Jean Cocteau: the juggler's revenge

Abstract

"“The lasting feeling that [Cocteau’s] work leaves is one of happiness, not, of course, in the sense that it excludes suffering, but because, in it, nothing is rejected, resented or regretted.” H. Auden. Brilliant, surprising, and multifaceted, the French artist Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) left an enduring mark as a draftsman, filmmaker, set designer, muralist, and jewellery and clothing designer. His poetry, fundamental expression of his unmistakable spirit, is characterised by mythological, circus-like atmospheres and a disorienting writing style that would always accompany his endless creations in the most diverse fields. On the occasion of the first Cocteau retrospective in Italy, organised at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Marsilio Arte will release the book Jean Cocteau. La rivincita del giocoliere [The Juggler’s Revenge] by Kenneth E. Silver, with text by Blake Oetting (Orfeo, due e più volte: i riverberi queer di Jean Cocteau). The exhibition space is also a tribute to the artist’s friendship with Peggy Guggenheim. It was he, actually, who encouraged the young collector to open the Guggenheim Jeune gallery in London in 1938. She reciprocated by hosting a number of Cocteau’s works, who at the time was a friend and artistic consultant to Marcel Duchamp. Cocteau then began to be a regular visitor to the New York patron’s residence in Venice, Palazzo Vernier dei Leoni, falling in love with the city. Guggenheim often said that words were a means of expression that Cocteau wielded with the virtuosity of an acrobat. The Juggler’s Revenge refers to his ability to move through the most disparate realms with an all-encompassing regard, perspicaciously attuned to aesthetics and history and able to synthesise them. In his first novel Le grand écart (1923), Cocteau himself said he was fascinated by jugglers and circus performers. Indeed, later in his career, he placed two acrobats and a Chinese illusionist in the libretto for the ballet Parade, and the wizard Merlin in Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde. An inexhaustible font of creativity and visions, Cocteau’s genius is evident in his novels, including Le livre blanc, in films such as Le Sang d’un poète with Lee Miller as a Greek statue that comes to life, and in La Machine infernale, a revisitation of Oedipus Rex, just to mention a few of his masterpieces. Cocteau said of himself, “I am a lie that tells the truth”: in his work he often makes use of myth to tell a story and at the same time fill it with codes, forcing the audience to go looking for what is hidden, as if they were playing hide-and-seek. The Juggler’s Revenge embraces the versatility for which the artist was often criticised by his contemporaries, retracing the development of his aesthetic and the key moments in his tumultuous life through works created by various means and techniques. A selection of drawings evidences the key role of desire and sensuality, which have always characterised his art."-- Provided by publisher.