5 comments about The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I (Essay index reprint series).

1. I agree with other reviewers that the section on Alfred Jarry is especially strong, but the whole thing is great. Shattuck is a brilliant scholar, and a very lively writer. Presenting history from the viewpoint of a group of eccentrics results in surprises on every page. I bought this book as a fan of Shattuck's work on Proust (who gets only a brief mention in this book), and as a fan of Erik Satie (Contrary to the second-last reviewer, Satie's work is widely available, and it's well worth a listen), but now I think I'm a fan of Alfred Jarry as well; I've just placed an order for Jarry's Ubu Roi.



2. Roger Shattuck, presents a picture of avant-garde France in the period 1880-1915 as seen through the lives of four of its most prominent artists.
   The belle époque, was the time before the first World War when new forms of art and philosophy were beginning to emerge. Artists began to break away from traditional concepts and to invent new ways to express themselves. For those in the avant-garde, art was not simply an object or a composition that was conceived, begun and finished. Rather they embraced the idea of being their own best works.
   The institutions which had defined their society were in disarray. The social order of the past, depended on a large population of rural farmers supporting an elite few in the urban centers, was being turned upside down.
   Technology was causing great disruptions in the old order as well. Events began to move faster and increasingly people began to be enslaved by the office clock and the factory whistle. To many people, the simple solutions of the past offered by the church and the government and their local community no longer seemed relevant to the contemporary world. Shattuck identifies four traits common to these artists
   They all embraced childhood and a childish simplicity. Jarry's most famous work was a play, Ubu Roi, begun in elementary school. Satie wondered what kind of music a one-year old would create. All four emulated the innocence and naivety found in childhood during their adulthood.
   Another characteristic was a strong sense of humor and of the absurd in the work and lives of the avant-garde artists of the time. Jarry and Apollionaire would each paint neckties on paper and wear the results to formal restaurants. Satie would annotate his musical compositions with absurd instructions to the musician and dire warnings as to the consequences if the orders were disobeyed. In their actions and their art we see them returning to the tradition of the court jester, able to speak the truth but only as a joke.
   Thirdly, in questioning all that was traditional and real, these artists sought to create a dreamlike experience in the waking world.
   Lastly, there was theme of ambiguity and equivocalness. They spurned the notion that art could have only one correct interpretation even their own works.
   Henri Rousseau retired from being a customs inspector to move to Paris and start life anew as an artist at the age of 40. He was completely self-taught in his subject area and his work defied the style of his day.
   Erik Satie was an innovative composer and musician who also served as a mentor for younger composers. Satie's compositions are filled with non-traditional instruments such as rattles and typewriters and unusual names such as "vexations". His eccentricities were well known among his contemporaries most notably that he never allowed anyone to visit the apartment where he lived the last quarter century of his life.
   Alfred Jarry was a schoolboy when he got the inspiration for his greatest play. A crude unpopular teacher was the butt of school yard pranks and the subject of underground student plays. Later in Paris, Jarry would expand on those plays to create the character of Ubu a cruel and greedy man who plots to become King of Poland only to end up deposed and exiled to Paris. Ubu was the character Jarry created to comment on the human condition. Ubu's insights into his own situation echo Jarry's insight into the world. Jarry adopted much from his fictional character and over time he and Ubu become synonymous with the citizens of Paris.
   Guillaume Apollionaire came to Paris at the age of twenty from Rome. He quickly was able to make a mark for himself within the bohemian cliques and in café society. Apollionaire was able to fund much of his literary work with his semi-pornographic novels. He founded a literary magazine and served as a columnist and editor on other periodicals. As a reviewer of modern art he was able to bring artists such as Henri Rousseau to the attention of a wider audience. Sensitive to his position as a foreigner, Apollionaire sought naturalization and enlisted in the French Army during the World War. He was wounded in the head and invalided out of the service in 1916 and died from the worldwide influenza epidemic in 1918.
   The Banquet Years is by no means an easy read. Readers who do not posses a working knowledge of Paris in this period or of the Avant-Garde artistic movement of the time will find it difficult to enjoy this comprehensive view of the period. Places and names are often mentioned without any explanation that would assist in placing them in context. While the book provides insights into the lives and works of some artists whose influence persists down to modern times, this is not an ideal introduction to the times, but rather is best appreciated by those who already have a basic understanding of the period and its theories of art and philosophy.
   Placing the review and appreciation of the artist at the conclusion of the biography would make sense in a biography for more conventional figures. However, these four attempted to direct their lives with the same inspiration that they did their art. Thus it can be difficult to understand the facts of the live of Jarry without a guide to the work that so consumed him. Shattuck possesses such an easy familiarity with the works of his subjects that he does occasionally forget to fill the reader in on the importance of the piece in question.
   Shattuck has created a book which can be read on different levels by those with different interests. Art, History, and Philosophy are all equally present in this work. While it can be appreciated simply as a story of four remarkable men and four remarkable lives, to fully appreciate it, the reader must come to the book prepared to work hard for the insights it offers.



3. Around the turn of the last century there was an unsettled fringe to "Art". There was the mainstream - formal just-so predictable and safe. The framework and structure of being an artist was beginning to fray however - the idea that "Art" should continue to evolve into something else to grow beyond the rigid box that artists and society were so comfortable with.
   
   It is hard to put into words exactly what these four artists attempted to do to their perspective fields, painting, music and writing - they strove to both make "Art" plastic (malleable) and new - to create "Art" beyond "Art" as it were. Even the knowledgeable at the time struggled to define as they themselves exactly what they were doing...
   
   But from primitivism in art to ubu to monotonal music to surrealism to painted neckties, these artists redefined the role of artist to their art. It would be easier to say that Satie or especially Jarry were art themselves their very state of being being "Art". Art as life or life as art or a witch's brew of the two blurred the line between being and performance (Truman Capote, Andy Warhol would have fit right into these guys as well as Timothy Leary and his LSD visionaries).
   
   Cubism and Dadaism - modern art as we understand it today - owes a great debt to these men. Destitute, literally either one step from starvation or madness (or both), their vision of their "Art" and their willingness to bear the cost of bring that "Art" out (there were riots at performances of Satie and Jarry, Apollinaire was jailed and Rousseau was delittled)paved the way for Picasso and Dali.
   
   This book is not a particularly easy read, it wanders between the dryness of a college textbook and an almost lyrical prose at times. And the author seems to expect some knowledge of art and the period from the beginning, a little more background would have been helpful. But I learned a lot for the effort so I would recommend the book to the interested student of the period.



4. Shattuck's book is astounding, lyrically written and effectively framed with detailed discussions of the Parisian political and social scene around the Belle Epoque to give perspective. All of the profiles are well crafted and "Death By Hallucination" is the most insightful discussion of monstre sacre Jarry that I have read.
   
   Anyone who reads any portion of this book is instantly at least 10% more interesting and intelligent than they were the moment before. It will clear your skin, lift your spirit and make you more attractive. Read it. NOW.



5. Roger Shattuck's expressed intent in *The Banquet Years* was to explain the avante garde movement in the arts of the late 19th/early 20th century through the lives of four key figures: Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie, Alfred Jarry, and Guillaume Apollinaire. How well Shattuck succeeds is a matter open to debate between scholars of the period--but what seems undeniable is that he's given at least a credible and coherent account of this watershed era and in the process written a provocative, fascinating, and vastly entertaining book.
   
   It's Shattuck's thesis that the heady, wildly inventive 30-year period from 1885 to the start of World War 1 marked an unprecedented seismic shift in the arts that led directly to modernism ((and all the other "artisms" afterwards))--the implications and challenges of which are still being worked out today. This is not a particularly revolutionary or even original observation but what Shattuck does in *The Banquet Years* is condense, illustrate, and bring to life the argument through his fourfold biographical study.
   
   The strength--and the weakness--of *The Banquet Years* is a consequence of Shattuck's approach. There is probably not a lot that enthusiasts of either Rousseau, Satie, Jarry, or Apollinaire alone will find new in these sketches, but odds are you won't know everything Shattuck relates about all four. On the other hand, if you aren't interested in musical theory, for instance, or the "primitivism" of Rousseau, you'll find yourself tempted to skip 25 or even 50% of this book. It would be a mistake, though, to skip any of the dishes of *The Banquet Years,* for as Shattuck shows, each of these figures is representative of one crucial aspect of the age, each brought something important to the table. Of the four, I found the inclusion of Rousseau the most problematic, but as a "bridge" between the "old" painting and the "new," Shattuck makes a case for including him--and someone like Picasso would have been simply too enormous a figure to devoted only one-quarter of a book.
   
   In the end, *The Banquet Years* is a spirited and intelligent book about a time, a place, and a cast of characters unique in the history of art--a 30-year "party" whose guests included some of the most eccentric, brilliant, and stupendously talented individuals of our time--or any time. Here are the ideas, the gossip, the friendships, the fallings-out and the story behind the stories, poems, paintings, and songs that recorded it all and inspired generations to come...and still to come. If you know nothing, little, or not enough about this incredibly fertile period, this book will be well worth your time.

2 comments about Dropping in on Rousseau (Dropping in On...).

1. Have you ever visited an art museum and wondered what people were thinking as they stood for extended periods of time in front of a masterwork? Have you ever wondered what it was that you were missing that everyone else saw? "Dropping in on Rousseau" might be just what you need to help you better understand how to describe, analyze, and interpret works of art.

   While "Dropping in on Rousseau" is specific to the artwork of the self-trained French artist, Henri Rousseau, many of the descriptive, analytic, and interpretative skills that the book introduces can be applied when looking at other art objects. Although the book is categorized as a book for children, the skills that it introduces and fosters are skills that could help adults as well as children learn to understand art better.

   This is a book that belongs in every well-read child's home collection. It is a book that should be in every school library. Beautifully illustrated and well written," Dropping in on Rousseau" will appeal to children and adults; it is a perfect companion to the animated video of the same title.




2. Pamela Geiger Stephens' Dropping In On Rousseau is an enjoyable and rather elegant picture book that blends the famous Rousseau's classic artworks with simple and engaging color illustrations by Jim McNeill. A bumbling Puffer flies into early twentieth-century Paris to meet the self-trained artist Rousseau, in this cleverly written and presented book that introduces young readers to memorable artistic treasures. Also very highly recommended is the sixteen minute VHS video of Dropping In On Rousseau (CP-6185, $$).

1 comments about Henri Rousseau: A Jungle Expedition (Adventures in Art).

1. Just the fact that the pages are matte and not glossy makes my day. Beautiful reproductions, lovely and dreamy story...what more could one ask? I recommend this delightful book for adults (such as myself), as well as children.

1 comments about Henri Rousseau Tunnel Book: Take a Peek into a Fantastic Jungle! (Take a Peek series).

1. Tunnel books are an old idea in a new form: creating the perspective of depth with 5-6 concertinaed panels of an image. Utilising the work of Henri Rousseau in this respect is almost heartbreaking in its conceptual purity: his beautiful, naive style results in a 3d image of great delicacy. The book needs lots of light to be effective - preferably direct overhead, but changing the light source and direction subtly alters the 3d effect. Play around with it. I know this sounds simplistic! but that's what this is about: some people will flip over this, others will be completely unmoved. Me? It's sitting right next to my monitor, ready to offer a shot of surreal beauty any moment I care.

No comments about Henri Rousseau.

No comments about Interpreting Henri Rousseau.

1 comments about Henri Rousseau: Dreams of the Jungle (Pegasus Library Paperback).

1. The layout and color reproductions are quite good, considering the book's modest size. Werner Schmalenbach comments on the artist's charming paintings, their historical background and influence on comtemporaries, as well as key events in his life. The text is illuminating, lively, and unpedantic-- as Rousseau would have liked it. Also, the price is right. .... Get it! (Even though the book is out of print, I have seen several copies in art museum shops.)

   Congratulations to Prestel, the publisher, for making Pegasus Library books available to the wide public-- great art books which are kind to the wallet.

1 comments about Henri Rousseau (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists).

1. I have three other books from this series and have read them all to my primary school students (1st-3rd grade). This book, however, was not appropriate for that age group, and was a terrible purchase. The story was too long and confusing, too much information that was not written in a manner that was interesting for children, it talked about how he spent time in jail, how he lied, how he knew it didnt matter if he payed attention and did well in math and science because all he wanted to do was be an artist... nice message!

No comments about Henri Rousseau's Jungle Book (Adventures in Art).

2 comments about Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris.

1. I love looking at the amazing prints in this book by the primitivist Rousseau. Look at the cover of this, this tiger in the grass. Rousseau was a Parisian in the last part of the 1800's who never left Paris (in spite of telling friends he had visited Mexico.) New animals never before seen such as gorillas and tigers and leopards were coming to the Paris zoo. New exotic plants were coming to the huge Parisian greenhouses. People were talking about new and exciting places like Africa, Mexico and South America. There were photographs being shown in galleries depicting these strange places. And there was Rousseau, a lowly government clerk, with his fantastic imagination, seeing in his mind all these strange and wonderful places full of tigers, natives, huge flowers, flocks of pink flamingos, monkeys and all sorts of fantasy landscapes.
   This book says, quoting a friend of Rousseau's, that Rousseau would at times start trembling while he painted and become almost in a sort of ecstatic frenzy as he imagined what these places were like.
   At the time people laughed at his paintings as being like a child's art. People stopped laughing at some point and began gasping in awe.
   I remember seeing his paintings a few years ago at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. I could not believe my eyes. I never wanted to stop looking at the very huge, fantastic paintings, with the monkeys peeking from the amazing foliage. I have never seen such a beautiful, incredible, fantasy as these paintings anywhere to this day.
   I can't imagine a better book on Rousseau than this one.



2. This book/catalogue is splendid! It was gorgeously created. The care the author and editor put into the making of this book shows on every page. But what makes this book unique is that every painting is shown IN COLOR -- not black and white sections taking up half the book, etc. The paintings are also put on the page in a way that makes you focus on the genius of each and every one. It makes you realize that Rosseau truly was a genius in his time. He was an original, and this book is a great tribute to him and his art -- would enjoying having on both his/her coffee table and as a book to read and treasure!