Jean Clair's 'Hubris' Tracks the Modern Monster in Art

In 'Hubris, La fabrique du monstre dans l'art moderne', published by Gallimard, Jean Clair collects exhibition catalogue prefaces he authored in recent years. The book argues that Romanticism introduced ancient hubris as an essential component of modernity, and that the monster persists in museums as a figure for contemporary anxiety. Clair employs rhetorical strategies such as concomitance and comparison, linking disparate events: the disappearance of 'paternal power' from the French Civil Code in 1970, the legalization of pornography in France in 1972, and the legalization of abortion in 1975. He suggests these dates reflect a societal 'death of the Father' rather than a mere crisis of reference. The volume, described as an anthology without necessity, ultimately diagnoses that some ideas withstand recapitulation poorly.