French writer, translator and artist (1905–2001)
Pierre Klossowski (; French: [klɔˈsɔfski]; 9 August 1905 – 12 August 2001) was a French writer, translator and artist. He was the eldest son of the artists Erich Klossowski and Baladine Klossowska, and his younger brother was the painter Balthus.
Life
Born in Paris, Pierre Klossowski was the older brother of the artist Balthazar Klossowski, better known as Balthus. Their parents were the art historian Erich Klossowski and the painter Baladine Klossowska. His German-educated father came from a family supposedly belonging to the former Polish petty nobility (drobna szlachta) and bearing the Rola coat of arms. His mother, Baladine Klossowska, was born as Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland). When he was 18, Pierre was André Gide's secretary and worked on the drafts of Les faux-monnayeurs for him. Klossowski was responsible for a new publication of The 120 Days of Sodom & Other Writings by the Marquis de Sade in 1964.
Writing
Klossowski wrote full length volumes on the Marquis de Sade and Friedrich Nietzsche, a number of essays on literary and philosophical figures, and five novels. Roberte Ce Soir(Roberte in the Evening) provoked controversy due to its graphic
depiction of sexuality.[1] He translated several important texts (by Virgil, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Hölderlin, Franz Kafka, Nietzsche, and Walter Benjamin) into French, worked on films and was also an artist, illustrating many of the scenes from his novels. Klossowski participated in most issues of George Bataille's review, Acéphale, in the late 1930s.
His 1969 book, Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, greatly influenced French philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean-François Lyotard.[2]
Film
Klossowski also appeared in Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar as the avaricious miller who desires Marie, a character played by Anne Wiazemsky.
He was involved in:
His text on de Sade is mentioned in the bibliography at the beginning of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, and quoted several times through the film.
Drawings
An exhibition of Klossowski's drawings and life size sculptures made after them with sculptor Jean-Paul Réti ran from 20 September to 19 October 2006, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris along with a film retrospective.
Bibliography
Translations
- Friedrich Sieburg, Défense du nationalisme allemand, Grasset (1933)
- Friedrich Sieburg, Robespierre, E. Flammarion (1936)
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus suivi de Investigations philosophiques (1961)
- Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche (1971)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Le Gai Savoir
- Walter Benjamin, L'œuvre d'art à l'époque de sa reproduction mécanisée [in consultation with the author for the first publication of the essay in 1936]
- J. G. Hamann, Les Méditations Bibliques, Minuit (1948). Critical edition, Éditions Ionas, 2016, read online.
See also
References
- ^ Alex Hughes, "Erotic Writing" in Hughes and Keith Reader, Encyclopedia of contemporary French culture, (pp. 187–88). London, Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0-415-13186-3
- ^ Smith, Daniel W.; Klossowski, Pierre (1997). Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. pp. vii–viii. ISBN 0-226-44387-6.
Further reading
- Agostini, Giulia: Der Riss im Text. Schein und Wahrheit im Werk Pierre Klossowskis, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-7705-5323-5. In German.
- Arnaud, A., Pierre Klossowski (Paris: Seuil, 1990) ISBN 978-2-02-011495-0 In French.
- Decottignies, J., Klossowski notre prochain (Paris: H. Veyrier, 1985) ISBN 978-2-85199-377-9 In French.
- Decottignies, J., Pierre Klossowski. Biographie d’un monomane (Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1997) ISBN 978-2-85939-523-0 In French.
- Faulkner, J., “The Vision, the Riddle, and the Vicious Circle: Pierre Klossowski Reading Nietzsche’s Sick Body through Sade’s Perversion.” Textual Practice. 21[1] (March 2007): 43–69.
- Hill, Leslie, Bataille, Klossowski, Blanchot: Writing at the Limit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
- James, Ian, Pierre Klossowski: The Persistence of a Name (Oxford: Legenda, 2000)
- James, Ian and Ford, Russell (guest editors), Diacritics, Special Issue: Whispers of the Flesh Essays in Memory of Pierre Klossowski, 35[1] (Spring 2005).
- Lugan-Dardigna, A.-M., Klossowski. L’homme aux simulacres (Paris: Navarin, 1986) ISBN 2-86827-044-1 In French.
- Madou, J.-P., Démons et simulacres dans l’œuvre de Pierre Klossowski (Paris: Méridiens Klincksiek, 1987) ISBN 978-2-86563-182-7 In French.
- Marroni, A., Klossowski e la comunicazione artistica (Palermo: Centro Internazionale Studi di Estetica, 39, 1993)
- Marroni, A., Pierre Klossowski. Sessualità, vizio e complotto nella filosofia (Milan: Costa & Nolan, 1999) ISBN 978-88-7648-383-7
- Bennett, Jill, "Kama and Eroticism", Body. The Art Gallery of New South Wales (1997).ISBN 0-9587206-0-6
- Marroni, A. Laws of perversion and hospitality in Pierre Klossowski, "Journal of European Psychoanalysis", 25, 2007;
- Marroni, A. L'arte dei simulacri. Il dèmone estetico di Pierre Klossowski, Costa & Nolan, Milan 2009, ISBN 978-88-7437-124-2;
- Spira, Anthony, & Sarah Wilson, Pierre Klossowski (Ostfilden: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006) ISBN 3-7757-1792-7. Exhibition Catalogue. Whitechapel Gallery London 20 September - 19 November 2006, Ludwig Museum Cologne 21 December 2006 - 18 March 2007, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris 2 April - 4 June 2007.
- Tremblay, Thierry, Anamnèses. Essai sur l'œuvre de Pierre Klossowski (Paris: Hermann, 2012). ISBN 978-2-7056-8277-4 In French.
- Ubilluz, Juan Carlos, Sacred Eroticism: Georges Bataille and Pierre Klossowski in the Latin American Erotic Novel (Bucknell University Press, 2006) ISBN 0-8387-5625-5
External links
- Klossowski obituary from The Independent, 14 August 2001, by Ian James
- Klossowski obituary from Art Forum, November 2001, by Benjamin Ivry
- Reading Pierre Klossowski from Context, by John Taylor
- Book review and biography, by Brett Bowles
- Pierre Klossowski biography by Elena Filipovic, focussing on his drawing
- Pierre Klossowski page on the-artists.org
- Journal of European Psychoanalysis
