Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Paris Post-War: Art and existentialism 1945-55

Thursday 01 July 1993 18:02 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Today, new men are coming to the fore - sometimes gropingly, hesitantly, for they are just emerging from the desolate night of the past. Yet already they recognize as their own domain this world which makes other men - men who were once its masters - despair and seek a pretext for closing their eyes. They do not believe it is vain to ask painting to make them 'admire the original', because for them this original wears the beautiful hue of the future and is not devoid of hope like Hamlet's 'sterile promontory'. And they

know how to hail beauty, real beauty, because in the face of the dying realm of shadows they are the heralds of reality itself.

From an article on painting in Paris by the critic Jean Marcenac, Magazine of Art (Washington) May 1950, Vol. 43 No. 5

Paris Post War: Art and Existentialism 1945-55 at the Tate Gallery until 5 September.

See next Monday's Independent for reader offers.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in