This post is specifically for Kiki, because I think she gets the same sort of kick out of this as I do:
This is a picture taken by Brassaï in 1944 at the opening of Picasso's play, Desire Caught by the Tail.
In this photo, we see, standing from left to right:
Jacques Lacan, philosopher and psychoanalyst;
Cecile Eluard, daughter of the surrealist poet Paul Eluard;
Pierre Reverdy, surrealist and cubist poet;
Luoise Leiris, wife of gallery owner Michel;
Pablo Picasso, artist and playwright;
Zanie de Campan, actress;
Valentine Hugo, artist and wife of great-grandson of Victor Hugo;
Simone de Beauvoir, author and feminist;
Brassaï, photographer;
sitting from left to right:
Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher and author;
Albert Camus, author;
Michel Leiris, owner of famous Gallerie Luoise Leiris;
Jean Aubier, editor.
Photo thanks to Lacan.com. The scene of scenes, if I may be so bold. This is the French intellectual set that will basically direct Paris in the fifties into the sixties. I don't know why Georges Bataille isn't in the photograph, he's my favorite one.
In another life, we all would hang out.
Does this ever happen anymore? I mean, I'm sure artists and authors all get together for social events, but it strikes me that these days everyone is too competitive to form a scene. There is no collaboration on this level. The only time names like these would all be together is for a promotional photo shoot. Not just hanging out in the salon.
Check out this other photo, shot at the same time:
Much more candid. Look, Camus is petting the dog! I want to chill at the place where the two most famous existential authors in the world are on the floor playing with a dog! Let's drink wine, talk about ressentiment, and playing with the freaking dog!
They just don't make intellectual cliques like they used to do.
This is a picture taken by Brassaï in 1944 at the opening of Picasso's play, Desire Caught by the Tail.
In this photo, we see, standing from left to right:
Jacques Lacan, philosopher and psychoanalyst;
Cecile Eluard, daughter of the surrealist poet Paul Eluard;
Pierre Reverdy, surrealist and cubist poet;
Luoise Leiris, wife of gallery owner Michel;
Pablo Picasso, artist and playwright;
Zanie de Campan, actress;
Valentine Hugo, artist and wife of great-grandson of Victor Hugo;
Simone de Beauvoir, author and feminist;
Brassaï, photographer;
sitting from left to right:
Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher and author;
Albert Camus, author;
Michel Leiris, owner of famous Gallerie Luoise Leiris;
Jean Aubier, editor.
Photo thanks to Lacan.com. The scene of scenes, if I may be so bold. This is the French intellectual set that will basically direct Paris in the fifties into the sixties. I don't know why Georges Bataille isn't in the photograph, he's my favorite one.
In another life, we all would hang out.
Does this ever happen anymore? I mean, I'm sure artists and authors all get together for social events, but it strikes me that these days everyone is too competitive to form a scene. There is no collaboration on this level. The only time names like these would all be together is for a promotional photo shoot. Not just hanging out in the salon.
Check out this other photo, shot at the same time:
Much more candid. Look, Camus is petting the dog! I want to chill at the place where the two most famous existential authors in the world are on the floor playing with a dog! Let's drink wine, talk about ressentiment, and playing with the freaking dog!
They just don't make intellectual cliques like they used to do.
