Jean Charlot – författare

Was the Royal Academy of San Carlos, founded in 1785 by the King of Spain, beneficial or detrimental to the development of a valid, living art in Mexico? The answer lies in the archives of the school, but nobody thought about constructing an aesthetic history from them until Jean Charlot accidentally discovered their extent and interest while searching for other material. In this straightforward, documented account he presents not merely opinions and criticism but evidence, including curricula and contemporary drawings by students and teachers. Since Pre-Conquest art there have been, it is usually assumed, two periods in Mexican art: the Colonial and the Modern. Between these peaks lies the dark Academy-dominated hiatus called Neo-Classicism, an episode that this treatise makes the first attempt to under-stand. The academic canons imported from Europe during this period were undeniably wrong for the indigenous people, and especially wrong at a time when a revolutionary Mexico was struggling for its own identity. But instead of throwing out this strange episode as foreign and imitative, it now becomes possible to see it as a period of acculturation through which the Mexican spirit emerged. Aside from its interest as aesthetic history, this book makes an important contribution to the social history of Mexico. Some provocative ideas emerge: the interrelations between cultural and political attitudes, the historical impact of events and personalities on ideology. In the seesaw of political and financial fortunes, the worst moments of confusion were often the most pregnant artistically, with mexicanidad rising inevitably when official guidance weakened. As social history this account constitutes an interesting parallel to similar cultural experiences in the United States and in other countries of the Americas. Charlot presents this material without special pleading, but not without appraisal. He writes: “… in the periods when the Academy was most strictly run along academic lines, it helped the young, by contrast, to realize the meaning of freedom. When the school was manned by men blind to the Mexican tradition, and sensitive only to European values, their stubborn stand became a most healthy invitation to artistic revolution.”

Books on gaullism – or, more precisely, books on General de Gaulle – are not uncommon. Originally published in English in 1971, this claimed to be the first book of this sort on gaullism as a political force within the French political system. Since the publication of his work on the Union pour la nouvelle République Jean Charlot had become known as one of the few objective experts on gaullism. His knowledge of the British political system had helped him to appreciate the nature of the gaullist party which he saw from the first, not as a transient party linked to the political career of General de Gaulle, but as a major, modern, right-wing party, comparable to the Conservative Party in Britain. In this book he demonstrates how the gaullist movement is a ‘voter-oriented’ party, the first that France had really ever known. The strength of gaullism lies in the electorate, which had fully accepted gaullist economic policies, the institutional changes introduced under the Republic, and the party’s foreign policy. This voter-oriented party had fundamentally changed the French party system. A majority party since 1962, the gaullist movement would force the left to regroup within a left-wing, voter-oriented party, if it did not want to face political sterility.Jean Charlot was one of the few specialists to publish an article just after the referendum (Le Monde, May 2, 1969) forecasting that the departure of General de Gaulle did not foreshadow the end of gaullism as a major political force.

Books on gaullism – or, more precisely, books on General de Gaulle – are not uncommon. Originally published in English in 1971, this claimed to be the first book of this sort on gaullism as a political force within the French political system. Since the publication of his work on the Union pour la nouvelle République Jean Charlot had become known as one of the few objective experts on gaullism. His knowledge of the British political system had helped him to appreciate the nature of the gaullist party which he saw from the first, not as a transient party linked to the political career of General de Gaulle, but as a major, modern, right-wing party, comparable to the Conservative Party in Britain. In this book he demonstrates how the gaullist movement is a ‘voter-oriented’ party, the first that France had really ever known. The strength of gaullism lies in the electorate, which had fully accepted gaullist economic policies, the institutional changes introduced under the Republic, and the party’s foreign policy. This voter-oriented party had fundamentally changed the French party system. A majority party since 1962, the gaullist movement would force the left to regroup within a left-wing, voter-oriented party, if it did not want to face political sterility.Jean Charlot was one of the few specialists to publish an article just after the referendum (Le Monde, May 2, 1969) forecasting that the departure of General de Gaulle did not foreshadow the end of gaullism as a major political force.