LYOTARD ET LES ARTS - ILLUSTRATIONS, COULEUR

Prior to this book , no comprehensive discussion of Lyotard's writings on art had been undertaken. Yet his thoughts on the arts – music, cinema, and above all painting – form an essential part of his work, as evidenced by his analyses in Discours, figure, Que peindre ?, Moralités postmodernes, L'Inhumain and Les Écrits sur l'art contemporain et les artistes. Less noted, however, is the fact that Lyotard collaborated with painters (Monory, Guiffrey, Adami, Sam Francis, Appel, Buren, etc). In 1985, he was the Chief Organizer of an exhibit that marked a milestone: "Les Immatériaux," at Centre Georges-Pompidou. Several of the volume's texts, as well as a previously unpublished interview with Bernard Blistène, are devoted to this exhibit.

In writing this book, Françoise Coblence and Michel Enaudeau not only sought the input of expert readers of Lyotard's works (Christine Buci-Glucksmann, Élisabeth de Fontenay, Jean-Michel Rey, Jean-Loup Thébaud, Herman Parret, Anne Cauquelin , Gérald Sfez, Jean-Claude Rolland, Claudine Eizykman, Guy Fihman, Jean-François Nordmann and Jean-Patrice Courtois), but also that of young researchers (Gaëlle Bernard, Frédéric Fruteau de Laclos, Claire Pagès, Jérôme Glicenstein, Maud Pouradier and Evelyne Toussaint), who discovered for themselves Lyotard's work in the field of the arts.

The contributions compiled in this book examine concepts forged by Lyotard, such as "figural," "libidinal," “sublime,” “immaterial,” “matter,” “unpresentable,” “affect” and “writing.” Through them, this concept art seeks to break away from aesthetics in the academic sense of the term in order to see or hear in the works the “happenings” of colours or sounds. It is therefore an “ontological” challenge in which only art can present us with the sensitive impact of being.

Françoise Coblence is Professor Emerita at Université de Picardie Jules-Verne, a member of the Societé psychanalytique de Paris, and the publisher of the Revue française de psychanalyse. Among her notable works are Le dandysme, obligation d'incertitude (PUF, 1988); Sigmund Freud 1886-1897 (PUF, 2000); and Les attraits du visible (PUF, 2005).

Journalist Michel Enaudeau, along with Jean-Loup Thébaud, co-direct the symposium "Comment juger ? À partir du travail de Jean-François Lyotard" (Cerisy-la-Salle, 1982). He has published Fiction et vérité freudiennes, entretiens avec Laurence Kahn (Balland, 2004).