Powerpoint presentation on postwar art in Europe

1. Postwar
Art
in
Europe
Art
109A:
Contemporary
Art
(Arts
Since
1945)
Westchester
Community
College
Fall
2012

2. Postwar
Europe
Economic
and
physical
devastaEon
William
Vandivert,
Dresden
aIer
the
Allied
bombing,
1946
LIFE

3. Postwar
Europe
Moral
devastaEon
Buchenwald Concentration Camp, April 16, 1945
LIFE

4. Postwar
Europe
AnnihilaEon
of
the
human
race
an
imminent
possibility
Mushroom
cloud
of
smoke
billowing
20,000
I.
in
the
air
aIer
atomic
explosion
over
the
city
of
Hiroshima,
August
6,
1945
LIFE

5. Existen0alism
Disillusionment,
skepEcism,
and
despair
inspired
the
existenEalist
philosophy
of
Jean-­‐Paul
Sartre
Jean-­‐Paul
Sartre,
Existen(alism
and
Humanism,
first
published
in
1948

6. Humanism
 Places
man
on
a
pedestal
 Presumes
man’s
“greatness”
as
a
given
“One may understand by humanism a theory
which upholds man as the end-in-itself and as
the supreme value.”
Jean
Paul
Sartre
Michelangelo,
David,
1508

7. Existen0alism
There
is
no
“blueprint,”
or
instrucEon
manual
“When we think of God as the
creator, we are thinking of him,
most of the time, as a supernal
artisan . . . . Thus, the
conception of man in the mind
of God is comparable to that of
the paper-knife in the mind of
the artisan: God makes man
according to a procedure and
a conception, exactly as the
artisan manufactures a paper-
knife, following a definition and
a formula.” Image
source:
hp://www.vicinodesign.nl/VD0010-­‐00.htm
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and
Humanism

8. Existen0alism
“If man as the existentialist sees him is
not definable, it is because to begin with
he is nothing. He will not be anything until
later, and then he will be what he makes
of himself. Thus, there is no human
nature, because there is no God to have a
conception of it. Man simply is.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism
William
Blake,
The
Ancient
of
Days
(God
as
an
Architect),
1794

9. Existen0alism
“Existence
precedes
essence”
“We
mean
that
man
first
of
all
exists,
encounters
himself,
surges
up
in
the
world
and
defines
himself
aIerwards.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism
Will
Rodes,
A
Lump
of
Clay,
Flickr

10. Existen0alism
ExistenEalism
proposed
that
man
is
responsible
for
invenEng
himself
through
his
acEons
Will
Rodes,
A
Lump
of
Clay,
Flickr

11. Existen0alist
“Angst”
 Radical
freedom
 Responsibility
of
making
choices
in
the
absence
of
rules
“That is what “abandonment” implies, that
we ourselves decide our being. And with
this abandonment goes anguish.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism
Image
source:
hp://www.oakwoodsys.com/soluEons/Pages/soluEons.aspx

12. Existen0alist
“Angst”
What
kind
of
art
could
be
made
in
the
aIermath
of
war?
“To
write
lyric
poetry
aIer
Auschwitz
is
barbaric”
Theodro
Adorno,
1949
“There
can
be
no
quesEon
today
of
art
for
pleasure,
whatever
transcendent
meaning,
including
aestheEcs,
one
gives
that
word
.
.
.”
Michel
Tapié,
“A
New
Beyond,”
1952
George
Grosz,
The
Painter
of
the
Hole,
1948
Hirshorn
Museum

13. Alberto
Giacome;
Swiss-­‐born
Leading
sculptor
in
Paris
Began
as
a
Surrealist
Alberto
Giacomeg,
The
Palace
at
4
a.m..,
1932-­‐33.
ConstrucEon
in
wood,
glass,
wire,
string
MOMA
Irving
Penn,
Alberto
Giacomeg,
1950

14. Alberto
Giacome;
Took
refuge
in
Switzerland
during
the
war
“WanEng
to
create
from
memory
what
I
have
seen
.
.
to
my
terror
the
sculptures
became
smaller
and
smaller
.
.
.”
Alberto
Giacomeg
Henri
CarEer-­‐Bresson,
Alberto
Giacameg
Image
source:
hp://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/02/giacomeg-­‐and-­‐carEer-­‐
bresson.html

15. Alberto
Giacome;
Work
typically
consists
of
strangely
elongated
figures,
alone
or
in
groups,
occupying
vast
tracts
of
empty
space
Gordon
Parks,
Alberto
Giacomeg,
1951
LIFE
Magazine

16. Alberto
Giacome;
Cast
in
bronze
-­‐-­‐
a
medium
associated
with
monumental
size,
and
heroic
connotaEons
Alberto
Giacomeg,
The
City
Square,
1948-­‐49
Museum
of
Modern
Art
Auguste
Rodin,
Age
of
Bronze,
1876/1906
Metropolitan
Museum

18. Image
source:
hp://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/3256792359/sizes/l/

19. Alberto
Giacome;
1945
began
working
on
a
larger
scale
“But
then
to
my
surprise,
[the
figures]
achieved
a
likeness
only
when
tall
and
slender.”
Alberto
Giacomeg
Henri
CarEer-­‐Bresson,
GiacomeO
in
his
Studio,
c.
1952

20. Alberto
Giacomeg,
Man
Poin(ng,
1947
Alberto Giacometti. Walking Man, 1960 (cast 1981). Fondation
Museum
of
Modern
Art
Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Paris © Adagp

21. Alberto
Giacomeg,
Man
Poin(ng,
1947
Museum
of
Modern
Art

22. “Man
–
and
man
alone
–
reduced
to
a
thread
–
in
the
dilapidaEng
and
misery
of
the
world
–
who
searches
for
himself
–
starEng
from
nothing.”
Francis
Ponge,
“ReflecEons
on
the
Statuees,
Figures
and
PainEngs
by
Alberto
Giacomeg”
Alberto
Giacomeg,
Man
Poin(ng,
1947
Museum
of
Modern
Art

23. Alberto
Giacome;
Sartre
embraced
Giacomeg
as
the
preeminent
existenEalist
arEst
He
wrote
an
essay
for
Giacomeg’s
1948
exhibiEon
in
New
York
Gjon
Mili,
Jean
Paul
Sartre,
Paris,
1946
LIFE

24. Alberto
Giacome;
Sartre
likened
Giacomeg’s
work
to
prehistoric
cave
painEng
“.
.
.
neither
the
beauEful
nor
the
ugly
yet
existed,
neither
taste
nor
people
possessing
it.”
Jean
Paul
Sartre
Alberto
Giacomeg,
Head
of
a
Man
on
a
Rod,
Bronze,
1947
Museum
of
Modern
Art

25. Alberto
Giacome;
He
also
discussed
the
arEst’s
manipulaEon
of
percepEon
Phenomenological
size:
scale
is
determined
by
our
relaEon
to
the
work
Gordon
Parks,
Skeletal
Giacomeg
sculpture
on
Parisian
street,
2005
LIFE
Magazine

26. “They
are
moving
outlines,
always
half-­‐
way
between
nothingness
and
being”
Jean
Paul
Sartre

27. Alberto
Giacome;
Giacomeg
“shows
us
that
man
is
not
there
first
and
to
be
seen
aIerwards,
but
that
he
is
a
being
whose
essence
is
to
exist
for
others.”
Jean
Paul
Sartre
Gordon
Parks,
Skeletal
Giacomeg
sculpture
on
Parisian
street,
2005
LIFE
Magazine

28. Alberto
Giacome;
“At
first
glance
we
seem
to
be
up
against
the
fleshless
martyrs
of
Buchenwald”

29. Alberto
Giacome;
“But
a
moment
later
we
have
a
quite
different
concepEon;
these
fine
and
slender
natures
rise
up
to
heaven,
we
seem
to
have
come
across
a
group
of
Ascensions,
of
AssumpEons”
Jean
Paul
Sartre

30. L’Art
Informel
 Movement
named
by
criEc
Michel
Tapie
 Argued
that
an
art
autre
–
another
kind
of
art
was
needed
to
bear
witness
to
war
“There can be no question
today of art for pleasure,
whatever transcendent
meaning, including aesthetics,
one gives that word . . .”
Michel Tapié, “A New Beyond,” 1952
Michel
Tapie
Un
Art
Autre,
1952

31. L’Art
Informel
 Emphasis
on
brute
materiality
and
“formlessness”
rather
than
aestheEc
refinement
Jean
Dubuffet,
Fleshy
Face
with
Chestnut
Hair,
1951
Guggenheim
Will
Rodes,
A
Lump
of
Clay,
Flickr

32. L’Art
Informel
The
principal
arEsts
associated
with
the
movement
include
Jean
Fautrier
and
Jean
Dubuffet
Jean Fautrier, 1898-1964 Jean Dubuffet
Image source: Image source:
http://ledeurjp.club.fr/Fautgb.htm http://www.dubuffetfondation.com/
portraits/1969-9.html

33. Jean
Fautrier
ExhibiEon
of
Otages
series
at
the
Galerie
Rene
Drouin
in
Paris,
1945
Jean
Fautrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
20,
1944

34. Jean
Fautrier
Worked
on
a
flat
surface
Images
built
up
with
a
thick
paste
Photo:
Robert
Descharnes,
www.daliphoto.com
©
Descharnes
&
Descharnes
hp://www.aruacts.net/index.php/pageType/arEstInfo/arEst/1713/lang/2

35. Jean
Fautrier
Texture
evokes
muElated
flesh
“tumefied
faces,
crushed
profiles,
bodies
sEffened
by
execuEon,
dismembered,
muElated,
eaten
by
flies.”
Francis
Ponge
André
Malraux
wrote
that
the
series
marked
“the
aempt
to
dissect
contemporary
pain,
down
to
its
tragic
ideograms,
and
force
it
into
the
world
of
eternity”
Jean
Fautrier,
Nude,
1943
(from
the
Otages
series)
Museum
of
Contemporary
Art,
Los
Angeles

36. Jean
Fautrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
1,
1944
Jean
Foutrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
2,
1944

37. Jean
Fautrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
8,
1944
Jean
Foutrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
14,
1944

38. Jean
Fautrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
19,
1944
Jean
Foutrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
20,
1944

39. Jean
Foutrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
24,
1944
Jean
Fautrier,
Head
of
a
Hostage,
No.
21,
1944

40. Jean Fautrier, Dépouille, 1945
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

41. Jean
Dubuffet
Abandoned
art
in
1924
Returned
to
art
full-­‐Eme
in
1942,
during
the
Nazi
occupaEon
of
Paris
Jean Dubuffet, Mme. Arthur Dubuffet, 1921
MOMA
Jean
Dubuffet,
Self
Portrait,
1936
Metropolitan
Museum

42. L’Art
Brut
Founding
member
of
the
Compagnie
de
l”Art
Brut
which
held
its
first
exhibi(on
at
the
Galerie
Drouin
in
1948
Jean Dubuffet, 1901-1985

43. L’Art
Brut
CulEvated
a
naïve
approach
that
was
untainted
by
academic
rules
or
accepted
convenEons
of
“good
taste.”
“Dubuffet
looked
to
the
art
of
children
and
others,
whose
rendering
of
experience
is
less
dominated
by
cultural
norms”
Fineberg,
p.
131
Helen
Levi,
Street
Drawing,
1940
Image
source:
hp://www.masters-­‐of-­‐photography.com/L/levi/levi_street_drawing_full.html

44. L’Art
Brut
Denounced
“cultural
art”
“We understand by [these] works
created by those untouched by artistic
culture; in which copying has little part,
unlike the art of intellectuals. Similarly,
the artists take everything (subjects,
choice of materials, modes of
transposition, rhythms, writing styles)
from their own inner being, not from
the canons of classical or fashionable
art. We engage in an artistic
enterprise that is completely pure,
basic; totally guided in all its phases
solely by the creator’s own impulses.
It is therefore, an art which only
manifests invention, not the
characteristics of cultural art which are
those of the chameleon and the
monkey.”
Jean Dubuffet, “Crude Art Preferred to
Cultural Art,” 1948
Jean
Dubuffet,
Crude
Art
Preferred
to
Cultural
Art,
exhibiEon
catalog,
1948

45. L’Art
Brut
The
trained
arEst
learns
to
march
in
lock-­‐step
like
Hitler’s
“willing
execuEoners”
Fenner
Studio,
Life
Drawing
Class,
Cornell
University,
1940
Nazi
Soldiers
parading
through
Warsaw,
1939
Image
source:
hp://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Aap-­‐exhibit/card5-­‐1.html
Image
source:
hp://library.thinkquest.org/CR0212881/
warsaw.html

46. L’Art
Brut
The
un-­‐trained
arEst
represents
a
return
to
origins
–
a
kind
of
tabula
rasa
Jean
Dubuffet,
Childbirth,
1944,
Oil
on
canvas
Museum
of
Modern
Art

47. L’Art
Brut
CollecEon
of
Art
Brut
first
exhibited
in
Paris
in
1948
InstallaEon
of
the
first
Art
Brut
ExhibiEon
at
the
Galerie
Drouin,
1948

48. L’Art
Brut
Included
art
by
psychiatric
paEents
Hans
Prinzhorn,
The
Prinzhorn
FoundaEon
hp://www.prinzhorn.uni-­‐hd.de/geschichte_eng.shtml

49. L’Art
Brut
Works
from
Prinzhorn’s
collecEon
were
exhibited
in
Hitler’s
“Degenerate
Art”
show
in
Berlin
in
1937
Degenerat
Art
ExhibiEon
Guide
(1937)
Image
source:
hp://germanhistorydocs.ghi-­‐dc.org/sub_imglist.cfm?sub_id=200&secEon_id=13

50. L’Art
Brut
CulEvated
a
deliberately
crude,
childlike
style
Jean
Dubuffet,
Limbour as a Crustacean, 1946
Hirshhorn
Museum

51. Jean
Dubuffet
haute
pâte
(high
paste)
–
thick
mortar-­‐
like
substance
Bill
Brandt,
Jean
Dubuffet
working
with
his
haute
pâte
hZp://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=3&id=4617

52. Jean
Dubuffet
The
surfaces
suggested
excrement
and
filth
Jean
Dubuffet,
Fleshy
Face
with
Chestnut
Hair,
1951
Mixed
media
on
Isorel,
25
9/16
X
21
1/4
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum

53. Corps
du
Dame
Series
of
36
female
nudes
“Dubuffet insisted that his
protest was against specious
notions of beauty ‘inherited
from the Greeks and
cultivated by magazine
covers.’”
Guggenheim
Museum
Jean
Dubuffet,
Triumph
and
Glory,
1950
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum

54. Jean
Auguste
Dominique
Ingres,
La
Source,
1856
Jean
Dubuffet,
Triumph
and
Glory,
1950
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum

55. Corps
du
Dame
The
classical
nude
is
intended
to
elevate
the
human
body
to
an
“ideal”
of
perfecEon
It
is
meant
to
transcend
the
“material”
to
the
realm
of
the
“ideal”
Jean
Auguste
Dominique
Ingres,
La
Source,
1856

56. Corps
du
Dame
Cultural
ideals
of
“beauty”
depend
upon
eliminaEng
all
suggesEons
of
our
“animal”
nature
Jean
Auguste
Dominique
Ingres,
La
Source,
1856

57. Corps
du
Dame
Dubuffet’s
nudes
returned
the
body
to
the
gross
materiality
of
flesh
and
maer
Jean
Dubuffet,
Triumph
and
Glory,
1950
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum

58. Jean
Dubuffet,
Large
Sooty
Nude,
August,
1944
Private
CollecEon
Jean
Dubuffet,
Corps
de
Dame
–
Piéce
de
Boucherie,
1950
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum

59. Jean
Dubuffet,
Corps
de
Dame
–
Piéce
de
Boucherie,
1950
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum

60. Postscript
1972
Dubuffet
donated
his
collecEon
to
the
municipality
of
Lausanne,
Switzerland,
where
a
museum
of
L’Art
Brut
was
established
In
2001
the
collecEon
contained
30,000
items
indexed
by
a
21
volume
catalog!
L’Art Brut Museum, Lousanne

61. Postscript
“Outsider
Art”
movement
launched
in
Britain
in
1972
by
art
historian
Roger
Cardinal
Outsider Art Exhibiton, Hayward Gallery, London, 1979
Tate Gallery

62. Francis
Bacon
Irish-­‐born
Leading
painter
in
Britain
Bruce
Bernard,
Francis
Bacon
in
his
Studio,
1984
NaEonal
Galleries
of
Scotland

63. Francis
Bacon
Remained
a
figuraEve
painter
long
aIer
it
had
ceased
to
be
fashionable
Francis
Bacon,
Self
Portrait,
1958
Hirshorn

64. Francis
Bacon
Like
Giacomeg,
he
relied
heavily
on
distorEon
“What
I
want
to
do
is
to
distort
the
thing
far
beyond
the
appearance,
but
in
the
distorEon
to
bring
it
back
to
a
recording
of
appearance”
Francis
Bacon
Francis
Bacon,
Self
Portrait,
1969

65. Francis
Bacon
Like
L’Art
Informel,
he
relied
heavily
on
the
expressive
power
of
materials,
texture,
and
surface
“There
is
an
area
of
the
nervous
system
to
which
the
texture
of
paint
communicates
more
violently
than
anything
else”
Francis
Bacon
Francis
Bacon,
Study
Afer
Velazquez’s
Portrait
of
Pope
Innocent
X,
1953,
Demoines
Art
Center

66. Francis
Bacon
OIen
relied
on
source
material
rather
than
direct
observaEon

67. Francis
Bacon
Originally
Etled
“Man
with
a
Microphone”
Francis
Bacon,
Pain(ng,
1946
Museum
of
Modern
Art

68. Francis
Bacon
Based
on
news
photos
of
Hitler
and
Mussolini
Francis
Bacon,
Pain(ng,
1946
Museum
of
Modern
Art

69. Francis
Bacon
Based
on
news
photos
of
Hitler
and
Mussolini
Francis
Bacon,
Pain(ng,
1946
Museum
of
Modern
Art

70. Francis
Bacon
1944
began
working
on
his
first
crucifixion
theme
in
triptych
format
Francis
Bacon,
Three
Studies
for
Figures
at
the
Base
of
a
Crucifixion,
1944
Tate
Gallery

71. The first painting in "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for
Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, ca. 1944, Tate

72. Francis
Bacon
Triptych
–
religious
connotaEons
Roger
Van
de
Weyden,
Crucifixion
Triptych,
1445

73. Francis
Bacon
Message
of
redempEon
(we
will
all,
eventually,
be
saved)
Rembrandt,
Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses
Drypoint printed on vellum; second state
Metropolitan
Museum

74. Francis
Bacon
Bacon’s
work
reflects
a
profound
loss
of
faith
in
religion
or
any
metaphysical
explanaEon
of
human
existence
Francis
Bacon,
Three
Studies
for
Figures
at
the
Base
of
a
Crucifixion,
1944
Tate
Gallery

75. “Also, I think that man now realises
Francis
Bacon
that he is an accident, that he is a
completelyork
reflects
a
profound
loss
Bacon’s
w futile being, that he has to
playfout the eligion
or
any
mreason. I
of
aith
in
r game without etaphysical
think that, even human
Velasquez was
explanaEon
of
when existence
painting, even when Rembrandt was
painting, in a peculiar way, they were
still, whatever their attitude to life,
slightly conditioned by certain types
of religious possibilities, which man
now, you could say, has had
completely cancelled out for him.
Now, of course, man can only
attempt to make something very, very
positive by trying to beguile himself
for a time by the way he behaves, by
prolonging possibly his life by buying Francis
Bacon,
Three
Studies
for
Figures
at
the
Base
of
a
Crucifixion,
1944
a kind of immortality through the Tate
Gallery
doctors.”
Francis Bacon, Interview with David
Sylvester

76. Francis
Bacon,
Three
Studies
for
Figures
at
the
Base
of
a
Crucifixion,
1944
Tate
Gallery

79. "Bacon’s scream is
the operation through
which the entire body
escapes through the
mouth."
Gilles
Deleuze,
Francis
Bacon:
The
Logic
of
Sensa(on

82. Francis
Bacon,
Three
Studies
for
a
Crucifixion,
1962
Guggenheim
Museum

83. Francis
Bacon
“When
you
go
into
a
butcher’s
shop
and
see
how
beauEful
meat
can
be
and
then
you
think
about
it,
you
can
think
the
whole
horror
of
life”
Francis
Bacon
Photograph
of
Francis
Bacon
with
animal
carcasses

84. Francis
Bacon
“we
are
meat,
we
are
potenEal
carcasses
.
.
.”
Francis
Bacon
Three
Studies
for
a
Crucifixion,
1962
right
panel

85. Francis
Bacon
Jean
Dubuffet,
Triumph
and
Glory,
1950
Three
Studies
for
a
Crucifixion,
1962
Solomon
R.
Guggenheim
Museum
right
panel

86. Francis
Bacon
Like
the
animals
in
the
slaughterhouse
(who
Bacon
believed
sensed
the
fate
awaiEng
them)
we
live
in
uer
dread
of
the
end
we
know
is
coming
Three
Studies
for
a
Crucifixion,
1962
center
panel

87. Francis
Bacon
Bacon’s
ideas
reflect
ExistenEalist
agtudes
in
his
profound
loss
of
faith
in
metaphysical
explanaEons
for
human
existence
“As
an
atheist,
Bacon
sought
to
express
what
it
was
to
live
in
a
world
without
God
or
aIerlife
.
.
.
he
showed
the
human
as
simply
another
animal.”
Tate
Gallery
Irving
Penn,
Francis
Bacon,
1963
Vogue
Magazine

88. Francis
Bacon
“Man
now
realizes
he
is
an
accident,
that
he
is
a
completely
fuEle
being,
that
he
has
to
play
out
the
game
without
reason.
I
think
that
even
when
Velasquez
was
painEng,
even
when
Rembrandt
was
painEng,
they
were
sEll,
whatever
their
agtude
to
life,
slightly
condiEoned
by
certain
types
of
religious
possibiliEes,
which
man
now,
you
could
say,
has
had
cancelled
out
for
him.
Man
now
can
only
aempt
to
beguile
himself,
for
a
Eme,
by
prolonging
his
life
–
by
buying
a
kind
of
immortality
from
the
doctors.”
Francis
Bacon
Irving
Penn,
Francis
Bacon,
1963
Vogue
Magazine

89. Francis
Bacon
Bacon’s
anguish
can
be
aributed
to
the
violent
Emes
in
which
he
lived
“When I was sixteen or seventeen, I went
to Berlin . . . Which was, in a way, very,
very, violent. Perhaps it was violent to me
because I had come from Ireland, which
was violent in the military sense . . . And
after Berlin I went to Paris, and then I lived
all those disturbed years between then and
the war . . . So I could say, perhaps, I have
been accustomed to always living through
forms of violence.”
Francis Bacon
Bruce Bernard, Francis Bacon in his Studio, 1984

90. Francis
Bacon
But
his
private
experience
as
a
homosexual
must
also
be
taken
into
consideraEon
“Francis Bacon was a queer artist in the
old fashioned sense when queer was a
term of abuse”
Emmanuel Cooper
http://www.queer-arts.org/bacon/bacon.html
Bruce Bernard, Francis Bacon in his Studio, 1984

91. Francis
Bacon
Explored
what
could
be
interpreted
as
homosexual
themes
Francis Bacon, Study from the Human Body, 1949
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

92. Francis
Bacon
Several
works
based
on
Muybridge’s
Studies
of
Locomo(on
series
Francis Bacon, Two Figures, 1953

94. Francis
Bacon
The
wrestling
moEf
is
both
emoEonally
charged
and
highly
ambiguous
It
can
suggest
either
violent
struggle,
passionate
embrace
-­‐-­‐
or
both
Francis Bacon, Two Figures, 1953

95. Francis Bacon, Three Studies of Figures on Beds, 1972
Private Collection

96. Francis
Bacon
“Oh they don't like my work here at all.
Maybe it's the savagery they find in it, or
maybe it's the homosexuality which I
suppose is in my work. I don't go about
shouting that I'm gay but AIDS has made it
all much worse. People are very, very odd
about it.”
Francis Bacon interview with Richard Cork, 1991
Bruce Bernard, Francis Bacon in his Studio, 1984
National Galleries of Scotland

97. Francis
Bacon
“He told me that he (Bacon) had come to
the view that homosexuality was an
affliction, that it had turned him, at one
point in his life, into a crook.”
Lord Gowrie, Obituary for Francis Bacon
Bruce Bernard, Francis Bacon in his Studio, 1984
National Galleries of Scotland

98. CoBrA
CoBrA:
acronym
for
Copenhagen
(Denmark)
Brussels
(Belgium)
Amsterdam
(Holland)
Founded
at
an
internaEonal
conference
in
Paris
in
1948
Café
Notre
Dame,
Paris,
where
the
first
CoBrA
manifesto
was
draIed
Image
source:
hp://www.cobra-­‐museum.nl/en/cobra.html

99. CoBrA
Members
included
Pierre
Alechinsky,
Karel
Appel,
Constant
Nieuwenhuys,
ChrisEan
Dotremont,
and
Asger
Jorn
Photograph
of
the
CoBrA
group
Image
source:
hp://www.cobra-­‐museum.nl/en/cobra.html

100. CoBrA
Like
Dubuffet,
CoBrA
arEsts
embraced
the
art
of
the
untrained
“The CoBrA artists painted directly and
spontaneously. Just like children, they
wanted to work expressively without a
preconceived plan, using their fantasy and
much colour. They rebelled against the rules
of the art academies and aimed at a form of
art without constraint. They also explored
working with all kinds of materials: the
experimental was paramount.”
Cobra Museum
Karel Appel, Questioning Children, 1949
Tate

101. CoBrA
Discarded
pieces
of
wood
to
an
old
window
shuer
Faces
suggest
African
tribal
masks
QuesEoning
children/begging
children
Karel Appel, Questioning Children, 1949
Tate

102. CoBrA
Animals
were
favorite
topics,
symbolic
of
the
group’s
rebellion
against
cultural
restraints,
along
with
a
range
of
other
culturally
marginalized
sources:
“We
used
everything
and
loved
everything.
We
took
from
children’s
drawings,
folklore,
drawings
by
the
insane,
negro
masks…”
“I never try to make a
painting; it is a howl, it is
naked, it is like a child, it is a
caged tiger. . . . My tube is
like a rocket writing its own
space.”
Karel Appel
Guggenheim
Karel Appel, The Crying Crocodile Tries to Catch the Sun, 1956
Guggenheim

103. CoBrA
The
group
was
also
informed
by
Marxist
ideas
Asger Jorn, CoBrA poster, 1968

104. CoBrA
CollaboraEve
projects
–
challenged
accepted
ideas
about
arEsEc
individuality,
and
broke
down
hierarchies
between
makers
and
consumers
of
art
CoBrA group collaborative project, The Architect’s House, 1949
CoBrA Museum

105. CoBrA
Asger
Jorn
anEcipated
“appropriaEon”
art
with
his
“detourned”
painEngs
Asger Jorn

106. CoBrA
Detourned
PainEng:
pictures
bought
in
thriI
stores,
and
modified
Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919 Asger Jorn, The Avant Garde Doesn’t Give Up, 1962

107. Asger Jorn, Rabbit, 1962 Asger Jorn, Dolce Vita, 1962

108. Asger Jorn, Mater Profana, 1960 Asger Jorn, Grand Baiser au Cardinal d'Amerique, 1962

109. CoBrA
“Détournement is a game born out
of the capacity for devalorization.
Only he who is able to devalorize
can create new values. And only
there where there is something to
devalorize, that is, an already
established value, can one engage
in devalorization. It is up to us to
devalorize or to be devalorized
according to our ability to reinvest
in our own culture. There remain
only two possibilities for us in
Europe: to be sacrificed or to
sacrifice. It is up to you to choose
between the historical monument
and the act that merits it.”
Asger Jorn, “Détourned Painting,”
1959
Asger Jorn, The Avant Garde Doesn’t Give Up, 1962