In 1930 Man Ray and Lee Miller cooperated with writers William Seabrook and Marjorie Worthington on a series of photographic portraits or tableaux vivants focusing on fantasies of sadomasochism. These series guide us in visualizations where the moral perimeter of the human seemed to collapse. The corpus is also an expression of racial fantasies of primitivism and negrophilia (a symbolic appropriation of black culture as a means of spiritual invigoration) rampant in 1920s Paris. The assumption of primitive fantasies and sexual perversion collaborated in denigrating bourgeois, rationalist and moralized culture, and in suppressing the «duality [...] between body and soul, matter and spirit», as Michel Leiris put it. The exploration of forms of ‘perverse’ sexuality intersected the political investiture of the Marquis de Sade, celebrated by surrealists in their anti-capitalist tirades. In particular, Bataille made Sade the paradigm of heterology, a discourse of violent cultural criticism that foresaw the emancipatory and ‘sacred’ power of the sadistic impulse. The Divine Marquis, seen either as a paragon of individual freedom and perverse sexuality, or as an ideological totem, was the pivot around which Man Ray’s artistic practices, Seabrook’s personal experiences, and the theoretical elaborations of Paul Eluard’s and Bataille’s revolved or were discussed in 1930.
Nel 1930 Man Ray e Lee Miller collaborarono con lo scrittore William Seabrook e la compagna Marjorie Worthington a una serie di ritratti fotografici o tableaux vivants incentrati su fantasie di sadomasochismo. Queste serie ci guidano in visualizzazioni in cui il perimetro morale dell’umano sembrava collassare. Il corpus è anche espressione di fantasie razziali di primitivismo e négrophilie (un’appropriazione simbolica della cultura nera come mezzo di rinvigorimento spirituale) dilagante nella Parigi degli anni Venti. L’assunzione di fantasie primitiviste e di perversione sessuale collaborarono a denigrare la cultura borghese, razionalista e moralizzata, e sopprimere «la dualità […] tra corpo e anima, materia e spirito», come scrisse Michel Leiris. L’esplorazione di forme di sessualità ‘perversa’ ha intersecato l’investitura politica del marchese de Sade, celebrato dai surrealisti nelle loro diatribe anticapitaliste. Bataille fece di Sade il paradigma dell’eterologia, in un discorso di violenta critica culturale che vagheggiava il potere emancipatorio e ‘sacro’ dell’impulso negativo sadiano. Il Divino Marchese, visto ora come modello di libertà individuale e sessualità perversa, ora come totem ideologico, è il perno intorno a cui le pratiche artistiche di Man Ray, le esperienze personali di Seabrook e le elaborazioni teoriche di Paul Eluard e Bataille hanno ruotato o sono state discusse nel 1930.
Valori d’uso di Sade: erotismo, primitivismo e utopia rivoluzionaria tra Man Ray, William Seabrook e i surrealisti nel 1930
cortesini
2021-01-01
Abstract
In 1930 Man Ray and Lee Miller cooperated with writers William Seabrook and Marjorie Worthington on a series of photographic portraits or tableaux vivants focusing on fantasies of sadomasochism. These series guide us in visualizations where the moral perimeter of the human seemed to collapse. The corpus is also an expression of racial fantasies of primitivism and negrophilia (a symbolic appropriation of black culture as a means of spiritual invigoration) rampant in 1920s Paris. The assumption of primitive fantasies and sexual perversion collaborated in denigrating bourgeois, rationalist and moralized culture, and in suppressing the «duality [...] between body and soul, matter and spirit», as Michel Leiris put it. The exploration of forms of ‘perverse’ sexuality intersected the political investiture of the Marquis de Sade, celebrated by surrealists in their anti-capitalist tirades. In particular, Bataille made Sade the paradigm of heterology, a discourse of violent cultural criticism that foresaw the emancipatory and ‘sacred’ power of the sadistic impulse. The Divine Marquis, seen either as a paragon of individual freedom and perverse sexuality, or as an ideological totem, was the pivot around which Man Ray’s artistic practices, Seabrook’s personal experiences, and the theoretical elaborations of Paul Eluard’s and Bataille’s revolved or were discussed in 1930.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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