Marius-Ary Leblond et les Peintres de races : persistance du critère de race dans l’analyse de l’art moderne au tournant du XX e siècle

Abstract

Published in 1909, the little known work, Peintres de Race, written by Marius-Ary Leblond, the pseudonym of George Athenas and Aime Merlo, proves to be symtomatic of the ideological positions taken by a element of the criticism of modernist art in the beginning of the 20th century. Going beyond just be nationalist and colonialist pronouncements associated with Leblond, this collection of portraits of painters demonstrates all the ambiguity and complexity of the propos and the positions of these authors. This article aims at showing how race asserts itself as a major, persistent criterion in the analysis of modern art.