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French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Photography/Imaging (& Graphic Arts) / art photography
French term or phrase:réduit aux acquêts
I am translating an essay about a renowned surrealist photographer:
A première vue - mais à première vue seulement -, le monde de xxx(photographe) est un monde d’objets. Comme si le monde se réduisait aux objets - comme on dit réduit aux acquêts.
At first sight – but only at first sight – the world of xxx is a world of objects. It is as if the world consisted merely of objects - ......
I'm stuck on the expression 'réduit aux acquêts' in this context which as far as I understand is usually used as a set expression when talking about communal property acquired after marriage.
I didn't find an entirely satisfactory way to translate this, but I thought your idea was the closest and most appropriate - thanks! 3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
This rather hangs on the meaning of acquérir here, and we don't have sufficient information really to judge. I just want to point out that, depending on the nature of the text, specifically its philosophical bent, it may mean objects comprehended, learnt objects, in the sense of acquired language. It is perfectly possible to look at things/objects without understanding what we are looking at. Our first response is to try and make sense of them. Our notion of something with a flat top and four descending lengths only becomes a table (visually) when we have actual experience of tables and such like to go on. This seems particularly relevant to Surrealism since Surrealist artists played so much with our sense of comprehension, turning things on their heads or placing things in strange, unreal conjunction to one another. Part of the fascination for the viewer is trying to make sense (a sense) of what we are seeing.
kashew France Local time: 15:12 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 7
Grading comment
I didn't find an entirely satisfactory way to translate this, but I thought your idea was the closest and most appropriate - thanks!
Notes to answerer
Asker: Actually it's Chema Madoz, although Man Ray is of course cited in the essay.
Thanks for the link - I'm not sure that readymades is what it's talking about in this sentence, but perhaps I should just keep it literal as you suggest, with something like reduced to aquired objects... Will await further comments too. Thanks!
Explanation: My thinking is that it is hard to translate "acquêts" without making the context appear legalistic.
However we can translate what "acquêts" principally does not include: dowry and inheritance. "Endowment" would preserve the marriage reference, if you want to keep it. I am presuming that the author is implying a world defined by objects placed in it (by humanity), as opposed to the natural world.
It's a pity that "paraphernalia" refers etymologically to the opposite of "acquêts", since the common understanding of the word would fit well. "Trappings" is another option.
Mike Birch Local time: 14:12 Works in field Native speaker of: English, French
Explanation: By using them in his work, the artist appropriates objects and gives them meaning within the context of that work.
"First of all, modern artists, from Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp on, have established that art can be made of absolutely any material, so the media of modern art, in that sense, have ranged from found or appropriated objects and materials of all kinds, to the artist¿s own bodily excretions and the body itself. " http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?e...
"Reminiscent of Haim Steinbach's appropriated objects, Josephine Meckseper's assemblages .... MAN SON 1969. Vom Schrecken der Situation , Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg .... 4785, 411475, The Real Van Gogh: the Artist and His letters," www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/josephine_meckseper.htm -
I think there is a difference between "found objects", in the sense used by e.g. Henry Moore, where the objects are seen as aesthetically interesting in their own right, and "appropriated objects" where the artist's intervention takes over the object and gives it a meaning specific to its use in his/her work.
B D Finch France Local time: 15:12 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 20
The translation workplace 
