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N 1954, the French writer, politician, and publisher Andre Malraux (1901-1976) posed at home for a photographer from the magazine Paris Match, surrounded by pages from his forthcoming book Le musee imaginaire de la sculpture mondiale. The enchanting metaphor of the musee imaginaire (imaginary museum) was built upon that illustrated art book, and Malraux was one of its greatest champions. Drawing on a range of contemporary publications, he adopted images and responded to ideas. Indeed, Malraux's book on the floor is a variation of photographer Andre Vigneau's spectacular Encyclopedie photographique de l art, published in five volumes from 1935 on years before Malraux would enter this field. Both authors were engaged in juxtaposing artworks via photographs and publishing these photographs by the hundreds, but Malraux was the better sloganeer. Starting from a close examination of the photograph of Malraux in his salon, art historian Walter Grasskamp takes the reader back to the dawn of this genre of illustrated art book. He shows how it catalyzed the practice of comparing works of art on a global scale. He retraces the metaphor to earlier reproduction practices and highlights its ubiquity in contemporary art, ending with an homage to the other pioneer of the museum without walls, the unjustly forgotten Vigneau.

art criticism --- Aesthetics of art --- Photography --- art [fine art] --- photography [process] --- Vigneau, André --- Malraux, André --- Art publishing --- Art publishing. --- Kulturanthropologie. --- Photography of art --- Photography of art. --- Ästhetik. --- History --- Malraux, André, --- Vigneau, André, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- 1900-1999. --- Malraux, André, --- Vigneau, André, --- (fast)Malraux, André, 1901-1976. --- (fast)Vigneau, André, 1892 --- -(fast)1900-1999 --- (fast)Art publishing. --- (fast)Photography of art. --- (fast)Criticism, interpretation, etc. --- (fast)History. --- Art photography --- Art --- Publishers and publishing --- Publishing --- Vigneau, Jean André, --- Malraux, Georges André, --- Mālrū, Andrīh, --- Ma-erh-lo, --- Maerluo, Andelie, --- ʻAngdrē Mānrō, --- מאלרא, אנדרע --- مالرو، آندره،, --- Malraux, André Georges, --- Colonel Berger, --- Berger, --- Photographie d'œuvres d'art --- Edition --- Histoire --- Malraux, André --- Malraux, Georges André --- Mālrū, Andrīh --- Ma-erh-lo --- Malraux, André Georges --- Colonel Berger --- art [discipline]