Pissing Figures

Jean Claude Lebensztejn, Jeff Nagy

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English

David Zwirner
29 June 2017

Theory of art; Human figures depicted in art

Series: Ekphrasis

Lebensztejn is one of France's best - kept secrets. A world - class art historian who has

lectured and taught at major universities in the United States, his work has remained

almost entirely in French, his American audience limited to a sma ll but dedicated group

of cognoscenti.

First introducing the

Manneken Pis - the iconic little boy whose stream of urine supplies

water to this famous fountain and is also the logo for a Belgian beer company - the

author takes the reader through a semi - scatological maze of cultural history. The earliest

example is a fresco scene loc ated directly above Cimabue's

Crucifixion from around 1280

at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, in which Lebensztejn's careful eye locates an

angel behind a pillar urinating through a hole in his garment. He continues to navigate

expertly through cu ltural twists and turns, stopping to discuss Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1968

film

Teorema , for example, and Marlene Dumas's 1996 - 1997 homage to Rembrandt's

pissing woman. At every moment, Lebensztejn's prose is lively, his thinking dynamic, and

his subject matt er entertaining.

In this short and poignant cultural history, readers will not

only find the care for detail that has made Lebensztejn into one of the greatest European

art historians, but also the rebelliousness that makes him one of the most interesting intellectuals of our time.

By: Jean Claude Lebensztejn, Jeff Nagy
Imprint: David Zwirner
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 177mm, Width: 105mm,
Weight: 190g
ISBN: 9781941701546
ISBN 10: 194170154X
Series: Ekphrasis
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 29 June 2017
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jean-Claude Lebensztejn is a French art historian, critic, and honorary professor of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. His interests range from the art of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, to film, music, human animality, and more generally, the question of frontiers and boundaries. In addition to his Études cézanniennes (2006) and a scholarly edition of fifty-three of Cézanne's letters (2011), Lebensztejn has recently published Déplacements, a collection of his essays concerned with questioning norms of taste and aesthetic values, as well as a translation of Lao Tzu, a study of Pygmalion, a conversation with Malcolm Morley. His most recent book on transgression in the works of Franz Kafka, Marquis de Sade, and Comte de Lautréamont was published in 2017. Jeff Nagy is a translator, critic, and historian of technology based in Palo Alto, California. His research focuses on networks pre- and post-Internet and the development of digital labor.

Reviews for Pissing Figures

The books in the series seem designed to slip into your back pocket -- slim, spartan, and compact, sporting uniform covers consisting solely of typeface in black or white, with a matching horizontal bar across the top, against a solid color.--Thomas Micchelli Hyperallergic . . . amusing, memorable books. . .--Jonathon Sturgeon Artnet ...[Lebensztejn] elegantly reveals how artists have repeatedly used our queasiness in the face of bodily functions to transgress narrow-minded cultural norms.--Alexxa Gotthardt Artsy The book, in a rangy, fluent translation from Jeff Nagy, is a record of what Lebensztejn calls our diuretic fantasies --of the lore and lust surrounding urine, sacred and profane.--Dan Piepenbring The New Yorker A curious journey through art history and one that's worth the trip.--Hrag Varnatnian Hyperallergic