AndyGrundberg

ArtandPhotography,
andArt:
PhotoEraphy
the
Across
Membrane
Modernist
indeAndyWarholand BobertRauschenberg,
Theyear is 1962.
beginusingthe silkscreenprocess
pendentlybut almostsimultaneously,
ontocanvas.The SidneyJanisGalleryin New York
to put photographs
in a show called
and JamesRosenquist
exhibitsWarhol,RoyLichtenstein.
"New Realists,"givingbirthto what quicklybecomesknownas Popart'
a commercially
Stations'
ln LosAngeles,Ed Ruschapublishes26 Gasoline
the arrival
that announces
printedartist'sbookof deadpanphotographs
art to thosewho are listening.
of Conceptual
At the Museumof ModernArt in New York,hometo one of the
is named
John Szarkowski
of photography,
veryfew museumdepartments
succeedingEdwardSteichen.
Directorof Photography,
Dueto his erudition,eloquence,and literarygrace'Szarkowski
as an artfor muchof
for photography
comesto definethe aspirations
the nexttwo decades.His pointof view.espousedin ThePhotographer\
is that photography
he organizes,
.E!eas well as in the exhibitions
andtradiachievesthe statusof art when it refersto its own capabilities
Modernistnotion,takento its extreme,meansthat
tions.ThisessentiallV
in the sameway that critic
photography
shouldbe aboutphotography

ClementGreenberg.
in valorizing
abstraction,
askedpaintingto be about
pai nting.
Unfortunately,
at leastfor Szarkowski,s
brandof Moderntst
photography,
the horseshad alreadyleftthe barn.pop art.with its fasci_
nationfor vernacularrepresentations
of popular,capitalistculture,and
Conceptual
art,with its interestin systemsof information
and srgns,wouto
conspireto createan atmosphere
in which hybridpractices,not pure
ones,prevailed.Photographs,
thoseomnipresent,
seeminglyinescapable
productsof culturalinformation-as well as their alliedforms
of lens_
basedimagemaking.film and video-would becomepart and parcelof
c ontemporary art.
The year is now 1977.
At Artists'Space.a nonprofitcontem_
poraryart centerin New york,a groupexhibitioncalled,,pictures..
appears.0rganizedby DouglasCrimpandfeaturingTroyBrauntuch,
Jack
Gol dstein,
SherrieLevine,RobertLongo,and philipSmith,,,pictures.,
is
at oncea revivalof Popattitudestowardvisualcultureand a theorerrcar
watershed.In his catalogueessay,Crimpwrites:.,Toan evergreaterex_
tent our experienceis governedby pictures,picturesin newspapersand
magaztnes.
on televisionand in the cinema.Nextto thesepictures,firsthandexperiencebeginsto retreat,to seemmoreand moretrivial.While
it onceseemedthat pictureshadthe functionof interpreting
reality,it
now seemsthat they haveusurpedit. lt thereforebecomesimperative
to understand
the pictureitself,not in orderto uncovera lost realitybut
to determinehow a picturebecomesa signifyingstructureof its own
accord."'
Crimp'sannouncement
of the lenticular conditionof contempo_
rary culturecoincideswith the adventof a whole new serjesof arttstic
interventions
deploying
the photograph
as a meansof critique.The same
"Pictures"
yearthat
appearsin New york,bothSherrieLevineand Richard
Princebeginto "rephotograph"
magazineimagesand otherreproductions
andto re-present
them as their own. In Buffalo,New york.whereBobert

1977
, omposi tl onphotoqraphi que'
Ch r lsti an B oLtanskiC

Longoand CharlesCloughare leadingan art scenecenteredarounda regionalartists'space,

Hallwalls,
CindyShermanstagesthe first photographs
in what is to becomeher landmarkseriesof Untitled Film Stills
Alsoin 1977,
the Museumof ModernArt presents"Mirrorsand
Windows",John Szarkowski's
attemptto summarize
Americanphotographysince1960as a self-conscious
art practice.The exhibitiondoes
remarka
bly littleto explainthe peculiartu rnsthat the mediumhadtaken
sinceSzarkowski
becamethe full-timeguardianand explicatorof its
traditions,
nor doesit take cognizance
of what Abigail Solomon-Godeau
wouldlatercall "photography
afterart photography.",
Postmodernism
is
beingborn,but neitherthe lVluseum
of ModernArt nor anyotherof
photography'sexisting institutional
structuresrecognizesit.
Theyear is now 1997.
Todaythe mediumof photography
can be
seenfrom a vastlydifferentperspective,
onethat recognizes
the truth of
Solomon-Godeau's
assertionthat "Virtuallyeverycriticalandtheoretical
i ssuewith which postmodernist
art may be saidto engagein one senseor
anothercan be locatedwithin photography."3
The rangeof artistswho
makeor use photographs
as partof their art is wide,bothgeographically
and aesthetically:
ChristianBoltanski.
ChuckClose,Jim Dine,Mike Kellev.
AnselmKiefer,Jack Pierson,GerhardRichter,
to cite but a few.The display
andthe criticalapprehension
of photographs
so suffusescontenrporary
art thatthey oftengo unrecognized
as photographs.
It is importantto pointout,however,that the differencebetween
the positionof photography
withinthe visualarts in our postmodernist
era
andthe positionit assumedin earlieryearsis not the widespreadadoption
of the cameraby artistsbutthe specificrolesthat photographs
playin
currentartisticpractices.
Art historianshaveuncovereda largelycovert
historyof photographic
practiceby paintersand sculptorsthat goesback
almosttothe momentof photography's
publicannouncement
in 1839.Edgar
Degasis one obviousexampleof a painterwho lookedto photographs
as a
meansof depictingthe flow of contemporarV
life.The ltalianFuturists
were

Vi c t o rB u r g i nF, r a r n eU
d S / 7 7 ,1 9 7 7

photography
it wasnot
wastainted
because
In addition,
we
Thisis whytoday
of thehand.
lundamenta[[y
a product
art
andphotographers,0l
discretely
of artists
sti[[speak
hislory.
andphotography
of arthistory
andphotography,
ableto depictmotionon canvasby usingthe visualrhetoricofthe photographsof Jules-Etienne
Marey.ln the earlyyearsof the twentiethcentury.
as an adjunctto his sculptural
Brancusitook photographs
Constantln
practice,and CharlesSheelerusedthe cameramuchas he usedthe brush,
and as freouentlv.
andthe moretradiSuchan interchangebetweenphotography
mediaof painting,drawing,and sculpture
tional(andmoremarketable)
was oftencovertin part becausethe tenetsof Modernismplaceda high
valueon the puritvof media,which were assumedto be bothindividual
was taintedbecauseit was not
In addition.photography
and independent.
fundamentallv
a productof the hand.Thisis why todaywe stillspeakdisof art history
of art and photography,
cretelyof artistsand photographers,
history.Untilthe mostrecentrevisionof H.W.Janson's
and photography
was not evenconsidereda subHistoryofArt, for example,photography
ject. Conversely,
BeaumontNewhall'svenerable H istoryof Photograpby
as an art is
of photography
virtuallyignorespainting;the positioning
presentedas a consequence
technology,
not
of advancingphotographic
as relationaltoartisticstylesand aestheticspresentin paintingand
sculpture.
Revisionist
historiansof art are now engagedin revisitingand
rectifyingthe oftenarbitraryseparationof the traditionsof photography
Daguerre,
a professioandthe othervisualarts,startingwith its inventors:
andTalbot,a frustratedamateurunable
nal painterengagedin spectacles,
to masterdrawingfromthe cameraobscura.Whatthey cannotreviseis

B i c h a r dP r i n c e U
, n t i te d , 1 9 8 1

primarilyduringthis century,of separatestructhe historicalimposition,

tures,institutions,
and audiencesfor photography.
Becauseof these
photography
Modernistinventions,
todayretainsa vestigialsenseof its
artisticindependence
and a set of artisanalartisticpracticesuniqueunto
itself.The inherentinstabilityof the separate-but-equal
situationhas made
itselfmanifestat museumslikethe Museumof lVlodern
Art in New York,
whoseDepartment
of Photography,
in the post-Szarkowski
1990s,
has
struggledto extendits canonto accommodate
CindyShermanas well as
EdwardWeston.Thissuperficialeffortis not withoutirony:whilethe
photography
departmentrecentlypurchaseda completeset of Sherman's
Untitled Film Stills madein the late 1970s,
the museum'sfirst Sherman
image was acquiredsometen yearsearlierby the Department
of Painting
and Sculpture.
Yetthe photograph's
presencewithinthe visual
mostinteresting
arts in the secondhalf of this century,I would argue,comesnotfromthis
apartheidlineagebut from hybridpracticesthat recognize
the cameraas
the sourceand creatorof the world of imagesin which we live-that is to
say,as a font of representation.
Thisnotionsuffusesthe work of thosewho
are identifiedas artists-Vik Muniz,for example,or BarbaraKruger-and
thosewho are identifiedas photographers DavidLevinthal,
Zoe Leonard,
RinekeDijkstra.
Whetherwe tracethese practicesbackto Popart or to
the evolutionof Conceptual
art in the ig70s-or backevenfurtherto ConstructivismDada,
,
and Surrealism-they themselvesrepresentthe ultimate
(andultimatelyironic)successof AlfredStieglitz's
Iifelongquestto have
photography
attainfull statusas a form of art.
Thatthis recognition
shouldspanGerhardRichters's
Atlasas
well as Nan Goldin'sBallad ofSexualDependency
is a testamentto the permeabilitythat existsbetweenthe currentstatusrealmsof photographersphotographs.
making-art
and artists-making
What Richterand Goldinhave
ln common(besidesa widespreadpopularityin the art world)is an implicit
beliefin the photograph's
ongoingabilityto conveythe kindof authentic.

firsthandinformation
that Crimpdeclaredobsolete.
Thissuggestsphotography'scurrentdilemmamuchmorethanthe artist/photographer
divide:
whilefunctioningto remindus of representation
as a fact of life,photographsseeminglyare alsoquitecapableof personifying
individualattitudes
aboutthat li fe.Pointedlike a declinatingcompassnot onlyto the postmodernconditionoI dljd uubut alsoto a tangentialheadingthat seemsto
offera possibility
of escape,photography
is evermorecentraltothe
possibilities
of contemporary
art.
If the issuefor photography
at the beginningof the centurywas
whetherthe mediumcouldbe art.the issueit facesat the end of the
twentiethcenturyis whetherphotography
can everagainbe whollyitself.
Thatis to say,doesit meananythingto speakof therebeinga mediumof
photography
at a time when hybridityseems/e rigueur,or arewe left
simplywith photographs.
thosetantalizingeverydayimages that signify
veracity,history,memory.presence,abs ence?ln our increasingly
digital
age,the tendencyis to considerphotographs
as culturalrelicsand,as
with all goodrelics.to relegatethemto the museumandthe archive.But
beforethey go gentlyintothat goodnight,they continueto functionas both
objectsand subjectsof the visualworld.Theydo so basednot on Tne
characteristics
that appealedto lvlodernists-descriptiveness,
objectivity,
clarity,fixity,singularity- but on their Postmodernist
counterpartsallusiveness,
stereotypicality,
abundance,
excess,mvstery.lt is in this
sensethat photography
has beenfundamentally
and irrevocablV
redefined
overthe pasttwentyyears.
p. 3. Ouotedin Whitney
catalogue,New York1977,
' DouglasCrimp,Pictu res,exhibitian
Museumof AmericanAftled.l, Im.tgeltrlr///,New Yorklg8g,p. 67.
"Phot ogr aphAyf t e rA r t P h o t o g r a p h yi ,n B r i a nWa l l i s1 e o . l ,
' Ab igailSolor nonG odeau,
Art Afi,:r Modernism: Rethin/zingRcpretent?drr, New York1984,pp.75-85.
'Ib il.,p. 80.

Z o eL e o n a r dM
, i r r o r# 2 ,M e t r o p o l i t aM
n u s e u m1, 9 9 0