Malraux later incorporated the episode into his second novel La Voie Royale.
Malraux became very critical of the French colonial authorities in Indochina, and during 1925 helped to organize the Young Annam League and founded a newspaper Indochina in Chains.
On his return to France, he published The Temptation of the West (1926) which had the format of an exchange of letters between a Westerner and an Asian comparing aspects of the two cultures. This was followed by his first novel The Conquerors (1928), then by The Royal Way (1930) which was influenced by his Cambodian experience, and then by Man's Fate (La Condition Humaine). For La Condition Humaine, a novel about the 1927 failed Communist rebellion in Shanghai, written with obvious sympathy for the Communists, he won the 1933 Prix Goncourt.
During the 1930s, Malraux was active in the anti-Fascist Popular Front in France. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War he joined the Republican forces in Spain, serving in, and helping to organize, their small air force. His squadron, called "España", became something of a legend after his claims of nearly annihilating part of the Nationalist army at Medellín.
According to Curtis Cate, his biographer, he was slightly wounded twice during efforts to stop the Falangists' takeover of Madrid, but the British historian Hugh Thomas denies this. He also toured the United States to raise funds for the Spanish Republicans. A novel influenced by his Spanish war experiences, Man's Hope, (L'Espoir) was published during 1938.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Malraux joined the French Army. He was captured in 1940 during the Battle of France but escaped and later joined the French Resistance. He was captured by the Gestapo during 1944 and underwent a mock execution. He later commanded the tank unit Brigade Alsace-Lorraine in defence of Strasbourg and in the attack on Stuttgart (Germany). He was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, the Croix de Guerre. He was also awarded the British Distinguished Service Order for his work with British liaison officers in Corrèze, Dordogne and Lot, and after Dordogne had been liberated, leading a battalion of former resistance fighters to Alsace-Lorraine where they fought alongside the First Army.
During the war he worked on a long novel, The Struggle with the Angel based on the story of the Biblical Jacob. The manuscript was destroyed by the Gestapo after his capture in 1944. A surviving first part titled The Walnut Trees of Altenburg, was published after the war. He would never write another novel.
Malraux and his first wife divorced during the 1940s. His daughter from this marriage, Florence (b.1933), married the filmmaker Alain Resnais.
Malraux had two sons by his second wife Josette Clotis: Pierre-Gauthier (1940-1961) and Vincent (1943-1961). During 1944, while Malraux was fighting in Alsace, Josette died when she slipped while boarding a train. His two sons were killed during 1961 in an automobile accident.
After the war, Malraux served in a variety of government p
At the age of 21, Malraux left for Cambodia with his new wife Clara Goldschmidt. In Cambodia, he undertook an exploratory expedition into the Cambodian jungle. On his return he was arrested by French colonial authorities for removing bas-reliefs from one of the temples he discovered. Banteay Srei (The French government itself had removed large numbers of sculptures and artifacts from already discovered sites such as Angkor Wat around this time). Malraux later incorporated the episode into his second novel La Voie Royale.
Malraux became very critical of the French colonial authorities in Indochina, and during 1925 helped to organize the Young Annam League and founded a newspaper Indochina in Chains.
On his return to France, he published The Temptation of the West (1926) which had the format of an exchange of letters between a Westerner and an Asian comparing aspects of the two cultures. This was followed by his first novel The Conquerors (1928), then by The Royal Way (1930) which was influenced by his Cambodian experience, and then by Man's Fate (La Condition Humaine). For La Condition Humaine, a novel about the 1927 failed Communist rebellion in Shanghai, written with obvious sympathy for the Communists, he won the 1933 Prix Goncourt.
During the 1930s, Malraux was active in the anti-Fascist Popular Front in France. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War he joined the Republican forces in Spain, serving in, and helping to organize, their small air force. His squadron, called "España", became something of a legend after his claims of nearly annihilating part of the Nationalist army at Medellín.
According to Curtis Cate, his biographer, he was slightly wounded twice during efforts to stop the Falangists' takeover of Madrid, but the British historian Hugh Thomas denies this. He also toured the United States to raise funds for the Spanish Republicans. A novel influenced by his Spanish war experiences, Man's Hope, (L'Espoir) was published during 1938.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Malraux joined the French Army. He was captured in 1940 during the Battle of France but escaped and later joined the French Resistance. He was captured by the Gestapo during 1944 and underwent a mock execution. He later commanded the tank unit Brigade Alsace-Lorraine in defence of Strasbourg and in the attack on Stuttgart (Germany). He was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, the Croix de Guerre. He was also awarded the British Distinguished Service Order for his work with British liaison officers in Corrèze, Dordogne and Lot, and after Dordogne had been liberated, leading a battalion of former resistance fighters to Alsace-Lorraine where they fought alongside the First Army.
During the war he worked on a long novel, The Struggle with the Angel based on the story of the Biblical Jacob. The manuscript was destroyed by the Gestapo after his capture in 1944. A surviving first part titled The Walnut Trees of Altenburg, was published after the war. He would never write another novel.
Malraux and his first wife divorced during the 1940s. His daughter from this marriage, Florence (b.1933), married the filmmaker Alain Resnais.
Malraux had two sons by his second wife Josette Clotis: Pierre-Gauthier (1940-1961) and Vincent (1943-1961). During 1944, while Malraux was fighting in Alsace, Josette died when she slipped while boarding a train. His two sons were killed during 1961 in an automobile accident.
After the war, Malraux served in a variety of government p
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 6, 2022
A low 3 star. I have a lot of thoughts about this one. The pros: Malraux is very ambitious and tackles art as a whole, as he understands it. The examples he pulls from across history and geography are compelling and I was introduced to a lot of beautiful art through the reproductions. At times, his style is equally far reaching and poetic. He does what he can to instill the majesty he sees in humanity through his prose, and you can see some of his experience as a novelist shine through. The basic framework of his analysis of art is very helpful and convincing: Art of the past as we see it in the present is always a metamorphosis of the art in its original context, and our view of art changes based on our access to and methods of consumption for various cultures. This is applicable to things outside of his conclusions, and is interesting to think about in terms of our Internet, postmodern, culture of consumption.
The cons I have are a lot to do with issues I have with his overall takeaways. Malraux is humanist to a fault, bordering on anthropocentrism. All great art is framed for him as man conquering nature/destiny, and his language surrounding great art is also weirdly colonial-- an emphasis on "annexing" or "dominating" the new worlds of form. For him, art is when a great man (and men only) exert their soul and power into their medium of choice, which rubs me the wrong way. He is too focused on a history of great individuals, on innate geniuses, which is a mode of thinking that has fallen out of fashion. It's also important to say that he is less dismissive of art from non-Western cultures than other contemporary writers and historians, but not at all enough. There's lots of talk of the instinctual skill of the "savage arts" and their communion with the darker more primal side of humanity. And he clearly has his biases-- loves La Tour and Michelangelo, doesn't care for Caravaggio or Raphael, and ignores everything that can't be translated to painting or sculpture.
So there's good and bad, and the bad is easy to understand and reject because he lays his argument out extensively. EXTENSIVELY. This book is hundreds of pages longer than it really needed to be, which amazes me considering its abridged from a longer three volumes. And at times his prose crosses the line from poetic to flat-out hard to parse. But it's hard not to still admire and share his passion for art. He approaches it politically, viewing his contemporary Europe as a decadent culture that needed to alter and better come to terms with their relationship with art. But it also felt to me like art was his religion, his belief system that everything we do is ennobled and justified by the art we make. In short, he has a difficult but romantic view of the history of art that I struggle to buy.
The cons I have are a lot to do with issues I have with his overall takeaways. Malraux is humanist to a fault, bordering on anthropocentrism. All great art is framed for him as man conquering nature/destiny, and his language surrounding great art is also weirdly colonial-- an emphasis on "annexing" or "dominating" the new worlds of form. For him, art is when a great man (and men only) exert their soul and power into their medium of choice, which rubs me the wrong way. He is too focused on a history of great individuals, on innate geniuses, which is a mode of thinking that has fallen out of fashion. It's also important to say that he is less dismissive of art from non-Western cultures than other contemporary writers and historians, but not at all enough. There's lots of talk of the instinctual skill of the "savage arts" and their communion with the darker more primal side of humanity. And he clearly has his biases-- loves La Tour and Michelangelo, doesn't care for Caravaggio or Raphael, and ignores everything that can't be translated to painting or sculpture.
So there's good and bad, and the bad is easy to understand and reject because he lays his argument out extensively. EXTENSIVELY. This book is hundreds of pages longer than it really needed to be, which amazes me considering its abridged from a longer three volumes. And at times his prose crosses the line from poetic to flat-out hard to parse. But it's hard not to still admire and share his passion for art. He approaches it politically, viewing his contemporary Europe as a decadent culture that needed to alter and better come to terms with their relationship with art. But it also felt to me like art was his religion, his belief system that everything we do is ennobled and justified by the art we make. In short, he has a difficult but romantic view of the history of art that I struggle to buy.
August 10, 2016
I quit because of two reasons. The first is that I don't know squat about art. The second is this book is so dry.
100 pages in and I cannot do any more.
100 pages in and I cannot do any more.
February 8, 2022
The Voices of Silence is about art criticism; it is a field about which I know nothing. I see art sometimes, but I don't frequent museums. There is one in my city, but I've only been there once. I know of Van Gogh and Rembrandt, but not well enough to tell them apart immediately. So, you might be asking right now, "why did you bother reading this book, then?"
I wanted to expand my awareness and fill in gaps in my knowledge. There wasn't more to it than that. Andre Malraux was an art critic and man of action. He wrote The Voices of Silence as a series called the Psychology of Art.
I'll be honest with you; this book is good, but not my cup of tea. There are a few problems with it as a whole, and I will get to the first one right now. All of the images are monochrome, that is, black and white. There is no color in the photographs of the art. I feel the color is a crucial aspect of an image when discussing art, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean, Ansel Adams did photography in black and white, and his art turned out well.
The text itself focuses on the cultural influence of art and how people relate to it. It covers art from all over the world. You might think that the book only covers Western Art, but that is not true. It covers old coins, frescoes, murals, paintings, statues, and more. Malraux recategorizes the art that he discusses.
Finally, the book is old enough to lack a barcode. I didn't think the book had an ISBN, either, but I double-checked and found it on the copyright page. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
I wanted to expand my awareness and fill in gaps in my knowledge. There wasn't more to it than that. Andre Malraux was an art critic and man of action. He wrote The Voices of Silence as a series called the Psychology of Art.
I'll be honest with you; this book is good, but not my cup of tea. There are a few problems with it as a whole, and I will get to the first one right now. All of the images are monochrome, that is, black and white. There is no color in the photographs of the art. I feel the color is a crucial aspect of an image when discussing art, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean, Ansel Adams did photography in black and white, and his art turned out well.
The text itself focuses on the cultural influence of art and how people relate to it. It covers art from all over the world. You might think that the book only covers Western Art, but that is not true. It covers old coins, frescoes, murals, paintings, statues, and more. Malraux recategorizes the art that he discusses.
Finally, the book is old enough to lack a barcode. I didn't think the book had an ISBN, either, but I double-checked and found it on the copyright page. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
June 5, 2017
I read one-third of this book. There were things I really liked but the translation made it difficult to get through. I gave up.
October 4, 2009
I'm just starting this today 10/04/2009....it's a big mother, but I've wanted to read some of Malraux for some time.
April 16, 2023
"Les voix du silence" est une histoire nietzschéenne de l'art mondial depuis les tableaux des cavernes d'Altamira réalisés il y 36,000 ans jusqu'à la deuxième moitié du 20e siècle. Il est depuis plus que soixante-dix ans un des livres incontournables dans le domaine. Il gardera ce statut tant et aussi longtemps que l'on considère Nietzsche comme un philosophe important. Les dieux (chrétiens, bouddhique, et autres) sont morts. L'art est l'absolu qui dirige les artistes .
La tradition artistique est une suite de surpassements nietzschéens où chaque génération d'artistes fait une révolution contre la précédente: "Magiques, cosmiques, sacrées, religieuses les grandes œuvres nous atteignent du fond du passé comme autant de Zarathoustras inventés par autant de Nietzsches." (p. 617)
D'autres facteurs vont contribuer à la longévité des "Voix de silence." Il réussit brillamment à intégrer les arts asiatiques, africaines, polynésiens et européens dans une seule tradition. Son style est superbe et Malraux possède un don remarquable pour l'aphorisme.
Pour moi, la plus grande force du livre c'est l'emploi que fait Malraux de 636 photographies en noir-et-blancs qui sont présents dans le volume. (On y trouve aussi 15 photographies orphelines en couleur qui ne contribuent rien.) Les photographies en noir-et-blanc sont placées sur les pages avec texte très près des places ou Malraux les discutent. Je n'ai jamais vu un autre livre d'art ou les photographies appuient aussi bien ce que l'auteur écrit. Malraux prend grand avantage du profondeur de champ supéreir de la photographie en noir-et-blanc. Aussi, il exploite très bien sa capacité de mieux présenter la forme et la composition deux éléments qui se s'estompent dans les photos en couleurs. Parce que "Les voix de silence" plait, on accepte plus facilement ses thèses nietzschéennes.
Malraux propose deux grand concepts: (1) celui du musée imaginaire et (2) celui des métamorphoses.
Le musée imaginaire est l'ensemble de toutes les œuvres d'art de toutes les provenances qui exerce une influence sur l'artiste et qui le met en face avec un statut quo contre lequel il va se révolter. D'après Malraux l'artiste vit dans un contexte historique et une tradition culturelle qui le nourrissent. L'artiste va essayer de surpasser son contexte en créant son propre style.
Les métamorphoses sont les avatars des composants artistiques ou éléments stylistique. Dans la deuxième partie du livre qui s' intitule "Les métamorphoses d'Apollon" Malraux nous montre comment Apollon de l'art hellénique est devenu le Christ Pantocrator de l'église chrétienne orthodoxe et plus tard le Bouddha de la tradition de Gandhara en Inde. Malraux cite les influences sur l'art francais des estampes japonaises au XIXe siècle et des masques africains au XXe siècle comme phénomènes similaires.
Pour Malraux tout va pour le mieux dans le meilleurs de monde. L'histoire de l'art continue et c'est la seule chose qui compte. Je suis plutôt de l'avis que Dieu vit toujours et que c'est Nietzsche qui est mort. Néanmoins Malraux présente avec brio les idées Nietzschéennes et il est impossible de ne pas aimer Malraux pour son enthousiasme pour les arts plastiques.
La tradition artistique est une suite de surpassements nietzschéens où chaque génération d'artistes fait une révolution contre la précédente: "Magiques, cosmiques, sacrées, religieuses les grandes œuvres nous atteignent du fond du passé comme autant de Zarathoustras inventés par autant de Nietzsches." (p. 617)
D'autres facteurs vont contribuer à la longévité des "Voix de silence." Il réussit brillamment à intégrer les arts asiatiques, africaines, polynésiens et européens dans une seule tradition. Son style est superbe et Malraux possède un don remarquable pour l'aphorisme.
Pour moi, la plus grande force du livre c'est l'emploi que fait Malraux de 636 photographies en noir-et-blancs qui sont présents dans le volume. (On y trouve aussi 15 photographies orphelines en couleur qui ne contribuent rien.) Les photographies en noir-et-blanc sont placées sur les pages avec texte très près des places ou Malraux les discutent. Je n'ai jamais vu un autre livre d'art ou les photographies appuient aussi bien ce que l'auteur écrit. Malraux prend grand avantage du profondeur de champ supéreir de la photographie en noir-et-blanc. Aussi, il exploite très bien sa capacité de mieux présenter la forme et la composition deux éléments qui se s'estompent dans les photos en couleurs. Parce que "Les voix de silence" plait, on accepte plus facilement ses thèses nietzschéennes.
Malraux propose deux grand concepts: (1) celui du musée imaginaire et (2) celui des métamorphoses.
Le musée imaginaire est l'ensemble de toutes les œuvres d'art de toutes les provenances qui exerce une influence sur l'artiste et qui le met en face avec un statut quo contre lequel il va se révolter. D'après Malraux l'artiste vit dans un contexte historique et une tradition culturelle qui le nourrissent. L'artiste va essayer de surpasser son contexte en créant son propre style.
Les métamorphoses sont les avatars des composants artistiques ou éléments stylistique. Dans la deuxième partie du livre qui s' intitule "Les métamorphoses d'Apollon" Malraux nous montre comment Apollon de l'art hellénique est devenu le Christ Pantocrator de l'église chrétienne orthodoxe et plus tard le Bouddha de la tradition de Gandhara en Inde. Malraux cite les influences sur l'art francais des estampes japonaises au XIXe siècle et des masques africains au XXe siècle comme phénomènes similaires.
Pour Malraux tout va pour le mieux dans le meilleurs de monde. L'histoire de l'art continue et c'est la seule chose qui compte. Je suis plutôt de l'avis que Dieu vit toujours et que c'est Nietzsche qui est mort. Néanmoins Malraux présente avec brio les idées Nietzschéennes et il est impossible de ne pas aimer Malraux pour son enthousiasme pour les arts plastiques.
February 11, 2024
A remarkably ambitious work on the history of art, one that categorizes and synthesizes art historical epochs with a certitude that is perhaps undeserved. But Malraux's work is as much a piece of literature, both emblematic of and transcending his particular moment in time, as it is a work of the narrow academic discipline of art history, and it should be read and appreciated as such. This particular edition includes black and white photographs and I'm sure an update could substitute colors to improved effect, but the illustrations still help to demonstrate his points. It's a dense work that deserves careful scrutiny, probably closer attention than I gave it, but his charting of the trajectory of Western art from Greek to Roman to Byzantine and Gothic, ultimately to Renaissance, to Baroque, and to modernism is a useful if imprecise progression that he cuts across with his own characterizations. His reduction of modern art to a mix of primitive and folk art on the one hand and fetishes on the other warms the cockles of my Pollack-hating heart, even if that's not quite his intention. He parallels this with Eastern traditions, from India to Cambodia to China and Japan, in ways that were ahead of the curve for his time, even if they could stand updating now. He relates art to the reigning currents of thought, particularly as they relate to Christianity - Byzantium, the austere Gothic Church with its lingering pagan and Germanic influences, the Renaissance Church, Protestantism, and the decline of Christian primacy or at least domination of the West's cultural life. He illustrates these developments with descriptions of small-scale and large-scale changes in art, from the rise of Giotto through the High Renaissance to the Venetians and the Flemish masters. On the whole a remarkable account of art through time, with an admixture of the sacred and the profane, the broad changes in trends and the minutiae of their applications.
February 15, 2021
Certainly the best book on art I have ever read for many reasons. Yes, it's long (in my edition over 640 pages) and yes, it's extremely probing and demands concentration and curiosity for every kind of art, BUT if you get through it, you'll not only know a lot about art and the way art affects us and our society, but you will be changed. Yet the main reason I love this
book (that took 16 years to write) is that Malraux includes art from every part of the world. It is an exhilarating journey that's worth the effort.I am especially fond of part III, The Creative Process. Part I is so good it was published separately. I don't always agree with Malraux, but he sure gets you thinking. This book, along with Metamorphosis of the Gods, are perhaps the greatest studies of art ever written (in my opinion, of course). There should be courses devoted to Malraux's views of art in the English speaking world.
book (that took 16 years to write) is that Malraux includes art from every part of the world. It is an exhilarating journey that's worth the effort.I am especially fond of part III, The Creative Process. Part I is so good it was published separately. I don't always agree with Malraux, but he sure gets you thinking. This book, along with Metamorphosis of the Gods, are perhaps the greatest studies of art ever written (in my opinion, of course). There should be courses devoted to Malraux's views of art in the English speaking world.
June 8, 2021
I was once asked if I was chosen to speak to aliens and convince them NOT to obliterate earth, what would I say. I'd mention the arts is one redeeming attribute to us as a whole. This huge book pretty much backs me up on my assessment. It is a heavy book to read but a lot of it is black and white photos of art. Every student or lover of art should get a chance and read this piece.
June 18, 2025
one of the greatest books I have ever read , a remarkable work to even begin to explain what this book has taught me about mankind, art as well as our philosophy. To understand Art is to understand humanity something that perhaps we have otherwise forgotten.
December 18, 2018
I read this some years ago. I no longer have a fresh memory of it other than to say I loved it.
July 9, 2024
July 08, 2024 on apage 59 out of 652
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews