Philippe Dagen's 'Le silence des peintures' Reissued by Hazan

Hazan has reissued Philippe Dagen's 'Le silence des peintures', originally published by Fayard in 1996. The book argues that European artists, from Salon painters to avant-garde figures like Denis, Vallotton, Derain, Léger, and Braque, did not depict World War I. Dagen focuses on the absence of war imagery, using textual and visual sources to highlight a void in representation. He contrasts the scarcity of handmade images with the abundance of mechanical reproductions. The analysis extends beyond silence to a broader crisis of representation triggered by the traumatic experience of war. The reissue includes only 39 small reproductions, which is noted as insufficient given the number of works discussed.