Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) - French novelist, playwright, existentialist philosopher, and literary critic. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but he declined it stating that “It is not the same thing if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honorable form.”

Sartre and literature
During the 1940s and 1950s Sartre’s ideas remained ambiguous, and existentialism became a favoured philosophy of the beatnik generation. Sartre’s views were counterposed to those of Albert Camus in the popular imagination. In 1948, the Roman Catholic Church placed his complete works on the Index of prohibited books. Most of his plays are richly symbolic and serve as a means of conveying his philosophy. The best-known, Huis-clos (No Exit), contains the famous line “L’enfer, c’est les autres”, usually translated as “Hell is other people”.

Aside from the impact of Nausea, Sartre’s major contribution to literature was the The Roads to Freedom trilogy which charts the progression of how World War II affected Sartre’s ideas. In this way, Roads to Freedom presents a less theoretical and more practical approach to existentialism.

Size: 9 inch x 11inch
Name: Jean-Paul Sartre
Media type: pencil & ink on paper + watercolor illustration
Artist: Caryl Strzelecki
Price: € 250
Please contact me by e-mail: caryl@bukowskigallery.com