Pierre Klossowski (; French: [klɔˈsɔfski];
August 9, 1905, Paris – August 12, 2001,
Paris) was a French writer, translator and
artist. He was the eldest son of the artists
Erich Klossowski and Baladine Klossowska,
and his younger brother was the painter Balthus.
== Life ==
Born in Paris, Pierre Klossowski was the older
brother of the artist Balthazar Klossowski,
better known as Balthus. Their parents were
the art historian Erich Klossowski and the
painter Baladine Klossowska. His German-educated
father came from a family supposedly belonging
to the former Polish petty nobility (drobna
szlachta) and bearing the Rola coat of arms.
His mother, Baladine Klossowska, was born
as Elisabeth Dorothea Spiro in Breslau, Prussia
(now Wrocław, Poland).
He was responsible for a new publication of
The 120 Days of Sodom & Other Writings by
Marquis de Sade in 1964.
When he was 18, Pierre was André Gide's secretary
and worked on the drafts of Les faux-monnayeurs
for him.
== Writing ==
Pierre Klossowski wrote full length volumes
on the Marquis de Sade and Friedrich Nietzsche,
a number of essays on literary and philosophical
figures, and five novels. Roberte Ce Soir
(Roberte in the Evening) provoked controversy
due to its graphic
depiction of sexuality. He translated several
important texts (by Virgil, Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Hölderlin, Franz
Kafka, Nietzsche, and Walter Benjamin) into
French, worked on films and was also an artist,
illustrating many of the scenes from his novels.
Klossowski participated in most issues of
George Bataille's review, Acéphale, in the
late 1930s.
His 1969 book, Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle,
greatly influenced French philosophers such
as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean-François
Lyotard.
== Film ==
Klossowski also appeared in Robert Bresson's
Au hasard Balthazar as the avaricious miller
who desires Marie, a character played by Anne
Wiazemsky.
He was involved in:
Raoul Ruiz's La vocation suspendue, 1977,
90';
Raoul Ruiz's L'hypothèse du tableau volé,
1979, 66';
Pierre Zucca's Roberte, 1979, 100';
Alain Fleischer's Pierre Klossowski ou l'éternel
détour, 1996, 106'.His text on de Sade is
mentioned in the bibliography at the beginning
of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120
Days of Sodom, and quoted several times through
the film.
== Drawing ==
From 20 September to 19 October 2006 there
was a display of Klossowski's drawings and
life size sculptures made after them with
sculptor Jean-Paul Réti along with the art
of Hans Bellmer at the Whitechapel Art Gallery
also presented at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne
and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris
with a film retrospective.
== Bibliography ==
=== Translations ===
Friedrich Sieburg, Défense du nationalisme
allemand, Grasset (1933)
Friedrich Sieburg, Robespierre, E. Flammarion
(1936)
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus logico-philosophicus
suivi de Investigations philosophiques (1961)
Martin Heidegger, Nietzsche (1971)
Friedrich Nietzsche, Le Gai Savoir
Walter Benjamin, L'œuvre d'art à l'époque
de sa reproduction mécanisée [in consultation
with the author for the first publication
of the essay in 1936]
J. G. Hamann, Les Méditations Bibliques,
Minuit (1948). Critical edition, Éditions
Ionas, 2016, read online.
== See also ==
French Nietzscheanism
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Arnaud, A., Pierre Klossowski (Paris: Seuil,
1990) ISBN 978-2-02-011495-0 In French.
Decottignies, J., Klossowski notre prochain
(Paris: H. Veyrier, 1985) ISBN 978-2-85199-377-9
In French.
Decottignies, J., Pierre Klossowski. Biographie
d’un monomane (Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses
Universitaires du Septentrion, 1997) ISBN
978-2-85939-523-0 In French.
Faulkner, J., “The Vision, the Riddle, and
the Vicious Circle: Pierre Klossowski Reading
Nietzsche’s Sick Body through Sade’s Perversion.”
Textual Practice. 21[1] (March 2007): 43–69.
Hill, Leslie, Bataille, Klossowski, Blanchot:
Writing at the Limit (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2001)
James, Ian, Pierre Klossowski: The Persistence
of a Name (Oxford: Legenda, 2000)
James, Ian and Ford, Russell (guest editors),
Diacritics, Special Issue: Whispers of the
Flesh Essays in Memory of Pierre Klossowski,
35[1] (Spring 2005).
Lugan-Dardigna, A.-M., Klossowski. L’homme
aux simulacres (Paris: Navarin, 1986) ISBN
2-86827-044-1 In French.
Madou, J.-P., Démons et simulacres dans l’œuvre
de Pierre Klossowski (Paris: Méridiens Klincksiek,
1987) ISBN 978-2-86563-182-7 In French.
Marroni, A., Klossowski e la comunicazione
artistica (Palermo: Centro Internazionale
Studi di Estetica, 39, 1993)
Marroni, A., Pierre Klossowski. Sessualità,
vizio e complotto nella filosofia (Milan:
Costa & Nolan, 1999) ISBN 978-88-7648-383-7
Bennett, Jill, "Kama and Eroticism", Body.
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (1997).ISBN
0-9587206-0-6
Marroni, A. Laws of perversion and hospitality
in Pierre Klossowski, "Journal of European
Psychoanalysis", 25, 2007;
Marroni, A. L'arte dei simulacri. Il dèmone
estetico di Pierre Klossowski, Costa & Nolan,
Milan 2009, ISBN 978-88-7437-124-2;
Spira, Anthony, & Sarah Wilson, Pierre Klossowski
(Ostfilden: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2006)
ISBN 3-7757-1792-7. Exhibition Catalogue.
Whitechapel Gallery London 20 September - 19
November 2006, Ludwig Museum Cologne 21 December
2006 - 18 March 2007, Musée National d'Art
Moderne, Paris 2 April - 4 June 2007.
Tremblay, Thierry, Anamnèses. Essai sur l'œuvre
de Pierre Klossowski (Paris: Hermann, 2012).
ISBN 978-2-7056-8277-4 In French.
Ubilluz, Juan Carlos, Sacred Eroticism: Georges
Bataille and Pierre Klossowski in the Latin
American Erotic Novel (Bucknell University
Press, 2006) ISBN 0-8387-5625-5
== External links ==
Klossowski obituary from The Independent,
August 14, 2001, by Ian James
Klossowski obituary from Art Forum, November
2001, by Benjamin Ivry
Reading Pierre Klossowski from Context, by
John Taylor
Book review and biography, by Brett Bowles
Pierre Klossowski biography by Elena Filipovic,
focussing on his drawing
Pierre Klossowski page on the-artists.org
Journal of European Psychoanalysis
