Art and the Human Adventure: André Malraux's Theory of Art (review)

The aim of this book is to explain 'step by step' André Malraux's theory of art. Derek Allan traces the writer's development as a 'historian' and philosopher of art from what he sees as a decisive event in Malraux's early career: the aerial expedition to the ancient city of the Queen of Sheba in Yemen in 1934. Caught in a storm over North Africa, the intrepid young explorer experienced a 'near-death encounter' that marked a 'watershed' in his intellectual development (p. 28). Allan claims that this changed the way in which Malraux regarded artistic endeavour, which became for him a way for man to question the absurdity of the world and his 'destin'. It must be said that the evidence for this hypothesis is thin, particularly with regard to his attitude to art. Malraux suffered a number of similar experiences during his long life, all of which could, like this one in 1934, be qualified as 'retours sur terre'. There is more persuasive evidence that his perspective on art was radically altered by the trauma of France's defeat in 1940, in which he was personally involved and which clearly launched him on a more concentrated and sustained study of the history of art as a form of 'communion'. This said, Allan's book has the merit of clarifying Malraux's motivation and enthusiasm for the world of art as 'autonomous', 'another world' rivalling reality, and as an 'anti-destin', as well as debunking a wide range of commentators and art critics (from Merleau-Ponty to Gombrich, and from Bourdieu to Derrida), who, according to him, misread and misconstrued his works on art. The problem here, however, is that many, though by no means all, of these critics are often partly justified in their views of Malraux as a 'historian' and/or philosopher of art. Allan maintains, moreover, that his work on art is neglected by academics generally. Although this is probably true of anglophone researchers, the same cannot be said of French and francophone researchers, who regularly present conference papers and write articles on the subject. Allan's treatment of Malraux's concept of 'l'Intemporel' — what Geoffrey T. Harris calls 'art's precarious timelessness' (André Malraux: A Reassessment (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996)) — is unconvincing. Throughout his study Allan plays down any notion that the writer believed in art as 'eternal' or 'permanent', overemphasizing Malraux's belief in the transient, precarious nature of art. Allan repudiates the charge, common among critics, that Malraux's prose style in his work on art is incantatory rather than explanatory. It is a repudiation that he finds hard to sustain, particularly given that he quotes in English throughout the book, thereby losing the multiple reverberations and flights of poetic lyricism of the French original. Notwithstanding, Allan conducts his argument methodically throughout, demonstrating much indulgence for Malraux's work on art. His study is well organized, readable, and challenging. It will certainly prove useful to non-specialist readers, who will appreciate Allan's clear and articulate exposition of the coherence of Malraux's theory of art, and to specialists for whom the debate on this subject remains of continued interest.