Few words:
Philippe Muray is one of the most important French essayists of the 20th century. Unfortunately, none of his works were translated into English. I thought then of using my substack to share some of my translations of his texts that I enjoy studying. Hoping that maybe one day I will be able to translate his whole work. This short text in particular, on cows and contemporary Art, is of great importance. It summarizes the vertigo of modernity, the babelian confusion of priorities, and the absurdity of our preferences against nature.
Background :
In a region in France, the Limousin, known for having wide rural towns, the director of its contemporary art center claimed that " if we want to get by, we have to go from the asses of cows to modernity, not soon but now! "
The translated text below is Muray’s reaction to his statement.
Text :
“ The cows, the delicate cows dragging softly along with their trembling muzzles, with their fine smell of mud and slowness, their melancholic moos, the roundness of their enormous flanks, and their gargantuan elegance, are thus put in opposition to an indefensible art. It is expressly advised to prefer the latter to the former. The wonderful cows that we see piled up like masses of pink and white clouds in the admirable sketches of Eugène Boudin, or sometimes are merely sighs of dark mist, vague spots floating between the sky and the grass, all these cows in series and so unknown, which I have never understood why they are not treated with the same respect as the water lilies of Monet or these cathedrals of Rouen. They are probably only vulgarities for the festivist's eyes. Obstacles to knock down on the way to modern wonderland. The peasant watched the cows go by, now he has to eat the rabid cow of contemporary art. "
Source : Telerama (cited in Répliques 1 mai, 210)
Notes :
Festivist : Concept developed by Muray to qualify the modern man who likes to party. He wrote a book detailing this idea : Festivus, Festivus. It is a reference to Rousseau’s Letter to D’Alembert and Writings for the Theater. Below are the exact sentences Muray alluded to ( from Letter to D’Alembert )
The reference to Eugène Boudin, an example :