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Johns,ThreeFlags,l958,encaustic,
Jasper 76.5x I15.6x 12.7cm
As we have seen,r the logic of consumption only an effect of fashion and thus purely an witnessing,the end of the creativegestureand.
can be defined as a manipulationof signs.The object of consumption itself? The two are not not leastof all. the end of the subversionof the
symbolic relation of interiority, the symbolic contradictory. One can grant that Pop Art world and of the maledictionof art. Nor only is
relationsof creation are absentfrom it: it is all transposesan object-world while quite accept- its aim the immanenceof the 'civilised' world,
exteriority. The object loses its objectivefinal- ing that it also results (according to its own but its total integration in this world. Here
ity, its function, and becomes the term of a logic) in objects pure and simple. Advertising there is an insaneambition: that of abolishin_e
much wider combinatory, of groups of objects sharesthe same ambiguity. the annals (and the foundations) of a whole
where its value is one of relation.Furthermore, Let us formulate the question another way: culture, that of transcendence.Perhaps there is
it loses its symbolic meaning, its age-old an- the logic of consumptioneliminates the tradi- also quite simply an ideology. Let us clear
'It
thropomorphicstatus,and tends to dissipatein tional sublime statusof artistic representation. away two objections: is an American art' -
a discourse of connotations,which are them- Quite litbrally, there is no longer any privileg- in its object material (including the obsession
selves also relative to one another within the ing of the object over the image in essenceor with tstars and stripes') in its empirical prag-
framework of a totalitarian cultural system, si_snification. One is no longer the truth of the matic, optimistic practice,in the incontestably
that is to say, one which is able to integrate other: they coexist in extenso and in the very chauvinist infatuation of certain patrons and
'act' 'taken
significationsfrom anywhere. samelogical space,where they equally as collectors who are in' by it, etc. Even
We have taken as our basis the analysisof signs2(in their differential, reversible, combi- though this objection is tendentious, let us
ever)'dav objects. But there is another dis- natory relation). Whereas all art up to Pop was reply objectively: if all this is Americanism,
course on the object, that of art. A history of basedon a vision of the world 'in depth',' Pop Pop artistscan only adopt it according to their
'speak
the evolution of the status of objectsand their itself claims to be homogeneous with that own logic. If manufactured objects
representationin art and literature would be immanentorder of signs- homogeneouswith American', it is becausethey have no other
revealingon its own. After having traditionally their industrial and serial production, and thus truth than this mythology which overwhelms
played a wholly symbolic and decorativerole with the artificial, manufacturedcharacter of them - and the only logical course is to inte-
in art, objects in the 20th century have ceased the whole environment - homogeneouswith grate this mythological discourseand to be in-
to be tied to moral or psychological values, the in extenso saturationas much as cultural- tegratedin it oneself.If the consumersociety is
they have ceased to live by proxy in the ised abstractionof this new order of things. caught up in its own mythology, if it has no
'rendering'
shadow of man and have be-eunto assumean Does it succeedin this system- critical perspective on itself, and if this is
'rendering' precisely its definition,a then no contemporary
extraordinary importance as autonomousele- atic secularisationof objects, in
m e n t s i n a n a n a l y s i so f s p a c e ( C u b i s m ,e t c ) . this new descriptive environment in all its art can exist which, in its very existenceand
Thus they have dispersed,to the very point of exteriority - such that nothing remains of the practice, is not compromisedby, party to this
' i n n e r l i g h t ' w h i c h g a v e p r e s t i g et o a l l e a r l i e r opaque obviousnessof things. Indeed, this is
abstraction.Having feted their parodic resur-
rection in Dada and Surrealism,destructured art? Is itan art of the non-sacred,thatis to say, why Pop artistspaint objectsaccordin-gto their
a n d v o l a t i l i s e db y t h e A b s t r a c t ,n o w t h e y a r e a n a r t o f p u r e m a n i p u l a t i o n ?I s i t i t s e l f a n o n - real appearance,since it is only thus, as ready'
'freshfrom
a p p a r e n t l yr e c o n c i l e dw i t h t h e i r i m a g ei n N o u - sacred arJ, that is to say productive and not ntade signs, the assemhly Iine' , that
v e l l e F i g u r a t i o na n d P o p A r t . I t i s h e r et h a t t h e creativeof objects? theyfunction mythologically. This is why they
q u e s t i o no f t h e i r c o n t e m p o r a r ys t a t u si s r a i s e d : S o m e w i l l s a y ( a n d P o p a r t i s t st h e m s e l v e s ) preferably paint the initials, marks, slogans
it is further brought to our attention by this that things are rather more simple. They do the borne by these objects and why, ultimately'
s u d d e nr i s e o f o b j e c t s t o t h e z e n i t h o f a r t i s t i c thin-sbecausethey are taken with it; after all, they can paint only that (Robert Indiana). No
'realism"
figuration. they're having a good time, they look around a s a g a m eo r a s b u t a r e c o g n i t i o no ,
I n a w o r d : i s P o p A r t t h e c o n t e m p o r a r ya r t and paint what they see - it's spontaneous the obvious fact of consumersociety: namely
form of that logic of signs and of their con- r e a l i s m ,e t c . T h i s i s f a l s e :P o p s i g n i f i e st h e e n d that the truth of objects and products is thei'
'Americanism'.
s u m p t i o nw h i c h i s b e i n gd i s c u s s ehde r e ,o r i s i t o f p e r s p e c t i v et,h e e n d o f e v o c a t i o n t, h e e n d o f m a r k . I f t h a ti s t h e nA m e r i c a n
5
i.-tg.
Notes
This text is taken from Jean Baudrillard, La banality,recallingthe lost essence and an order galleryof painting.
'Popular'
Soc'idtdde consontntation: ses ntythes, sesstruc- of authenticityevokedby the absurd.Pon-se: his a r t i s n o t a t t a c h e dt o o b j e c r s , b u t a l -
t u r e s , P a r i s , G a l l i m a r d , 1 9 7 0 ,p p 1 7 4 - 1 8 5- f r o m seizinguponthenakedandconcrete objectis still ways primarily to man and his exploits. It would
'La a poeticconsciousness or perceptionin action.In not paint a delicatessenor the American flag, but
t h e s e c t i o ne n t i t l e d c u l t u r em a s s - m 6 d i a t i q u e . '
cl'Boorstin, The Inutge. brief,all art 'withoutwhichthingswouldonly be a-man-eatingor a-man-saluting-the-American-
'essence' what they are' feeds(beforePop) on transcen-
The Cubists: again, it is the of space flag.
'secret
which they seek, an unveiling of the dence. In fact, we often read this 'terrorist' humour into
g e o m e t r y , ' e t c . D a d a o r D u c h a m p o r t h e S u r r e a l - 4 c/below: The Consumptiott of Consuntptiott. i t . B u t t h r o u g h a c r i t i c a l n o s t a l g i ac i n o u r p a r t .
i s t s : h e r e o b j e c t sa r e s t r i p p e do f t h e i r ( b o u r g e o i s ) 5 In thissense thetruthof Popconcerns theearning
f u n c t i o n a n d m a d e t o s t a n do u t i n t h e i r s u b v e r s i v e capacityandpromotion,not the contractandthe
J a m e sR o s e n q u i sFt , - l l l x 2 1 8 . 4c m
( p a r t i a vl i e w ) , 1 9 6 5 ,o i l o n c a n v a sr v i t ha l u m i n i u m , 2 5 . 4
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