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A modern Antimodern: Yves Bonnefoy’s critique of 20th-century art

In this dissertation, I argue that Yves Bonnefoy, a major 20th-century French poet and a heir to French poetic modernity, pursued the dialogue between poetry and painting that has been central to French poetry, and in doing so praised some specific artists in the 20th century in a coherent manner, outlining what I call a counter-history of 20th century art.

This counter-history, I argue, reveals his fundamental opposition to modern art. What emerges from the study of his prose writings on 20th-century art is the fact that Bonnefoy continued modernity yet critiqued it. In doing so he was influenced philosophically by Heidegger and poetically by Baudelaire, and also marked by his break with Surrealism and Breton. This leads me to conclude that Bonnefoy was a sort of "antimodern"; and that he laid out the foundations of an "antimodern" vision of 20th-century art. My research reveals a coherent family of artists emerging from Bonnefoy's writings, who saw themselves as part of this alternative art history.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/t2as-gv38
Date January 2024
CreatorsOlivennes, Benjamin
Source SetsColumbia University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeTheses

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