EXPRESSION
Malraux's Les Voix du Silence conceives of art as the highest expression of human creativity. Art allows us to transcend our own insignificance.
NON-EXPRESSION
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."
ANOTHER WORLD
Malraux later wrote La Metamorphose des Dieux to argue that "art is never essentially representation; it is the creation of another world... a world that imposes unity and meaning on the fleeting world of the everyday." This work sought to discredit the idea that art is a representation of the world.
Wittgenstein
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 7.
4'33
This piece consists of the ambient sounds of the environment, no instruments are played during the entire performance. Surrounding noises become the focal point as the audience hears and pays attention to the traditionally nondescript sounds of the venue.
Non-Art Objects
Malraux's concept of metamorphosis describes ancient objects that were not originally works of art, but over time have been conceived as works of art.
UNSPEAKABLE
Certain experiences and attributes of life are unable to be described adequately through language, which makes them unspeakable.
Example
"When an artist of the Middle Ages carved a crucifix, when an Egyptian sculptor hewed out a funeral-mask, they were creating what we would term fetishes or holy images; they did not think of their carvings as art objects; they would not have been able to conceive of such a thing. A crucifix stood for Christ, a funeral-mask for the dead; and the idea of their being someday brought together in the same museum, in order that we might study their lines and masses, would have struck their makers as nothing more or less than a profanation."