Réflexions sur l’étude de la critique d’art, à propos d’un livre récent.

Résumé En Fr

The recently published book by Wolfgang Drost on the subject of the art criticism of five major writers ( Dichten), Diderot, Stendhal, Heine, Gautier and Baudelaire, takes up all of the many works that he devoted to them during his long career, but poses several problems. The term Dichter (as opposed to the simple expression man of letters) is not self-evident. The category thus defined is of no interest to art historians. It is understandable that historians of literature are tied to the writings about art of famous authors. However, either these writings are considered as mere documentary sources, allowing greater understanding of their literary works strict sensu, or else they are recognized for their own literary value, if only for the importance of the descriptions, as in the poetry and novels of the period. Nevertheless, it is rare to find studies devoted to this literary aspect that Wolfgang Drost also neglects. Ordinarily the question raised is to know whether or not this Dichter was a good critic. The criteria being the conformity of the judgment of the artists with the views held today, considered correct, taking into account the distance in time. Wolfgang Drost rightly contests the validity of this anachronism that does not take into account the variations in taste, but his position remains ambiguous, if only because he establishes a radical opposition between the spontaneous subjectivity of the critic and a supposed objectivity of the history of art held to be scientific.

Après avoir enseigné à l’Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), Pierre Vaisse est élu professeur d’histoire de l’art contemporain à l’Université de Lyon 2 en 1981, à celle de Paris X-Nanterre en 1984, à celle de Genève en 1992. Pierre Vaisse a présidé l’Association des professeurs d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art de l’Université de 1986-1989. Il a été membre du Comité artistique de la Casa de Velázquez et de la Commission supérieure des Monuments historiques (Paris). Ancien membre du comité de rédaction des revues Romantisme, L’Information historique et de La Revue de l’art, il a fondé en 1988 la revue Histoire de l’art. Il a également assuré la critique d’architecture au quotidien Le Figaro de 1981 à 1989. Ses recherches et ses publications portent en particulier sur la peinture allemande de la Renaissance, la peinture française du xixe siècle et les institutions artistiques, les rapports artistiques franco-allemands au xixe siècle, la tapisserie aux xixe et xxe siècles, l’architecture du xxe siècle (Le Corbusier, Tony Garnier), les rapports de l’art et de la politique et l’historiographie de l’art.