Donatien Grau
Dr. Donatien Grau is a scholar of 19th and early 20th century art, literature, and culture. He is the author, editor and translator of a number of publications on these and other topics.
Guest Critic
NEW FRENCH THEORY
Not New, Not French, Not Theory
By Donatien Grau
French Theory is no theory. It is a well-known fact that “Theory,” as in “French Theory,” is neither a theoretical endeavor nor a theoretical manifestation of thought. “Theory” as in “French Theory” has evidently little to do with Plato’s apex of human evolution: contemplation of the ideal form as such. In the Platonic sense, theory is the ultimate abstraction.
Paul McCarthy: A&E
By Donatien GrauThe series of performances titled A&E was the first half of a European program that brought McCarthy and Lilith Stangenberg first to the SchauSpielHaus in Hamburg for five nights in a row and then to the Volkstheater in Vienna for four nights.
Theoretical Brutality: Cézanne And Gauguin
By Donatien GrauIn his conversations with Emile Bernard, Paul Cézanne had very violent words about his fellow painter—someone who had actually been his friend for a while: Paul Gauguin.
Barbara Chase-Riboud’s I Always Knew: A Memoir
By Donatien GrauI Always Knew: A Memoir (Princeton University Press, 2022) is the intimate, profound introduction to a life constantly driven by intelligence, creativity, restless at times, always thoughtful.
Beyond Contested Memories
By Donatien GrauHistory as we know it is an inquiry into establishing facts in order to create a common space. Décolonisations, Pierre Singaravélou’s recent French television project, offers an attempt to bridge the gap between contradicting views.
