Poetry in painting : writings on contemporary arts and aesthetics

152 Pages·2012·1.8 MB·English

by  Masó

The Frontiers of Theory
The Frontiers of Theory Poetry in
Series Editor: Martin McQuillan, Kingston University
This series brings together internationally respected figures to comment on and
re-describe the state of theory in the twenty-first century.
Painting
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Poetry in Painting: Writings on Contemporary Arts and Aesthetics
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Hélène Cixous t
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Edited by Marta Segarra and Joana Masó y

i Writings on
‘An important collection of essays on art by one of France’s leading writers and literary figures.’ n
Mairead Hanrahan, Department of French, University College London
P Contemporary Arts
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‘It will likely surprise and delight English readers to realize the extent of Cixous’ engagement
with contemporary arts, in particular painting, photography and film, one that has been in and Aesthetics
frequent, sustained and especially intense over the last few years.’
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Peggy Kamuf, Department of French, University of Southern California i
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Hélène Cixous
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The first book by Hélène Cixous on painting and the contemporary arts
Edited by Marta Segarra and Joana Masó
This collection gathers most of Hélène Cixous’ short texts devoted to contemporary artists, AW
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such as the painter Nancy Spero, the photographer Andres Serrano, the visual artists Roni tr
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Horn and Ernest Pignon-Ernest, the fashion designer Sonia Rykiel and the choreographer ain
Karine Saporta, among others. The artworks belong to different genres and media: ng
photography, painting, installations, film, choreography and fashion design. Nevertheless, ds
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Hélène Cixous’ texts all deal with some of her privileged themes: exile, war, violence (against
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women) and exclusion, as well as love, memory, beauty and tenderness. st C
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Neither art criticism nor critical essays, Hélène Cixous responds to these artworks as a poet,
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reading them as if they were poems. Written between 1985 and 2010, most of these essays tt
are unpublished in English, or published only in rare catalogues or art books. icsem
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Hélène Cixous is Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre d’Études Féminines at o
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Université Paris VIII, Emerita. She is the author of more than 70 volumes of fiction, theory, a
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essays and drama. y

Marta Segarra is Professor of French Literature and Gender Studies and Director of the
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Centre for Women and Literature at the University of Barcelona.
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Joana Masó is Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona and Associate Scholar at the è
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Centre for Women and Literature. e
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Jacket image: The Goddess Nut II, 1990 © Nancy Spero s
ISBN 978–0–7486–4744–6
Jacket design: Michael Chatfield
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Approx Pantone colours: 453, spine 697
Text received 25 Jan. Wanted by end of next week - 1/2 Feb?
Poetry in Painting
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The Frontiers of Theory
Series Editor: Martin McQuillan
The Poetics of Singularity: The Counter-Culturalist Turn in Heidegger,
Derrida, Blanchot and the Later Gadamer
Timothy Clark
Dream I Tell You
Hélène Cixous
Scandalous Knowledge: Science, Truth, and the Human
Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Geneses, Genealogies, Genres and Genius
Jacques Derrida
Insister of Jacques Derrida
Hélène Cixous
About Time: Narrative Fiction and the Philosophy of Time
Mark Currie
Not Half No End: Militantly Melancholic Essays in Memory of Jacques
Derrida
Geoffrey Bennington
Death-Drive: Freudian Hauntings in Literature and Art
Robert Rowland Smith
Of Jews and Animals
Andrew Benjamin
Reading and Responsibility: Deconstruction’s Traces
Derek Attridge
To Follow: The Wake of Jacques Derrida
Peggy Kamuf
Volleys of Humanity: Essays 1972–2009
Hélène Cixous
Veering: A Theory of Literature
Nicholas Royle
The Post-Romantic Predicament
Paul de Man, ed. Martin McQuillan
Poetry in Painting: Writings on Contemporary Arts and Aesthetics
Hélène Cixous, ed. Marta Segarra and Joana Masó
The Paul de Man Notebooks
Paul de Man, ed. Martin McQuillan
Visit the Frontiers of Theory website at www.euppublishing.com/series/tfot
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Poetry in Painting
Writings on Contemporary Arts and Aesthetics
Hélène Cixous
Edited by Marta Segarra and Joana Masó
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© Hélène Cixous, 2012
© The Editors, editorial matter and arrangement, 2012
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 10.5/13 pt Sabon
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 4744 6 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 4745 3 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 0 7486 4961 7 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7486 4960 0 (Amazon ebook)
The right of Hélène Cixous
to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Sources vii
Illustrations ix
Series Editor’s Preface x
Hélène Cixous, in Art as in Dreams 1
Joana Masó and Marta Segarra
1. Paintings 7
2. Spero’s Dissidances 21
3. Ernest’s Imagic 31
4. See the Neverbeforeseen 37
5. Portraits of Portraits: The Very Day/Light of Roni Horn 75
6. K – A Notebook 79
7. Shit, No Present: Faecetious Serrano 85
8. Inheriting/Inventing with Jeffrey Gibson 109
9. Filming the Becoming Invisible 113
10. Sonia Rykiel in Translation 119
11. The Train Stop, or Anna’s Resurrections 124
Index 133
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Acknowledgements
We deeply thank the following artists and galleries for their gift of
reproduction rights: Maria Chevska, Jeffrey Gibson, Roni Horn, Ernest
Pignon-Ernest, Andres Serrano and Nancy Spero, as well as the Lelong,
Hauser & Wirth and Yvon Lambert galleries. And above all, we thank
Hélène Cixous for her delicate generosity.
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Sources
‘Hélène Cixous, in Art as in Dreams’
‘Hélène Cixous, en art comme en rêve’, Joana Masó and Marta Segarra.
Trans. Marianne Choquet, unpublished in English. (A different version
under the same title was included in Hélène Cixous, Peinetures. Écrits
sur l’art, Marta Segarra and Joana Masó (eds), Hermann, Paris, 2010.)
1. ‘Paintings’
‘Peinetures’, in Hélène Cixous, Peinetures. Écrits sur l’art, Marta
Segarra and Joana Masó (eds), Hermann, Paris, 2010. Trans. Laurent
Milesi, unpublished in English.
2. ‘Spero’s Dissidances’
‘Dissidanses de Spero’. Trans. Laurent Milesi, published in English
in Nancy Spero (catalogue), MACBA-Museu d’Art Contemporani de
Barcelona and MNCARS-Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía,
Barcelona-Madrid, 2008.
3. ‘Ernest’s Imagic’
‘Imagie d’Ernest’, in Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Face aux murs, Delpire,
Paris, 2010. Trans. Beverley Bie Brahic, unpublished in English.
4. ‘See the Neverbeforeseen’
‘Faire voir le jamaisvu’. Transl. Beverley Bie Brahic, published in English
and in French in Roni Horn, Rings of Lispector (Agua viva), Hauser &
Wirth–Steidl, London, 2004.
5. ‘Portraits of Portraits: The Very Day/Light of Roni Horn’
‘Portraits de portraits. Le jour même de Roni Horn’. Trans. Eric
Prenowitz, published in English in Roni Horn (catalogue), CAC Málaga,
Málaga, 2008.
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viii Poetry in Painting
6. ‘K – A Notebook’
‘K – A Notebook’. Trans. Susan Sellers, published in English and
in French in Maria Chevska, Vera’s Room (catalogue), Black Dog,
London, 2005.
7. ‘Shit, No Present: Faecetious Serrano’
Untitled in French. Trans. Laurent Milesi, published in Andres Serrano,
Shit, Yvon Lambert, Paris, 2008.
8. ‘Inheriting/Inventing with Jeffrey Gibson’
‘Hériter/Inventer avec Jeffrey Gibson’. Trans. Ilaria Migliardi and
Nicole Cee, published in English in a brochure of an exhibition of Jeffrey
Gibson’s works, 2007.
9. ‘Filming the Becoming Invisible’
‘Filmer le devenir invisible’: http://www.ruthbeckermann.com/texts/
lepontdepapier/txt.php?lang=fr, 2006. Trans. Beverley Bie Brahic,
unpublished in English.
10. ‘Sonia Rykiel in Translation’
‘Sonia Rykiel en traduction’, in Hélène Cixous, Madeleine Chapsal
and Sonia Rykiel, Sonia Rykiel, Éditions Herscher, Paris, 1985. Trans.
Beverley Bie Brahic, unpublished in English.
11. ‘The Train Stop, or Anna’s Resurrections’
‘L’arrêt du train, ou résurrections d’Anna’, in Karine Saporta-Peter
Greenaway, roman-photo, Hélène Cixous, Daniel Dobbels, Bérénice
Reynaud, Armand Colin, Paris, 1990. Trans. Beverley Bie Brahic,
unpublished in English.
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Illustrations
Colour Plates
Plate 1 Nancy Spero, Goddess Nut II, 1990. Handprinting and collage
on paper, 5 panels. 213.4 × 279.4 cm. © The Estate of Nancy
Spero. Licensed by VEGAP, Barcelona, 2012. Courtesy Galerie
Lelong, New York.
Plate 2 Ernest Pignon-Ernest, La mort de la vierge, 1990. © Galerie
Lelong. Courtesy of the artist.
Plate 3 Roni Horn, Agua Viva: The dense jungle . . ., 2004. Silkscreen
on Saunders hot press W/C. Ed. 1/2, 129.5 × 129.5 cm. ©
Hauser & Wirth Galerie.
Plate 4 Maria Chevska, Vera’s Room, 2002. © Maria Chevska.
Courtesy of the artist.
Plate 5 Andres Serrano, Simple Shit, 2008. © Courtesy Yvon Lambert.
Plate 6 Jeffrey Gibson, Second Nature, 2006. Yellowish/green paint-
ing with urethane extension, oil and urethane foam on wood
panel, 96 × 72 inches. © Collection of The Eiteljorg Museum.
Courtesy of the artist.
Images in Chapter 4 (‘See the Neverbeforseen’)
Figures 1 and 2 Roni Horn, Yes, I want . . .
Figures 3 and 5 Roni Horn, Yes, I want . . .
Figure 4 Roni Horn, Yes, I want . . .
Figure 6 Roni Horn, Now is the domain . . .
Images © Hauser & Wirth Galerie
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