Word: ionesco
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Ionesco: Yes--and yes and no. That's to say, art allows you everything. Art can exist outside the immediate contingencies. The artist can be above political parties, he can belong in a political party, he can act in politics. Right now, there is a series of articles in Le Monde where they say that art and culture are the expression of argument and revolt....But all this doesn't matter. Art goes beyond politics. Even if there are writers who are involved in politics, eventually, in one or two centuries, it's not their politics which is going...
...Ionesco: I have taken a very clear position, but not in my plays. In lectures and in my articles in Antidotes, I have taken a position against the invasion of Czechoslovakia. But in my plays, no. I have been committed to anti-commitment...
...Ionesco has had his share of buffetting by the leftist-controlled French press. Gaetan relates a story Ionesco told him once about one of his first encounters with the "doctrinaire" press...
...After The Chairs and other early plays were first performed in Paris, it was decided by certain leftist critics that Ionesco had talent. Soon, one high official of the French Communist Party went and spoke to Ionesco. 'Look,' he said, 'you certainly are gifted. But you lack a direction--you need to deliver a message. The Party will give you the right direction...
...Ionesco's stubborn refusal to align his art with the politics of these "engaged" critics and Party members had its consequences. Several months later, after seeing an untouched revival of The Chairs, the same critics who had previously lauded him now apologized for their mistaken praise. "They simply said the play was not worth seeing," says Gaetan. "He was told he no longer had the talent...