Cohen-Solal, Annie 1948–

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Cohen-Solal, Annie 1948–

PERSONAL: Born 1948 in Algiers, Algeria; immigrated to France, 1962; children: one son. Education: Sorbonne, University of Paris, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Home—Paris, France, and New York, NY. Office—Centre d'Histoire et de Théorie des Arts, École des Hautes Études, 54 Blvd. Raspail, 75006 Paris, France.

CAREER: French Embassy, New York, NY, cultural counselor, 1989–93; producer of radio series Painters for the New World, France-Culture, 2001; École des Hautes Études, Paris, France, professor of French literature. Has taught at other universities, including University of Berlin, New York University, and University of Jerusalem.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prix Bernier, Académie des Beaux Arts, for Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867–New York 1948.

WRITINGS:

(With Henriette Nizan) Paul Nizan, communiste impossible (biography), B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1980.

Sartre (biography), Gallimard (Paris, France), 1985, translation by Anna Cancogni as Sartre: A Life, edited by Norman MacAfee, Pantheon Books (New York, NY, 1987.

Un jour, ils auront des peintres: L'avènement des peintres américains, Paris 1867–New York 1948 (nonfiction), Gallimard (Paris, France), 2000, translation by Laurie Hurwitz-Attias as Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867–New York 1948, Knopf (New York, NY), 2001.

Sartre: A Life has been translated into sixteen languages.

ADAPTATIONS: Sartre was adapted as a television movie in Europe.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Another book about American art, this one covering the years from 1948 to modern times.

SIDELIGHTS: A cultural historian and French literature professor, Annie Cohen-Solal is best known for her biography of the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. She also gained considerable attention for her insightful examination of the rise of American art in relation to French art in Un jour, ils auront des peintres: L'avènement des peintres américains, Paris 1867–New York 1948, which was published in English translation as Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867–New York 1948.

Cohen-Solal's first biography, however, was Paul Nizan, communiste impossible, released in 1980. Working with Nizan's widow, Henriette, Cohen-Solal surveys the life of the journalist turned Communist Party official. Most famous for his pamphlets Aden Arabie and Les chiens de garde, which advocated the virtues of communism and simultaneously criticized the middle classes, Nizan later left the Communist Party when he grew disenchanted by the Soviet Union's authoritarian government. Killed in action during World War II, Nizan might be little remembered today were it not for his influence on his friend, Jean-Paul Sartre. Although Times Literary Supplement critic Patrick McCarthy felt that Cohen-Solal does not adequately "explain the great drama of Nizan's early life" that led to his hatred of the middle class, the reviewer described the author's debut as "thoroughly competent." W. D. Redfern, writing in the Modern Language Review, was more enthusiastic. Redfern complimented the author for using "fresh documentation" to discuss Nizan's experiences in Aden, which later led to his writing of the pamphlet, as well as for providing a portrait that makes Nizan a "less dramatic, much more humorous, and more plausible person" than the "high-coloured version" given by Sartre in his preface to Aden Arabie.

Her writing of the Nizan biography naturally led Cohen-Solal to her next work, Sartre: A Life, a well-received biography of the existentialist philosopher and author. Using extensive research that included interviews and access to archived materials, Cohen-Solal breaks through Sartre's own deliberate misrepresentations of his life in his book Les Mots to reveal the real man. Taking a chronological approach, she divides the philosopher's life into four phases: his childhood and school years, during which he declared himself a genius and rose above the identity of an orphan taunted by classmates; the war years, during which he met Nizan, was a prisoner of war, and metamorphosed into a politically active philosopher; his traveling years, during which he visited Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, and Marshal Tito; and finally his later years of declining health. Sartre, whose politics and reputation as a womanizer did not endear him to Americans, is portrayed with frank honesty in the book, a fact that won the author much praise. For instance, Stanley Hoffmann wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Cohen-Solal's "industry brings us an intensely human writer with all his contradictions, betrayals, miscalculations, blinders and fiascoes." Hoffman appreciated Cohen-Solal for "her decision to let the facts speak for themselves and to editorialize as little as possible." Although Stephen Koch, writing in the Washington Post Book World, complained of the author's "slack between-us chattiness," which he cited as "responsible for a great deal of very bad French style," the reviewer conceded that Sartre is "crammed with fascinating information." Additionally, Michiko Kakutani asserted in the New York Times that the biography "not only succeeds in situating the writer's work within the context of contemporary intellectual and social currents, but it also gives us an intimate portrait of the man that possesses all the detail and resonance of fiction."

When Cohen-Solal came to New York City to accept a position as French cultural counselor in 1989, she met gallery owner Leo Castelli, who made it his mission to teach the Frenchwoman everything about American art. What she learned inspired her to write her next book, Painting American. The main theme of this analysis of how American artists, influenced by the French, eventually rose above them in reputation, is that this metamorphosis in American art began much earlier than most art historians believe. In her book Cohen-Solal explains that several factors conspired to shift the cultural center of the art world from Paris to New York City. Beginning her story in 1867, she describes how American artists were embarrassed at the Universal Exhibition of Art and Industry that was held in Paris at the time. French art critics, viewing the landscapes painted by their U.S. counterparts, described the works as backward. Cohen-Solal comments that this was at least in part due to the cultural isolation Americans experienced while enduring their civil war. However, after the war, American artists started moving to Paris, where they became surrounded by the artistic environment there and improved their skills considerably. During the decades before World War II, Americans began purchasing and exhibiting French art in dozens of newly built galleries, museums, and private collections. Then in the 1950s and 1960s, American artists came into their own, developing their own stylistic schools, such as abstract and pop art, and producing such original artists as Jackson Pollock. Including many anecdotes about the lives of artists and other important figures over the years it covers, Painting American traces back the rise of American art—and the coinciding decline in European art—not to World War II, as previous experts had done, but to World War I at the latest.

A number of critics had praise for Painting American, although a Publishers Weekly reviewer considered it an "erudite if unoriginal account of artistic modernism." Jack Perry Brown, writing in Library Journal, called the work an "engagingly written book" that "provides a fresh perspective," while a Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that it is "literate, accessible, and a pleasure to read."

Cohen-Solal told CA: "Writing has always been for me more a state of mind than anything else: I always wrote, wrote poems that were read aloud at school, wrote letters on behalf of my family when someone passed away, and never felt any block of any kind in front of a blank page. The commitment to transmit an experience, a conviction, or a message particularly influences my work.

"I take notes everywhere (notebooks, subway tickets, used envelopes). I consign everything to a diary book and keep track of all elements without throwing away anything. I make a drawing in order to visualize what I have in mind, then I sit in front of my computer and I write nonstop.

"The most surprising thing I have learned as a writer is that rhythm is the most important element of all. Of my books, my favorite is the one I am in the process of writing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 50, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1988, pp. 369-385.

PERIODICALS

America, October 22, 1988, Richard Cobb-Stevens, review of Sartre: A Life, p. 296.

Art in America, May, 2002, Michelle C. Cone, "A Taste for Triumph," review of Painting American: The Rise of American Artists, Paris 1867–New York 1948, p. 41.

Economist, September 29, 2001, "American in Paris: Art History," review of Painting American.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), August 29, 1987, Elspeth Cameron, "The Thinking Machine of Paris," review of Sartre.

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2001, review of Painting American, p. 1184.

Library Journal, November 1, 2001, Jack Perry Brown, review of Painting American, p. 86.

Modern Language Review, April, 1982, W. D. Redfern, review of Paul Nizan, communiste impossible, p. 462; July, 1987, H. W. Wardman, review of Sartre, p. 750.

New Republic, June 29, 1987, Denis Hollier, review of Sartre, p. 36.

Newsweek, June 22, 1987, Scott Sullivan, "The Real Jean-Paul Sartre," p. 76.

New York Review of Books, August 13, 1987, John Weightman, "Summing up Sartre," p. 42.

New York Times, July 8, 1987, Michiko Kakutani, review of Sartre; September 7, 1992, William H. Honan, "A Shaker and Mover of Things French," p. 11; November 22, 2001, Alan Riding, "French Writer Explores Two Cultures Entwined," review of Painting American, p. E1.

New York Times Book Review, July 26, 1987, Stanley Hoffmann, "A Hero Gone out of Fashion," review of Sartre, p. 3.

Observer (London, England), October 25, 1987, John Sturrock, "Sartre in Egoland," p. 27.

Partisan Review, spring, 2002, "Planting the Seeds of Modernism: An Evening with Annie Cohen-Solal," p. 173.

People, July 27, 1987, Harriet Shapiro, review of Sartre, p. A18.

Publishers Weekly, August 20, 2001, review of Painting American, p. 68.

Sunday Times (London, England), October 25, 1987, A. J. Ayer, "A Grievance with the Guru," review of Sartre, p. 66.

Times Literary Supplement, May 15, 1981, Patrick McCarthy, "The Longing for Belonging," review of Paul Nizan, p. 539.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), June 7, 1987, Beverly Fields, "Sartre: The Passions of a Thinking Man," p. 6.

U.S. News & World Report, November 2, 1987, Richard Z. Chesnoff, "Jean-Paul Sartre: An 'Ethical Compass.'"

Voice Literary Supplement, November, 1987, Carlin Romano, "Sartre Imitates Life: The Philosopher as Media Hero," p. 14.

Washington Post Book World, June 21, 1987, Stephen Koch, "Jean-Paul Sartre: France's Philosopher King," p. 1; October 28, 2001, Dore Ashton, "Yankee Ingenuity," review of Painting American, p. 8.