In 1955, Georges Bataille’s Prehistoric Painting: Lascaux; or, The Birth of Art was published. It was the first comprehensive survey of the Lascaux cave, with lavish color photographs, and immediately translated into English for the international market. Bataille’s text drew on concepts he had developed over the past thirty years, creating in the process one of the strangest publications on prehistoric art to ever be printed. This book is the first thorough contextualization of Bataille’s work on Lascaux, positioning it within the vibrant post-War intellectual scene in France, and demonstrating how the concept of prehistory was a cornerstone of his thoughts from the late 1940’s until his passing in 1962. Georges Bataille; or, The Birth of Art is an essential read for those interested in the connection between prehistory and Bataille’s understanding of universal history, eroticism, expenditure, the birth of the sacred, and art making.

Marc-Alexandre Dumoulin is a Canadian artist, writer and educator currently living and working in Vienna, Austria. He received his PhD from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.