BARTHES (Roland). "To Soulages my profound admiration..." - Lot 68

Lot n° 68
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BARTHES (Roland). "To Soulages my profound admiration..." - Lot 68
BARTHES (Roland). "To Soulages my profound admiration..." Autograph letter signed to Pierre Berès. Juan-les-Pins, May 21, 1971. 2pp. in-folio. Pierre Bérès, director of Editions Hermann, had in mind the idea of publishing a collective collection of essays on Pierre Soulages, and had approached personalities such as Georges Duby and Roland Barthes. "Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to take on the Soulages role. All the reasons that made me reluctant (none of which, as you know, concern my feelings towards this great painter) have gradually crystallized and come together; working here with Daniel Cordier, I know that the text on Réquichot will absorb, at least for a while, everything I can say on and around painting [Roland Barthes wrote the preface to the catalog raisonné of the works of painter Bernard Réquichot published in 1971 by Daniel Cordier]: it's in the very measure that what we're writing about is not a monograph on this or that painter, but an examination of the very possibility of writing about painting (and I was touched that you had the intelligence - in every sense of the word, including that of: being of intelligence with... -to anticipate this thought yourself)... I know only too well that the best way of acknowledging your confidence would have been to accept; I can't do that. I would like you at least to tell Soulages of my deep admiration, my regret, my desire to see his painting again, to see him himself...". On Pierre Berès, see n°66 above, Bachelard.
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