by Jon Lackman | 9 December 2009 | Uncategorized
From the Telegraph:
France’s obsession with the bottom is laid bare this week in a major new documentary and book charting how “les fesses” have shaped history. The highbrow study claims to demonstrate the huge contribution the “derrière” has made to civilisation, mixing the views of top psychoanalysts, philosophers, scientists and artists. The role of “les fesses” in human evolution has been overlooked, claim the experts, while they have been prominent at every turning point in society and art history – from the ancient Greeks to Grace Jones … As for French artists, the documentary claims they have marked history above all others with their talents for depicting the derrière – through painters such as Courbet, Boucher, Toulouse-Lautrec, Ingres, Matisse and Degas … The prospect of the in-depth fesses study will come as welcome light relief to the French, who are in sombre mood. As one internet commentator noted, “Between swine flu, minarets, Sarkozy and the debate on national identity, here at last is a subject that gives pleasure.”
