UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Art in Parallax: Painting, Place, Judgment A Dissertation Submitted by David J Akenson For the award of the degree PhD in Visual Art FACULTY OF ART, USQ 2008
Contents Certificate of Dissertation Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Abstract iii iv v ix Introduction 1 Chapters 1. Literature Review 43 2. The Avant-Garde and the Parallax of Art and Life 78 3. A Tale of Two Avant-Gardes 121 4. Minimal Difference: Painting, Object, Place 160 5. The Dialectics of Place: Installation, Site-Specific and Outside-Art 193 6. The Wall of Language: Wall/Painting in Parallax 233 Conclusion 271 Bibliography 288
CERTIFICATION OF DISSERTATION I certify that the ideas, argumentation and conclusions drawn by this thesis, are entirely the result of my own undertaking, except where acknowledged. I also certify that the work is original and has not been previously submitted for any other award. Signature of Candidate Date ENDORSEMENT Signature of Supervisor Date Signature of Supervisor Date iii
Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their support and assistance during the writing and completion of the dissertation. First of all, I would like to thank my principal supervisor Dr Kyle Jenkins for patiently guiding me through the process of writing to the point of completion. Thanks for your encouragement, friendship and support throughout the process. My thanks also go to Dr Uros Cvoro for assisting me through the very difficult final stages of completion. Thanks also for your critical comments and technical support. I would also like to say thanks to Associate Professor Robyn Stewart for guiding me through the initial planning stages of the thesis at a particularly difficult time in her life. Thanks should also go to my friend and partner, Amanda Thompson for her encouragement, patience, love and support. Without your unremitting support the thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to thank my three (much neglected) girls: Agatha, Audrey and Ava for their patience and understanding. I would like to thank University of Southern Queensland for the financial support to undertake the dissertation. iv
List of Illustrations Fig. 1 John Heartfield, The Meaning of the Hitler Salute (1932) 92 Fig. 2 Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau (1923 37) 94 Fig. 3 El Lissitzky, Proun (1923) 94 Fig. 4 Vladimir Tatlin, Monument to the Third International (1920) 95 Fig. 5 Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) 97 Fig. 6 Marcel Duchamp, Bottle Dryer (1914) 98 Fig. 7 Kasimir Malevich, Black Square on White Ground (1915) 100 Fig. 8 Andy Warhol, 200 Campbell s Soup Cans (1962) 103 Fig. 9 Jasper Johns, Painted Bronze (1960) 104 Fig. 10 Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917) 108 Fig. 11 Edward Manet, Luncheon on the Grass (1863) 113 Fig. 12 Anonymous, Degenerate Art Exhibition (1937) 115 Fig. 13 Vincent Van Gogh, Church at Auvers (1890) 130 Fig. 14 Paul Cezanne, Gardanne (1886) 130 Fig. 15 Pablo Picasso, Bottle of Viex Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper (1913) 131 Fig. 16 Jacques-Louis David, Oath of Horatii (1784) 135 Fig. 17 Edward Manet, Gare St. Lazare (1873) 135 Fig. 18 Pablo Picasso, The Guitar Player (1910) 135 Fig. 19 Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist (1950) 135 Fig. 20 Barnet Newman, Onement V11 (1953) 136 Fig. 21 Frank Stella, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor (1959) 137 v
Fig. 22 Claude Monet, Water Lilies (1906) 140 Fig. 23 Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images (1926) 142 Fig. 24 Kasimir Malevich, White on White (1918) 144 Fig. 25 Jo Baer, Untitled (1963) 145 Fig. 26 Robert Rauchenberg, Erased de Kooning (1953) 154 Fig. 27 John Baldesari, Everything is Purged (1966) 157 Fig. 28 Joseph Kosuth, Paintless (1966) 157 Fig. 29 Willem de Kooning, Excavation (1950) 163 Fig. 30 Jackson Pollock, Number 1 (1948) 163 Fig. 31 Donald Judd, Untitled (1966) 163 Fig. 32 Robert Morris, Ring with Light (1965-96) 165 Fig. 33 Dan Flavin, Diagonal of May (1963) 171 Fig. 34 Sol LeWitt, Floor Plan # 4 (1976) 172 Fig. 35 Carl Andre, Equivalent (1966) 172 Fig. 36 Morris Louis, Claustral (1961) 180 Fig. 37 Dan Flavin, Untitled (1964) 180 Fig. 38 Richard Serra, Casting Lead (1969) 182 Fig. 39 Carl Andre, 144 Lead Squares (1969) 183 Fig. 40 Tony Smith, Die (1962-68) 185 Fig. 41 Eva Hesse, Hang Up (1966) 186 Fig. 42 Robert Morris, Slab Cloud (1973) 189 Fig. 43 El Lissitzky, Proun (1923) 200 Fig. 44 Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau (1923-37) 200 vi
Fig. 45 First Papers of Surrealism Exhibition (1942) 201 Fig. 46 Allan Kaprow, Happening (1958) 201 Fig. 47 Kurt Schwitters, Merzbau (123-37) 203 Fig. 48 Pablo Picasso, Musical Instrument (1914) 205 Fig. 49 Vladimir Tatlin, Counter Relief (1914-1915) 205 Fig. 50 Marcel Duchamp, Mile of String (1942) 207 Fig. 51 Richard Serra, Casting Lead (1969) 208 Fig. 52 Daniel Buren, Within and Beyond the Frame (1973) 210 Fig. 53 Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession, New Century (2000) 212 Fig. 54 Ernesto Neto, The Dangerous Logic of Wooing (2002) 214 Fig. 55 Robert Irwin, Untitled (1967) 215 Fig. 56 James Turrell, Ondoe (1987-2004) 216 Fig. 57 Helio Oiticica, Tropicalia (1967) 217 Fig. 58 Richard Serra, Tilted Arc (1981) 220 Fig. 59 Hans Haacke, Homage to Marcel Broodthaers (1982) 224 Fig. 60 Robert Smithson, Non-Site (Franklin, New Jersey) (1968) 227 Fig. 61 Robert Smithson, Mirror Displacement: Cayuga Salt Mine Project (1969) 229 Fig. 62 Robert Smithson, Mirror Displacement: Cayuga Salt Mine Project (1969) 229 Fig. 63 Anonymous, Signpost with Wall (2007) 236 Fig. 64 Karin Sander, Passageway (1990) 236 Fig. 65 Marcel Duchamp, Bycycle Wheel (1913) 238 Fig. 66 Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing # 146 (1972) 242 Fig. 67 Blinky Palermo, Wall Painting on Facing Walls (1971) 243 Fig. 68 Blinky Palermo, Wall Painting on Facing Walls (1971) 243 vii
Fig. 69 Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing # 948: Bands of Colour (Circles) (2003) 245 Fig. 70 Elsworth Kelly, Colours for a Large Wall (1951) 254 Fig. 71 Robert Rauchenberg, White Painting (1951) 256 Fig. 72 Robert Ryman, Untitled (1958) 257 Fig. 73 Yves Klein, The Void (1958) 257 Fig. 74 Arman, The Full Up (1960) 258 Fig. 75 Jan Dibbets, Stapelschilderij (1967) 259 Fig. 76 Lawrence Weiner, Removal to the Lathing of Support Wall of Plaster or Wall Board from a Wall (1958) 261 Fig. 77 Tony Smith, Wall (1964) 262 Fig. 78 Katherina Grosse, Bee Troot (2005) 267 Fig. 79 Felice Varini, Trapezoid with Two Diagonals (1999) 268 Fig. 80 Felice Varini, Trapezoid with Two Diagonals (1999) 268 Fig. 81 Hans Holbein, Ambassadors (1533) 269 Fig. 82 Hans Holbein, Ambassadors (1533) 269 viii
Abstract The point of this thesis is to undertake a critical engagement with the art and life debate. This debate involves, in particular, the question of the location of art. Does art belong to an autonomous field removed from everyday life, or is art located amongst the objects and daily activities of our lives? Contributors to this debate usually defend one or the other position; either defending autonomy or arguing that art is, or at least should be, part of life. The debate is located through three historical points: the avant-gardes of the early 20 th Century Europe; the neo-avant-garde of North America in the 1950s 1970s; and American formalist art and criticism of the 1930s 1970s. The thesis then engages the debate through more recent examples of art where the binary art/life is again the principal issue. Minimalism, Installation art, Site-specific art and Wall Painting are examined in the context of the end of modernist painting. The argument presented by the thesis will be informed by a recently emerging theoretical frame which engages the reception of Kantian and Hegelian forms of aesthetic judgment. This critical context includes the Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Zizek; the Marxist-Hegelian theory of the German critic, Peter Burger, and the U.S. formalist critic, Clement Greenberg. The positions held by these theorists and critics will be examined through examples of art from both the modern period and more contemporary works. Through this context, the thesis positions the art and life debate within a structural analysis, arguing that art, including objects of ordinary life understood as art, occupy places within an art structure. The thesis argues that the choice between art and life is not so much a positive choice of one or the other, but rather a choice between one and the same thing seen differently; that is, the one thing seen in parallax. ix