"



 !

 


 




 !  

 ARTHattack! Volume 5 University of Guelph Art History Undergraduate Papers Presented at the ARTHattack! Symposium March 9, 2012 ARTHattack! 2012 Committee Dr. Susan Douglas Dr. Sally Hickson Noor Alé Candice Napoleone Vanja Stojanovic Lauren Rodgers Reilly Fullerton Vanessa Tignanelli Scott N. Schau Publication Steph Caskenette Thank you to the generosity of Contents Faculty Welcome 5 Student Forward 6 Papers “Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art:” Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love Sarah Carter 7 Sublime (Re)Visions: The Public Function of the Industrial Sublime in Contemporary Photography Jocelyn Claire Burke 28 Postmodern Pastiche: the Internet and Dadaism Angel Callander 40 Appearance Versus Reality in Jean Rhys’ After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie: Ekphrastic Encounters and Postcolonial Discourse Lucina Pinto 56 Courtesans in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Exploring Ambiguity in Titian’s Female Portraits Vanessa Tignanelli 70 A Life Seen of Obscenity: Robert Mapplethorpe and The Public Perception Jennifer Graham 88 Keynote Speaker Dr. Derek Fincham 97 Postmodern Pastiche: the Internet and Dadaism Angel Callander In our current technological age, digital reproductions of artworks are readily available with a mere Internet search. Additionally, the Internet allows for users to acquire copies of any image editing software, which in turn enables the altering and amalgamating of virtually anything, by anyone. Apathetic, yet culturally mindful teenagers and politically motivated bloggers worldwide therefore have the means to create any sort of visual statement they choose. The results of this infinite availability that I wish to explore are the combinations of fine art pieces with elements of present-day popular culture. This blending can range from celebrities to figures of political interest. 40 Postmodern Pastiche! I do not contend to analyze the psychological underpinnings of the creators of these works, but rather to place the works themselves within a context of the art historical practices and canons on which they may intrinsically rely. For this purpose, and despite the seeming triviality of these works, I will refer to the creators as “artists” and to the works as “art.” These puzzling works of art, I believe, can be categorized in three ways at once. In a large way, there is a comparison to be made to the anti-art sentiments of Dadaism in the First World War era. Considered by some as a precursor to the critical and theoretical perspectives of Postmodernism, Dadaist photomontage bears a resemblance to these digital works physically and philosophically. As I place these works in a Postmodern setting, they reject the traditional medium and technique of painting and perhaps even adopt societal critique and parody, while the physical principles bear resemblance to pastiche. Essentially, with the Internet presenting the opportunity to discover so many things over its vast expanse, one may happen upon a pink leisure suit clad Heidi Montag, obliviously made the central figure of Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1626) by Peter Paul Rubens. Perhaps even a bald-headed Britney Spears may come along, preparing to forcefully strike the Three Graces with an umbrella, having replaced Venus as the subject of Botticelli’s Primavera (1482). In the spirit of this art, I would like to start by discussing the particular way in which these works play with the multiple temporalities of artworks. It has been argued that works of art are 41 Angel Callander the most profound tools for pluralizing time.1 Nagel and Wood describe this phenomenon as a “bending”: while the work of art is physically produced in a particular moment, there is nonetheless a tendency for the work to direct attention away from this moment.2 The work contemporaneously expresses time backwards and forwards, like a folded piece of paper meeting at its opposite ends. In the case of a Baroque painting, for example, this “bending” of time can perhaps be seen as something profound. In essence, its Baroque technique would be taken from a conflation of the previous works of the Renaissance style and a desire to stretch the movement to complex and eccentric limits. In stretching Renaissance ideals of clarity and linear organization the painting indicates a prior point of origin, while the embellishment of these qualities with innovative composition and emotions of ecstasy or anguish suggests an appeal to present and future observers to regard it as a truly meaningful step in the progression of art.3 In its own way, this edited art participates in simultaneous, multiple versions of time. The evident reference to backward time being the backdrop and narrative of a fine art reproduction, while the inclusion of recognizable figures seems to indicate not only a stream of cultural concern in a present time (celebrities, politics, etc.), but also a lasting, digital message to a future generation of these concerns. Additionally, there is an element of displacement. Whether it is intentional on the part of the artist or not, the juxtaposition of history with modern condition in this art is an act of anachronism. Nagel and Wood’s view of anachronism suggests 42 Postmodern Pastiche! imitation, with the source being largely separated and removed from the modern imitation.4 With the art I am discussing, this gap exists because of the general difficulty in fastening images, especially with differences in context and materiality. For example, a digital photograph of Lady Gaga, performing in a green and glitter-covered unitard, complete with wing-like protrusions, is especially cumbersome when she is placed into a reproduction of Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930) painting as the farmer’s unmarried daughter. Assumedly, the ‘aggressiveness’ of Lady Gaga’s signature style can serve as a disparity for the stoic farmer, as well as for Wood’s attempt to resist the ‘aggressiveness’ of contemporary abstract art in Europe.5 However, the intended significance can become lost in the seemingly clumsy contrast, if not meant just for comedic affect. The fixed context of images in their historical circumstance is not easily broken when analyzed, allowing for the confusion between sources and imitations, supporting the anachronism.6 Notoriously known in the art world as the movement of ‘anti-art,’ I believe the conscious principles of Dada are evident, perhaps unconsciously, in this art. Having manifested from the crisis period of World War I, Dada’s modus operandi had been to criticize the popular culture of the time.7 For the first time in the canon of art history, mass media would make up a large part of a movement; artists would spend time ‘recontextualising’ cut-outs from newspapers, magazines, photographs, etc.8 Next to the general ideology of Dadaism, the birth of photomontage is what I consider 43 Angel Callander to be important in this investigation. Hans Richter, a participant in the Dada movement in Zürich, details photomontage as an important tool in “new art,” representing a visual perception of the artist’s experience in the world.9 In a way, these altered artworks I’m considering may exhibit the artist’s experience in mainstream culture, observing the professed disintegration of persistent religious and intellectual values and the transpiring of celebrity reverence. Like the Dadaists, these artists use their resources to provoke and “confront a crazy world with its own image.”10 A fundamental position of Dadaism is one of self-criticism.11 I do not believe the artists of this Postmodern pastiche can create a work to confront society and simultaneously escape the denunciation themselves. Creating strong political commentary using figures from popular news stories is self-reflexive of a point of view, placing the artist directly into the social situation. Like Dada artists, it is not necessarily a commitment in the sense of complete dedication to the point of view; however, by producing the work, there is an intrinsic opinion that is sent out.12 Dada artists are said to have had demands for “utter transformation of all social and political conditions of the working class,” the prominent ideal being to replace ‘bourgeois’ art and “cultural icons of a society once ruled by class domination.”13 By producing ‘anti-art,’ there had been an attack on these cultural icons and artworks. Similarly, my pastiche artists can be sought after as creating attacks on this ‘bourgeois’ art of the past by infiltrating it with images of political conflict and Hollywood’s quasi-estranged female idols of the last 44 Postmodern Pastiche! ten years. Interestingly, these images contain figures that may be considered of high rank in society based on authority and net worth, such as police officers and celebrities. The result is a clash of ‘powerful’ figures and objects of high culture. One thing to note with these digital parodies is the deliberate replacement of central religious figures. For artists of the early twentieth century, Dadaists included, the historical situation of art represented immorality, depravity and falsehood.14 By producing photomontages comprised of reconceptualized items of mass media, the message would be of rebellion against mainstream culture, political systems, and societal norms.15 Perhaps substituting the crucified Christ of Pietro Cavallini’s Crucifixion (1308) for a smiling Heidi Montag, arms outstretched, is an artist’s way of communicating his or her distaste for the upper-class decadence in commissioning religious work for the promise of salvation. The act of replacing Christ for Heidi Montag either equates her as a religious icon, or as a symbol of modern depravity; perhaps she is both, as a symbol of modern depravity, being considered by some as an icon. Regardless of the modern artist’s intention, the inherent principles of the art reflect a critique of mainstream culture and art historical practices that parallels the ideology of Dada artists. As a whole, I consider many of the innate principles of this Postmodern pastiche to align nicely with those of historical Dadaism in thought and application. The difficulty in truly defining Postmodernism enables this art to find its way into the canon, especially with the already proposed 45 Angel Callander quality of multi-temporality as well as the social criticism of Dada. Literary theorist, Ihab Hassan, tells of critic Leslie Fiedler’s impulse to “challenge elitism of the high modernist tradition in the name of popular culture,” coming from a view of Postmodernism as a term of bold and almost uninhibited acceptance for things.16 In this art, high culture (that of fine art) is directly infiltrated by popular culture. To illustrate this idea—and in the spirit of aforementioned politics—I draw upon the recent case of “Occupy” protestors at University of California Davis campus being pepper sprayed by police officers. Photos and videos of this incident would spread across the Internet like wildfire. It did not take long for outraged Internet users, having sided with the protests, to appropriate the media of the affair in their own ways; one way happening to be in the form of fine art alteration. A widespread photo of an officer nonchalantly pepper spraying a line of students would be adapted to numerous paintings, placing the officer and his can of pepper spray in various ways to be either comedic or simply commentary, or both. Many of these can be seen on a ‘dedicatory’ blog.17 This officer can be found spraying into the face of Andrew Wyeth’s polio-ridden Christina in Christina’s World (1948), Édouard Manet’s nude female picnicker in Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (1862-3), a seated woman in Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-6) by Georges Seurat, Gustav Klimt’s lovers in The Kiss (1907-8), and even the American Declaration of Independence in John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence (1817). 46 Postmodern Pastiche! For all imaginable political commentary, no fine art reproduction could be safe from the disreputable pepper spray officer. Hassan’s problem of whether Postmodernism is simply made of artistic propensity or social circumstance as well is illustrated in these pieces of art, suggesting that the happenings within society can be expressed through art.18 While this is not exactly a new concept, the pervasive digitization of culture allows not only for the production of this art, but also—perhaps more importantly—for the almost immediate sharing of the work worldwide. Liberties taken in the appropriation of these reproductions through the ‘artistic process’ of digital image editing cuts through social circumstance in its use of a particular issue, creating an accessible version to everybody, both physically (digitally) and intellectually. Conceptual problems of Postmodernism as a term, according to Hassan, are mitigated by the abilities of imagination and natural desire to “apprehend our historical presence in noetic constructs that reveal our being to ourselves.”19 Being presented with a version of culture as it is understood to a contemporary group of people, which in this case would be one of protest versus police intervention, and integrating it into a historical version of culture understood much differently—in this case fine art—one is forced to combine two separate, individual understandings in order to reveal this ‘being.’ The notion of these artistic constructs as intellectual is dependent on the recipient and his or her desire to understand. Independent of the artist’s intentions, the art may be critically analyzed or written off as a good joke; this is an inherent value of virtually all art in the Modern period. This penetration 47 Angel Callander through something so highly regarded throughout history as a piece of art by something politically and culturally charged, with the intention of real meaning or not, is apt to Postmodern exploration. In an artistic sense, Postmodern art is naturally the converse to art labeled as Modern. Postmodern art, then, seeks a rejection of the aesthetic, formal and painterly values emphasized by Modern artists, while deciphering the phrase “art for art’s sake” in “the narrowest and most materialistic sense.”20 One could argue for the use of celebrities in place of fine art subjects as something of the utmost materialism. Celebrities embody those who are paid large amounts for their work in entertaining with music, television, film, etc. By including these entertainers with which our culture has become so fascinated, this materialism implies “the neglect of life’s spiritual and transcendent aspects,” that is, the accepted idea that society in general pays much less attention to religion.21 With this in mind, a reproduction of Raphael’s Madonna and Child (c. 1503) shows the Virgin Mary seated with the Christ child looking up at her adoringly. Alternatively, what can be found is this painting having been translated into a language of Postmodernism, replacing the Virgin with a crying Lindsay Lohan, dressed in a bathing suit and smoking a cigarette; the look of the Christ child just as loving as the original. A call to acknowledge the endemic ‘worshipping’ of celebrities in an almost religious way, or to recognize the artist as having a profound sense of humour? Embedded in this new work, intentionally in either case I believe, 48 Postmodern Pastiche! is a likening of Lindsay Lohan to the Virgin Mary. The effects on those who may view it will differ; there may be shock, claimed understanding, deep thought, or laughter in response to this art. In contrast to Romantic artists of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these artists are not claiming alienation from mainstream culture, but rather showcasing their full immersion.22 Clement Greenberg had further developed the idea of the “rebel artist” in the twentieth century from Charles Baudelaire, who had originally outlined the modern artist as fundamentally estranged in a pursuit of beauty.23 For Greenberg, the ideal artist was inspired by traditions of Modernism over aspects of nature, focusing on aesthetics; the artist had to be arrogant and introspective, however, Postmodern artists are said to be “predominantly outwardly focused and concerned to contribute to the social and political.”24 I propose that this Postmodern artist has more potential to be rebellious than Greenberg’s ideal artist, simply because penetrating issues of the social and political, by virtue, has the capacity to incite volatile reactions. David K. Holt describes the artist of Postmodernism as an “arranger of preexisting images or signs,” creating nothing of real originality in the art world.25 On the other hand, this artist is reliant on the art world to reward his or her transgression of ‘bourgeois’ sensibilities.26 For the artists I am discussing, it is not necessarily the art world that will provide the reward, but rather the massive Internet community. This community is accepted, as a large part of modern culture, to have become oblivious to more obscure 49 Angel Callander symbols of religion and mythology. This iconographic illiteracy allows for a message of political or moral standpoint to remain simply because the backdrop is visibly identifiable as a painting within the canon of art history. The reward, assumedly, is of the work digitally spreading over the Internet regardless of the reaction. Paris Hilton crawling on the table of Juan de Juanes’ Last Supper (c. 1560) may be offensive to some and hilarious to others, being shared with the corresponding commentary to make others aware. The subject of the painting, while by a lesser-known Spanish Renaissance artist, bears strong resemblance to the earlier and more recognizable Last Supper (1495-8) by Leonardo da Vinci, allowing the narrative to be received by most. It is this supposed attention to transgression of ‘high culture’ using the existing catalogues of art history and popular culture that places these cut-and-paste artists in a category of Postmodernism. I do not mean for the term ‘cut-and-paste’ to be unkind, but it is rather a specification for the pastiche-like nature of this art I am considering. Pastiche is a term derived from the Italian pasticcio indicating a combination of elements, originally used as a cooking term.27 Today, it is used as a critical term to denote any of the following: insulting depictions, lesser versions of things, “secondrate imitations, empty historical recreation[s],” and parodies.28 Richard Dyer describes works of pastiche as possessing three qualities, the basis of which is the combining of elements, followed by the “quotation/imitation of prior works,” and finally the negative aspect of deceit in the imitation.29 This principle of 50 Postmodern Pastiche! combining existing elements is where I employ the term of ‘cutand-paste.’ The use of image editing software is analogous to the physical cutting and pasting of photographs, newspapers, etc., and the same terms are used for the digital ‘tools.’ Placing Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton seated together in the small boat of John William Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott (1888), or an openmouthed Heidi Montag over Edvard Munch’s agonized figure in The Scream (1893), while I am simplifying, is a matter of replacing figures via digital cutting and pasting. This pastiche form of imitation is the main vehicle for the communication of the Postmodern artistic sensibilities already discussed. Dyer appoints pastiche works the intentions of portraying randomness, multiplicity, “feeling[s] of abandonment.” 30 disbelief, chaos, and All of these things, I believe, are realized—or have the potential to be realized—in this art being studied. Performance-dressed Britney Spears replacing Joseph in The Canigiani Holy Family (1507-8) by Raphael, watching over Elizabeth, Mary and the infants of Jesus and John the Baptist, can certainly present a sense of chaos, disbelief, multiplicity and ‘randomness.’ These mentioned feelings of abandonment may arise from the obvious relinquishing of the patriarch Joseph as part of the Holy Family, as well as the general loss of true religious intent. In this sense, the pastiche purposely demoralizes the original subject of a historically renowned artwork and leaves an awareness of the aforementioned deceit or hypocrisy in the new reproduction. It is, of course, the semiotic values behind the 51 Angel Callander original images that allow for multitudinous feelings about the pastiche. The mixing of the signs “allows for stimulating intellectual and affective play between the elements.”31 The mixing of semiotic values in imitation opens the door for parody, as well. While Dyer has equated parody with pastiche, there are those who believe the two remain separate. Linda Hutcheon cites pastiche as an operation of resemblance and comparability, while parody sets out to differ from a relationship with the model; she maintains, however, that both are formal imitations with requisite intent.32 I would reason that parody and pastiche are not opposed to each other in this case, as pastiche describes the physicality while parody can define the inner meaning within the physical representation. Heidi Montag posing in a bikini as Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863) is made in the style of pastiche, as an imitation using pre-existing elements, while the subject itself parodies Manet’s prostitute confronting her voyeurs. Hutcheon and I do agree on one thing: “[t]he pragmatic function of irony, then, is one of signaling evaluation, most frequently of a pejorative nature.”33 That is, the irony of juxtaposing modern society with fine art by applying the principles of parody and pastiche, especially using the sort of ‘fallen female icons’ of popular culture illustrated thus far, provides the viewers (members of the Internet community) with something of derogatory character to be judged. Raoul Hausmann had written of the possibilities of photomontage to constantly change as often as the social structure changes 52 Postmodern Pastiche! (presumably daily).34 In digitally altering images into a sort of photomontage, this principle remains true, the social structure having evolved into an age of pervasive technology. Within the technological context of the Internet, I have proposed the virtually limitless possibilities for creating a new kind of art. This art bears strong resemblance to established principles of Postmodernism, creation of pastiche and parody, as well as to the historical movement of Dadaism. In splicing figures of contemporary culture with digital reproductions of art historical works, the commentary is dynamic, of course, given the inherent subjectivity of art and ‘taste.’ The immeasurable opportunities to offend, humour, encourage contemplation and perhaps even inspire are present given the vast audience that may receive the work. Whether the cast of “Desperate Housewives” has replaced Empress Eugénie and her maids of honour in a Franz Xaver Winterhalter painting (The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by Her Maids of Honor, 1855), or a police officer is assisting the firing squad of Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 (1814) with his can of pepper spray, obscure narratives are produced. Intent may play a part in this narrative, assuming the artist is previously aware of the original content of the painting chosen, or alternatively, assuming they are not and the point is to joke. In either case, the reaction will vary between viewers in the art gallery of the Internet. The space of the Internet makes possible a new form of time for infinite recirculation and recombination of aesthetic objects, and the Postmodern pastiche is 53 Angel Callander free to pass through cyberspace for an eternity. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Notes 1 Alexander Nagel and Christopher S. Wood, Anachronic Renaissance (New York: Zone Books, 2010), 9. 2 Nagel and Wood, Anachronic, 9. 3 Nagel and Wood, Anachronic, 9. 4 Nagel and Wood, Anachronic, 298. 5 “American Gothic,” The Art Institute of Chicago, accessed January 15, 2012, http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Modern/AmericanGothic 6 Nagel and Wood, Anachronic, 298. 7 Rudolf Kuenzli, Dada (London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 2006), 14-15. 8 Kuenzli, Dada, 15. 9 Hans Richter, Dada: art and anti-art (London: Thames and Hudson, 1965), 112. 10 Richter, Art and Anti-art, 114. 11 Stefan-Sebastian Maftei, “Between ‘Critique’ and Propaganda: The Critical Self-Understanding of Art in the Historical Avant-Garde. The Case of Dada,” Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies 9, no. 27 (2010): 236. 12 Maftei, “Between ‘Critique’ and Propaganda,” 233. 13 Maftei, “Between ‘Critique’ and Propaganda,” 230. 14 Maftei, “Between ‘Critique’ and Propaganda,” 220. 15 Maftei, “Between ‘Critique’ and Propaganda,” 220. 16 Ihab Hassan, “Toward a Concept of Postmodernism,” in A Postmodern Reader, eds. Joseph P. Natoli and Linda Hutcheon (New York: State University of New York Press, 1993), 275. 17 Fuck Yeah Pepper Spay Cop Blog; “Archive,” accessed December 2012, http://fuckyeahpepperspraycop.tumblr.com/archive 18 Hassan, “Concept of Postmodernism,” 276. 19 Hassan, “Concept of Postmodernism,” 277. 20 David K. Holt, “Postmodernism: Anomaly in Art-Critical Theory,” Journal of Aesthetic Education 29, no. 1 (1995): 85. 21 Holt, “Postmodernism,” 85. 22 Holt, “Postmodernism,” 87. 23 Holt, “Postmodernism,” 87. 24 Holt, “Postmodernism,” 87. 25 Holt, “Postmodernism,” 87. 26 Holt, “Postmodernism,” 88. 27 Ingeborg Hoesterey, Pastiche: Cultural Memory in Art, Film, Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 1. 54 Postmodern Pastiche! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 28 Richard Dyer, Pastiche (Trowbridge, Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2007), 7. 29 Dyer, Pastiche, 8. 30 Dyer, Pastiche, 19. 31 Dyer, Pastiche, 20. 32 Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody: the teachings of twentieth-century art forms (New York: Methuen, 1985), 38. 33 Hutcheon, Theory of Parody, 53. 34 Raoul Hausmann, “Definition der Foto-Montage,” as quoted in Hans Richter, Dada: art and anti-art, 114. 55