Étude de la pratique picturale d’un journal engagé

l’usage de l’art dans Le Monde diplomatique

Abstract

This article examines the iconographical choice of Le Monde Diplomatique, a reputable newspaper, which is also politically and socially engaged. Images play indeed a specific role in Le Monde Diplomatique; reproductions of works of art are used to accompany its articles. Art is thus, in a clear and creative way, offered a unique visibility. This artistic approach of Le Monde Diplomatique is not based on a purely aesthetic decision but rather on the subject of the work of art itself, its title, or even the career and the nationality of the artist. The relationship between the writing and the image is established through a game of adequacy, discrepancy, or distance. Le Monde Diplomatique gives both the image and the text an equal space, making art an active contributor to the meaning of the articles and the identity of the newspaper. As a critical actor in the public debate, the newspaper recreates the relationship between art and politics and more specifically that between art and democracy. The use of art in Le Monde Diplomatique shows the latter’s will to resist the established order through its content as well as its form.