Marcelin Pleynet (born 23 December 1933, in Lyon, France) is a French poet, art critic and essayist. He was Managing Editor of the influential magazine Tel Quel from 1962 to 1982, and co-edits the journal L'Infini (Gallimard) with Philippe Sollers. He was Professor of Aesthetics at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1987 to 1998. He has published numerous monographs on 20th-century art, notably Situation de l’art moderne: Paris-New York (in association with William Rubin), Henri Matisse, Robert Motherwell: La vérité en peinture, Les Modernes et la tradition, Les États-Units de la peinture and L’art abstrait. He has also published books of poetry and the novel Prise d’otage, and an edition of Giorgione et les deux Vénus.