| ID | 128290 |
| Title Proper | Half art |
| Other Title Information | Baudelaire's Le Peintre de la Vie modeme |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Bowlby, Rachel |
| Publication | 2014. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In this piece. I look at an essay that l have probably read too often not to find in it the key to all matters
aesthetic, historical. philosophical, and more. The essay is Charles Baudelaire°s Le Peintre de la vie modeme (The Painter of Modern Life), first published in 1863 and written, most probably, around 1859 to 1860. Baudelaire's exhilarating innovation is to down- play the signi?cance of eternal value in art. in favor of what he designates as its other half, the ?eeting presentness that is modernity. My essay is unapologetically an appreciation - for the most part - of a text that, in focusing on another artist, itself appears to be just that.' For Baudelaire develops his arguments through a mock-anonymous celebration of the artist Constantine Guys, referred to as M. G. (Monsieur G.). Guys's proli?c sketches, done at speed, for rapid journal publication, chart the smallest of day-by- day changes and typical scenes in contemporary life. Guys's pictures - the art of modernity - give to the day a second life. and "translate" into a different medium - from sight to (mental) impression to its "rebirth" as a sketch - that which would otherwise be lost with its passing. |
| `In' analytical Note | Daedalus Vol.143, No.1; Winter 2014: p.46-53 |
| Journal Source | Daedalus Vol.143, No.1; Winter 2014: p.46-53 |
| Key Words | Politics ; Political Philosophy ; History ; Civilization ; Ethnic Groups ; Ethnic Communities ; Ethnicity ; Political Context ; Social Reforms ; Political History ; Aesthetic ; Political Thoughts ; Philosophical Thoughts |