The theme of loneliness in French visual art of the 1940s-1950s: ideological explorations and artistic concepts

The article explores the representation of loneliness as a theme in French visual art of the 1940s-1950s, specifically in the work of artists associated with the Second School of Paris: Bernard Buffet, Francis Gruber, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Fautrier, and Wols. The aim of the study is to identify the features of how loneliness is represented through the analysis of works by French artists of this period. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the first attempt at a comprehensive study of the theme of loneliness in mid-20th-century French art. As a result of the research, four conceptual frameworks of loneliness were identified as the foundation of its artistic representation: loneliness as physical isolation; voluntary solitude as a spiritual practice of the creator; loneliness in modernity (urban loneliness); and existential loneliness as an ontological state of the subject. The study also reveals visual parallels with the philosophical ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Franz Kafka, allowing for a deeper understanding of the interaction between art and existential thought. Additionally, formal techniques used by the artists to express the theme of loneliness are defined: distortion of form, deformation of the human body, and spatial reduction.