Derek Allan

This study provides a step by step explanation of André Malraux's theory of art. Drawing on his major works, such as The Voices of Silence and The Metamorphosis of the Gods, it examines key topics such as the nature of artistic creation, the psychology of our response to art, the birth of the notion of "art" itself and its transformation after Manet, the birth and death of the idea of beauty, the seriously neglected question of the relationship between art and the passage of time, the emergence of our "first universal world of art," the contemporary role of the art museum and the musée imaginaire, and the contentious question of the relationship between art and history. Rejecting negative criticisms from writers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty and E. H. Gombrich, the study argues that Malraux offers us a theory of art that is fully coherent and highly illuminating. In addition, the analysis shows that he presents a radical challenge to the traditional explanations of art inherited from the Enlightenment that have dominated Western thinking for some three hundred years. In short, the study unveils a way of understanding art that is nothing short of an intellectual revolution.

André Malraux was a major figure in French intellectual life in the twentieth century. A key component of his thought is his theory of art which presents a series of fundamental challenges to traditional explanations of the nature and purpose of art developed by post-Enlightenment aesthetics. For Malraux, art – whether visual art, literature or music – is much more than a locus of beauty or a source of “aesthetic pleasure”; it is one of the ways humanity defends itself against its fundamental sense of meaninglessness – one of the ways the “human adventure” is affirmed. Here for the first time is a comprehensive, step by step exposition, supported by illustrations, of Malraux’s theory of art as presented in major works such as The Voices of Silence and The Metamorphosis of the Gods. Suitable for both newcomers to Malraux and more advanced students, the study also examines critical responses to these works by figures such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Blanchot, Pierre Bourdieu, and E. H. Gombrich, and compares Malraux’s thinking with aspects of contemporary Anglo-American aesthetics. The study reveals that an account of art which Gombrich once dismissed as “sophisticated double-talk” is in reality a thoroughly coherent and highly enlightening system of thought, with revolutionary implications for the way we think about art.