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Modern French Philosophy

Ecstasy Through Self-Destruction

Danelle Gallo compares the ecstacies of Georges Bataille and Yves Klein.

French philosopher Georges Bataille (1897-1962) and French artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) were passionately fascinated with death, eroticism, the sacred, and sacrifice. Bataille, a fluent and often controversially graphic philosopher, related the erotic to the sacred through the imminence of death. Yves Klein, the so-called ‘minimalist’ performance artist and monochromatic painter was equally controversial, and eloquently communicated his ideas about the connection between eroticism and the sanctified. In this essay, I propose that they had similarly poignant views regarding the numinous, or experience of the sacred, focusing on specific ideas pertaining to sacrifice, death, and eroticism. Although they frequently portrayed their viewpoints in unique and novel ways, their underlying philosophies were substantially similar.

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