Category Archives: grotesque

Flake, Weiss, Klossowski, de Noailles

Der Marquis de Sade translated by Pierre Klossowski
from Otto Flake’s 1930 German original.

Der Marquis de Sade is said to have been one of the sources on which Peter Weiss based his play Marat/Sade.

Flake thanks Maurice Heine, Sade connoisseur and Vicomte de Noailles, owner of the original manuscript.

Marie-Laure and Charles

Arthur Anne Marie Charles (26 September 1891- 28 April 1981), better known as Vicomte de Noailles married Marie-Laure Bischoffsheim in 1923. They were famous art patrons and owned Villa Noailles built by Robert Mallet-Stevens between 1923 and 1933 in Hyères in the South of France.

Marie-Laure

 Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles (31 October, 1902 – 29 January, 1970), was one of the 20th century‘s most daring and influential patrons of the arts, noted for her associations with Salvador Dalí, Balthus, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Luis Bunuel, Francis Poulenc, Jean-Michel Frank and others as well as her tempestuous life and eccentric personality. She and her husband financed Ray’s film Mystery of the Chateau of Dice (1929), Poulenc’s Aubade (1929), Bunuel and Dali’s film L’Age d’Or (1930), and Cocteau’s The Blood of a Poet (1930).

Jules Janin presents the roman frénétique

Jules Janin

“The frenetique school is a school of literature in 19th century France. The term frénétique is French for frenetic and means fast, frantic, harried, or frenzied. The term was coined by Charles Nodier.

In the category of “la littérature frénétique”, most frequently cited are Jules Janin (The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman), Charles Lassailly, Xavier Forneret (Un pauvre honteux), Arlincourt (Le Solitaire) Charles Nodier (Smarra, or The Demons of the Night, 1821), Frédéric Soulié (Les Mémoires du diable, 1838) and Petrus Borel (Champavert, contes immoraux, 1833). Its peak was the late 1820s and early 1830s.

Its wider context is gothic literature. Every European country had its own terminology to denote the sensibility of the gothic novel. In France it was called the roman noir (“black novel”, now primarily used to denote the hardboiled detective genre) and in Germany it was called the Schauerroman (“shudder novel”). Italy and Spain must have had their own, but I am unaware of their names as of yet.

Their is some overlap with the Bouzingos.”

I’ve posted about this before here.

The capricious interference of the artist

Etching of the bones, muscles, and joints, illustrating the first volume of the Anatomy of the Human Body. 2d ed. London, 1804. Etching. National Library of Medicine.

Further to my post More Géricault I tried to find the source of the Géricault Severed Heads painting and I found John Bell at the classic Dream Anatomy site. I couldn’t find the pictures I was looking for, that’s why I am giving you the above (there is one more over at my Flickr stream). I did find the story behind the Severed Heads painting of Géricault:

Théodore Géricault‘s painting Severed Heads (1818) [2] painting of two severed heads on a white cloth, turns out to be, not a painting of two heads fresh from the guillotine, but a painted elaboration of an illustration to a book on anatomy (Engravings, explaining the Anatomy of the Bones, Muscles and Joints ) by British surgeon John Bell. This site on France and Scotland in the Arts gives a detailed explanation how Délacroix’s Severed Heads is a painted elaboration of the work of John Bell, not an image of guillotined heads.

Also from dreamanatomy : “John Bell criticized “the subjection of true anatomical drawing to the capricious interference of the artist, whose rule it has too often been to make all beautiful and smooth, leaving no harshness….” His own drawings and etchings are notably harsh.”

This is obscene art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAIIogcH49I

LUX – The Chapman brothers at Tate Modern.

Lux is a television show on culture presented by my youth hero Luc Janssen. His radio show Krapuul Deluxe was highly influential and he has been described as Belgium’s answer to John Peel. Recently, Janssen has fallen out of favour, especially since an interview I read with him in De Morgen where he said something stupid about the identity-creating-capabilities of owning a Le Corbusier chair.

Taxidermia (2006) – György Pálfi

Taxidermia (2006) – György Pálfi

It’s difficult to write much about Taxidermia in a blog that my parents read! The film, directed by György Pálfi, is visually and thematically grotesque. It’s full of startling, transgressive images. (Even the original poster had to be obscured, though the poster used for the Cannes Film Festival premiere is uncensored.) www.matthewhunt.com/blog

György Pálfi’s grotesque tale of three generations of men, including an obese speed eater, an embalmer of gigantic cats, and a man who shoots fire out of his penis. www.imdb.com/title/tt0410730/

Taxidermia is a 2006 film about three generations from Hungary, including a taxidermist, starting during the Second World War. The film is surreal in nature with dark comedy. The director is György Pálfi. The film is a Hungary / Austria / France collaboration and the language is Hungarian. The film is based on short stories by Lajos Parti Nagy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxidermia

Aside from his albums and collaborations, Amon Tobin has also produced the composition to the Hungarian film, Taxidermia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_Tobin

György Pálfi est un réalisateur et scénariste hongrois né le 11 avril 1974 à Budapest. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_P%C3%A1lfi

German language trailer at YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMODCtHZmJo]

Hungarian trailer at YouTube

French trailer at YouTube:

Amon Tobin soundtrack excerpt of same