Regarding the Popular: Modernism, the Avant-Garde and High and Low Culture [2, 1 ed.] 9783110274561, 9783110274691, 2011038113

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Regarding the Popular

European Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies Etudes sur l’avant-garde et le modernisme en Europe Studien zur europäischen Avantgarde und Moderne

Edited by Sascha Bru · Peter Nicholls Editorial Board Jan Baetens · Benedikt Hjartarson · Tania Ørum · Hubert van den Berg

Advisory Board Dawn Ades · Wolfgang Asholt · Karlheinz Barck · Henri Béhar · Timothy O. Benson Günter Berghaus · Matei Calinescu ·" · Claus Clüver · Antoine Compagnon · Eva Forgács Cornelia Klinger · Rudolf Kuenzli Bruno Latour · Paul Michael Lützeler · Laura Marcus Richard Murphy · François Noudelmann · Krisztina Passuth · Marjorie Perloff · Michel Poivert · Susan Rubin-Suleiman · Rainer Rumold · Brandon Taylor · Andrew Webber

Volume 2

De Gruyter

Regarding the Popular Modernism, the Avant-Garde and High and Low Culture

Edited by Sascha Bru Laurence van Nuijs Benedikt Hjartarson Peter Nicholls Tania Ørum Hubert van den Berg With the editorial assistance of Leslie A. Barnes, Gareth Farmer and Matthias Somers

De Gruyter

ISBN 978-3-11-027456-1 e-ISBN 978-3-11-027469-1 ISSN 1869-3393 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Regarding the popular : modernism, the avant-garde, and high and low culture / edited by Sascha Bru ... [et al.]. p. cm. -- (European avant-garde and modernism studies. Etudes sur l‘avant-garde et le modernisme en Europe. Studien zur europäischen Avantgarde und Modeme ; v. 2504) Contributions in English, French and German. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-027456-1 (alk. paper) 1. Modernism (Art) 2. Arts, Moder„-20th century. 3. Art and popular culture. I. Bru, Sascha. II. Title: Modernism, the avant-garde, and high and low culture. NX456.5.M64R44 2011 700.9‘04--dc23 2011038113

Bibliographic information pushed by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

© 2012 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston Printing: Hubert & Co. G m b H & Co. KG, Göttingen X Printed on acid-free paper

Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com

About the Senes - Sur la collection - Zur Buchmhe The avant-garde and modernism take centre-stage within European academia today. The expenmental Bteratures and arts in Europe between ca. 1850 and 1950, and their aftermath, figure prominently on curricula, while moderntsm and avant-garde studies have come to form distinct yet interlocking disapBnes within the humanities tn recent years. These LipBnes take on various guises on the contment. Wtthtn Trench and German academta "moderntsm" rematnf a term rather aBen - "die Moderne" and "modernite" comtngperhaps the closest to what ts meant by "moderntsm" wtthtn the English context. Here, indeed, modernism has acquired a firm place in research, signaling above all a period in modern poetics and aesthetics, roughly between 1850 and 1950, during which a revolt against prevalent traditions in art, Bterature and culture took shape. Similarly, the term "avant-garde" comes with an array of often confiding connotations. Tor some, the avant-garde marks the most radically experimental arts and literatures in modernism from the 19* century onward - the early 20^-century vanguard movements of futurism, expressionism, dadaism and surreaBsm, among others, coinciding with the avant-garde's most "heroic"phase. Tor others, the avantgarde belongs to a cultural or conceptual order differing altogetherfrom that of modernism - the vanguard exploits from the 1950s onward marking that avant-garde arts and Bteratures can also perfectly abide outside modernism.

European Avan^Garde and Modernism Studies, farfrom aiming to reduce the complexly of various European research traditions, aspires to embrace the wide BnguisBc, terminobgical and methodological variety within both fields. TubBshing an anthology of essays in English, Trench and German every two years, the series wishes to comparand relate Trench, German and British, but also Northern and Southern as well as Central and Eastern European findings in avant-garde and modernism studies. Collecting essays stemming mainly from the biennial conferences of the European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies (EAM), books in this series do not claim to exhaustiveness. Rather, they aim to raise questions, to provide partial answers, to fill lacunae in the research, and to stir debate about the European avantgarde and modernism throughout the 19* and 20* centuries. The series attaches great value to interdisapBnary and intermedial research on experimental aesthetics and poetics, andintends toencourage an interest in the cultural dimensions and contexts of the avant-garde and modernism in Europe. A digital addendum to the book series can be found on the website of the EAM: www.eam-europe.be. There, readers can consult and add to an open-source bMography

VI

The editors - les r e d a c t e d - die Hemusgeber

, / books tn avant-garde and moderntsm studtes, manned by Gunther Martens (Ghent Untverstty) At present the bMography already counts several thousands of titles tn English, French and German, and iAs our hope that tt mil become a vttal pomt of reference tn the exchange of expertise. L'avant-garde et le modermsme occupent actuellement une place majeure dans les universes europeennes. Les arts et les literatures experimental en Europe de 1850 a 1950 et au-dela font partie mtegrante des programmesuniversities, tan dl s que les recherches sur l'avant-garde et le modermsme sont devenues, a l'inteneur des sciences humames?des disciplines a part entiere mais solidarres les unes des autres. Ces disciplines vanent neanmoms a travers le continent. Dans les umversrces franchises et allemandes, la notion de « modermsme » reste plutot etrangere : les notions de « modermte » et de « Moderne » s'utOisent sans doute davantage pour ce que designe la notion de « moderntsm » dans le contexte anglophone. Dans la recherche anglophone, en effet, la notion de « moderntsm » a acqms une certame stabilit! : elle designe avant tout une periode de la modermte poetique et esthetique, approximativement entre 1850 et 1950, au cours de laquelle a pris forme une revoke contre les traditions a n tiques, Htterarres et cultoelles predommantes. De la meme facon, la notion d'« avant-garde » prend des connotations divergentes, souvent conflictuelles. Pour certams, l'« avant-garde » desigae les arts et les literatures les plus radicalement experimentaux qui se developpent a l'mteneur du modermsme a partir du W siecle. Dans ce cas, les mouvements avantgardistes du debut du XXe siecle - dont le futurisms, l'expressiomsme, le dadaisme et le surrealisme - correspondent a la phase avant-gardiste la plus « heroique ». Pour d'autres, l'avant-garde apparent a un ordre culturel et conceptuel entierement different du modernisme. Dans cette perspective, l'avant-garde survrc au modermsme, comme en temoigae la permanence d'une sensibilite avant-gardiste apres 1950. Lorn de vouloir redmre la complexke et la variete des traditions de recherche europeennes, Etudes sur l'avant-garde et le moderntsme en Europe vise a embrasser la grande diversrce lmguistique, terrmnologique et memodologique a l'mtertur de ces deux domaines de recherche Par la publication d'un volume d'essais en anglais, en francos et en allemand tous les deux ans, la collection souharce comparer et mettre en rapport les resultats issus des traditions de recherche fmncaise, anglaise et allemande, mais egalement d'Europe nordique et meridionale, centrale et orientale. Le premier ob,ectif de cette collection est de rassembler une selection des textes presents lors des rencontres bisannuelles du Reseau europeen

A b o u t the Series - Sur la collection - Z u r Buchre.he

vii

de recherche sur l'avant-garde et le modermsme (EAM). En ce sens, son ambmon est moms d'epuiser un sujet que de soulever des questions, de suggerer quelques reponses provisoes, de combler certames lacunes dans la recherche et, plus generalement, de mamtemr vivant le debat sur l'avant-garde et le modermsme europeens au cours des XIXe et XXe siecles. La collection attache b e a u c o u - i m p o r t a n c e a la recherche mterdisdplinaiie et intermediate sur les esthetiques et les poetiques expenmentales et se propose de stimuler l'mteret pour les dimensions culturelles et contextuelles de l'avant-garde et du modermsme en Europe. Un complement numenque a la collection est offert par le site web de l'EAM: w w 4 a m - e u r o p e . b e E n ces pages, les lecteurs trouveront en Hbre acces, avec la p o s s i b l e d'y a,outer de nouvelles references, une bibliographic de Hvres sur l'avant-garde et le modermsme. La supervision et la mise i ,our permanente de ce site sont assurees par Gunther Martens (Umversite de Gand). Actuellement, cette bibliographic comprend dcja plusieurs milHers d'entrees en anglais, en francais et en allemand, et on peut esperer que cette banque de donnees se developpera en un point de rencontre et d'echange de nos expertises. Forschungstntttattven Zum Thema Avantgarde und Moderne nehmen tn der europatschen Forschungslandschaft wetterhtn Zu. Dte experimented Uteraturen und dte Kiinste tn Europa ZWtschen ca. 1850 und 1950 und thre Nachmrkungen stnd als Uhr- und Forschungsberetche an den europatschen Forschungstnstttuttonen und tn den Uhrplanen heutZutage ntcht mehr WegZudenken. Avantgarde und Moderne haben stch tn den ktZten Jahr^hnten Zu unterschldltchen, aber mehrfach mttetnander ve^ahnten Forschungsgebtetenentmckelt. Innerhalb der franZostschen und deutschen akademtschen Weltbktbt der Sammelbegriff „moderntsm"lentgergelauftg - Jte (klasstsche) Moderne" und „moderntte"fungteren hter als naheBegendeAqutvalente Zu demjentgen, kLWas tm tnternattonalen Kontexf als etne ZeMche und raumkche Ko-0kkurenZ lertscher Ausdrucksformen und asthettscher Theorten namhaft gemacht werden kann, dte ungefahr ^tschen 1850 und 1950 angestedelt tst. AufLlhe Wetse en^altet dte BeZetfhnung,Avantgarde" etne Rethe hauftg mderprMchltcher Konnotattonen. Fur manche kennZetchnet dte Avantgarde den radtkalsten expenmentellen Bruch der Kiinste und Uteraturen mtt den Darstellungs- und ErZahlkonventtonen des 19. Jahrhunderts: tm friihen 20. Jahrhundert Zeugen davon Avantgardebe^egungen JFuturtsmus, Expresstontsmus, Dadatsmusund SurreaBsmus, Lmungen, dte als dte „herotsche" Phase der Avantgarde beZetchnet Werden konnen. Ab den fiinf^ger Jahren kommt dtese Avantgarde mttgehend ohne moderntsttsche Begletterschetnungen aus. Fur andere gehort dte Avantgarde Zu etnem kulturellen Umfeld, das stch, durchaus tm Bunde mtt der Klasstschen Moderne, der Erneuerung asthettscher Konventtonen verschretbt.

Vlll

The editors - les r e d a c t e d - die Hemusgeber

Dte Bucherrethe StucHen 2 U r europaischen Avantgarde und Moderne mochte der Komp^terthett der unterschtedhhen europatschen Forschungstradtttonen gerecht Werden und strebt danach, dte brette Itngutsttsche, termtnohgtsche und methodologtsche Vtelfalt abZudecken. Anhand etner ^etjahrhhen Sammlung von Bettragen tn eng/tscher,franZostscher und deutscher Sprache mochte dte Rethe ntcht nur dte franZosfsch-, deutsch-und engBschprachtgen, sondern auch dte nord-, siid-, central- und osteuropatschen ErgebnL der Avantgarde- und Moderne-Forschung etnbe\tehen. Dte AufsaKfammlungen der Rethe, dte grofientetls aus Bettragen von den Wetjahrhhen KonferenZen des Europatschen NetZJrksfur Studten ZuAvant-Gardeund Moderne (EAM) bestehen, erheben ketnen Anspruch aufVollstandtgkett. IhrZteltst es vtelmehr, Fragen Zu ste/Ien, etntge Antworten vor^uschlagen, Forschungslucken Zu sch/tefen und DebatUn fiber dte eunpatsche Avantgarde und dte Moderne tm 19. und 20. ahrhrundertausZu/osen. Dte Studien 2 ur europaxschen Avantgarde und Moderne legen vtel Wert auf dte tnterdts&linare und tntermedtale Erforschung eypertmenUller Asthettken/Poettken und setZen es stch Zum Ztel, das Interessean den kulturellen Zusammenhangen und Kontexten der Avantgarde und der Moderne tn Europa anZuregen. Ein dtgttaks Addendum Zur Bucherrethe befindet stch auf der Internetfette von EAM: JW.eam-europe.be. Dort konnen unsere User etnefret\ugangBche BMographte Zu Pub/tkattonen uber Avantgarde und Moderne, dte von Gunther Martens (Untversttat Gent) verwaltet mrd, bestchttgen und erganZen. Dte BMographte enthalt derzett etntge Tausend Tttel auf Deutsch Engltschund' FranZostsch und mr hoffen, dass ste ein mchttges Forum fur den Austausch von Fachkenntntssen prase Jeren mrd. Leuven & New York, 2011

Sascha Bru & Peter Nicholls

Contents About the Senes - Sur la collection - Zur Buchrahe .

Introduction Given the Popular

3

Terms and Canons MARJORIEPERLOFF

"The Madness of the Unexpected" Duchamp's Readymades and the Survival of "High" Art

13

ALEXIS PATERSON

Instrument of Inspiration High/Low Illusions in British Experimental Music and After

33

DOMINIKABUCHOWSKA

English Rebels in Art Circles: T A , V o m i t s Elitist and Populist Dimension

44

ESTHER SANCHEZ-PARDO

Kinesthetic Modernism? Rhythms, Bodies and Motion across the Great Divide

57

DAVID AYERS

Art, Nation and Political Discourse

69

CHRISTOPHE GENIN

Culture en quete de reperes

84

Contents

Folklore DEBBIE LEWER

Dada, Carmval and Revolution

99

PALDEREKY

Spuren der Volksdichtung in der unganschen AvantgardeHteratur

115

GEERTBUELENS

Musical Boxes: The Impersonal Avant-Garde Poem, Everyday Language and Popular Song

129

BEATASNIECIKOWSKA

What Did They Need jazz For? jazz Music m Polish Interwar Poetry

142

REGINA SAMSON

Der ,unge Borges und die ultoustische Avantgarde Das Populare 3s Taktik

160

JOBSTWELGE The Theatre of Ramon del Valle-Inclan: Between Modernism and the Popular Imagination

175

The Everyday y y CAROLINE BLINDER

Sitting Pretty: Modermsm and the Municipal Chair m the Photographs of Andre Kertesz and Robert Doisneau

191

WOLFGANG ASHOLT

Everyday Life in Andre Breton's Trilogy Nad a, Vases Commumcants^^Amourfou

205

IVANNERIALLAND

Entre mime et possession: reats surrealist et fictions populates

215

RAYMOND SPITERI

The Blood of the Poet: Cocteau, Surrealism and the Politics of the Vulgar

227

Contents

HARRIVEIVO

"Broken Clouds-also by Instalments": Mediating Art and the Everyday, the High and the Low m the Fmmsh Literary Avant-Garde of the 1960s

240

AGATAJAKUBOWSKA

The "Abakans" and the Feminist Revolution

253

GREGORY H . WILLIAMS

A Glossier Shade of Brown: Imi Knoebel's Raum 19

266

Commerce DAVID HOPKINS

Selling Vote Ne* York Dada (1921) and Its Dialogue with the European Avant-Garde

281

ANNABURRELLS

Wyndham Lewis and the Inter-War Popular Novel Potboilers and Gunman Bestsellers

293

MARIA DARIO

Le Douamer Rousseau, Fantomas & Ge: La culture populate, ressort ma,eur des Somes de Pans

306

ABIGAIL SUSIK

Between the Old and the New: The Surrealist Outmoded as a Radical Third Term

321

MARTON OROSZ

„The Hidden Network of the Avant-Garde": der farbige Werbefilm als eine zentraleuropaische Erfmdung?

338

Media SARA]. ANGEL

Lessons from the Press: Picasso and Mass Print Media, 1911-37

363

Contents

KAROLY KOKAI FilmundFilmpro,ekte in der Wiener Avant-Garde Zercschnft M « (1920-25)

379

GABRIELEJUTZ „Produktion-Reproduktion": E c h o s von Lazlo Moholy-Nagys Medientheone m der Geschichte von Film u n d Medienkunst

394

KOEN RYMENANTS AND PlETER VERSTRAETEN M o d e r m s m in the Ether: Middlebrow Perspectives o n European Literature in Flemish Radio Talks (1936-37)

410

ELENA HAMALIDI, MARIA NlKOLOPOULOU, REA WALLDEN A Second Avant-Garde without a First: Greek Avant-Garde Artists in the 1960s and 1970s

425

JESPEROLSSON Mass Media Avant-Garde: Dislocating the F L / L o in the Swedish 1960s

445

ROSS K. ELFLINE A Tentative Embrace Superstudio's N e w Media N o m a d s

458

Index

471

Introduction

Given the Popular^ It is common knowledge that the rise of mass popular culture coincided with the arrival of modernism in Western Europe^ The function of the avant-gardes in this constellation remains somewhat unclear, however. As this book amply shows, those avant-gardes were certainly drawn to (aspects of) popular culture - Charlie Chaplin perhaps crowning the list of popular phenomena. But was the avant garde itself also part of popular culture? Today it certainly is: denying Nelson Goodman's distinction between allographs and autographic art forms, the number of walls in student rooms that have, say, a poster reproduction of a Mondrian must be uncountable. A century ago, work of Futurists in Italy was not unknown to hang on factory walls, Futurist shows or serate attracted considerable crowds! and the Futurists themselves often en,oyed the status of celebrities. Yet those Futurists formed part of a small group of exceptions that confirmed the rule. Most avant-gidists saw themselves as "high" artists, while other forces in and outside the Held of art singled them out as wild and dangerous "anti"-artists. This has given rise to two interesting critical tendencies, that are also marked in this book. On one hand, as Marjorie Perloff shows in detail here, it cannot be denied that many classic avantgarde works such as Marcel Duchamp's Fountam were intended as "highart. From this perspective, it is quite possible to ignore "low" culture altogether and to zoom in on the "high" art of the avant-garde. On the other hand, those same works undeniably also had an effect beyond their original "high" artistic intent. Duchamp might not have wished it that way, but Fountl has in the least subtle of interpretations become known, simply, as an anti-"high"-art work. This has often been observed, but what L important here is that those two tendencies ("high" art versus "anti-highart") are not irreconcilable: Duchamp in both remains situated wkhm the sphere or Held of "high" art production. Only when Duchamp is seen as an "anti-artists", however, does the relation with "low" culture become a 1

O u r work here was made possible by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) and M.D.R.N., a large scale K.UXeuven based research project (GOA). We would also like to extend our gratitude to our student Nicky Vanwinkel for her assistance.

^

For a m o s t recent update consult the chapters by David Glover and Nick Daly in The Cambndge Compamon to Popular Fution, David Glover and Scott McCracken (eds.), forthcoming in 2012.

4

Sascha Bru "with Laurence van Nuijs

pertinent enjeu. For here it is a given that warrants attention. Why should ' W culture be excluded from the realm of "high" art? Where does 'low" culture's attraction stem from? Why is it popular? And what, if anything, is the "popular"? The young Clement Greenberg: t h a t thing to w h i c h the G e r m a n s gave the w o n d e r f u l n a m e of Kitsch, p o p u l a r , c o m mercial art and literature w i t h their c h r o m e o t y p e s , magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick a n d p u l p fictions, comics, T i n P a n Alley m u s i c , tap dancing, H o l l y w o o d m o v i e s etc. etc. F o r Tome r e a s o n this gigantic apparition has always b e e n taken for granted. It is / « looked into its „hjs andlherefores)

Greenberg's programmatic words not only remind us of the constant distance Ld desire that characterise the relation between the opposite poles of "high" and "low" or popular culture. His words also s u Z a n s e me atm of Jhis book well. A lot has happened since Greenberg's essay "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" first appeared in 1939, not least within the domam of what he called Kttsch. The "gigantic apparition" he evoked more than half a century ago has irrefutably diversified and grown, as he predicted. Yet contrary to what Greenberg suggested rigfr before the outbreak of World War II, the "high" (modernist?end of cultural production (and consumption, and distribution) has fared well too. Greenberg's mandarm and somewhat pessimistic essay indeed implied that the demise of "great" or "high" art was imminent, and in that conviction he was certainly not alone among his generation, not to mention among the league of art critics who before or after htm have lamented the downfall of artistic standards and aesthetic traditions, of sound mores and stringent codes. Such lament seems of all times, and, curiously, the "death" of art it pro,ects is every so often evoked in relationship with some form of "low" culture. Interestingly, as many of Greenberg's contemporaries found it hard to place the work of the historical avant-gjrde "anti-it", they often depicted me avant-garde as just that: as part and parcel o f ' l o w " culture, as a dangerous threat to tradition. Today, the common (if not, popular) view of tiiose avant-gardes could not be more different as they have come to form a "high" tradition in themselves. Could it be then that not the demise of "great" art but the deep divide between "higher" and 'lowerforms of culture is of all times? And what, again, is the role of modernism's and the avant-garde's experimental art in all this? Despite varied and vmd attempts of avant-gardists throughout the 20* century to upset the

3

Clement Greenberg, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch", The Collected Essays & Criticism, Vol 1: Perceptions andjudgements, 1939-1944, Chicago & London 1986, 5-22, here 11, emphasis added.

Introduction

5

opposition between "h l g h" and "low" culture, despite recurrent claims (especially in critical disLsions of what was once called "postmodernism") that the opposition between the "high" and 'low" ends of culture was about to collapse, the divide between both appears as firm as ever. While nothing has changed, everything is different. Or is it?

Commerce Let us start with the obvious: 'low" or popular culture is most often intended to make a profit. Although, as David Hopkins reminds us here, few avant-gardists aspired to the career of a hunger artist, "capital" (in the complex sense of Pierre Bourdieu) certainly is earned differentiy in "highart and mass culture. As such, "high" art or literature and "low" or popular cultural artefacts never really compete with one another on the market. This m part explains why the many modernists and avant-gardists discussed m this book experimented so freely with forms and themes that also figured prominently in popular culture. The work of Wyndham Lewis as portrayed by Anna Burrellsf the magazine Us Somes de Pans (here discussed by Maria Dario) and French Surrealism's attraction to me oncecommeraal, to the outmoded, as evoked by Abigail Susrk, all mark the rich and potentially long afterlife popular cultural elements have in the avant-garde. Marton O r L ' s discussion of the Central-European colour film shows that the other way round too producers of popular culture often took a keen interest in avant-garde experimentation, because the latter every now and then also yielded commercially viable ideas. However natural the articulation of 'low" culture with commerce or capital might appear, it is not without complications of course. For starters, if there ever was a time upon which the "low" end of the cultural spectrum simply coincided wim "low class" (or the "high" end with "high(est) class"), that time has long gone. This is not the place to summarise the work of the many sociologists, cultural historian!, philosophers and art and literary scholars who m recent years have scrutinised the dialectic between class and culture. Let us just stick to Greenberg's essay. Like Hungarian Arnold Hauser in The SoL History of Art (1951)! he may well have had a point when he claimed that "high" art always has existed mamly by grace of the support and critical appreciation of a financially gifted but above all cultivated class with leisure Yet he was at the same time also quick to highlight that 'low" culture was being consumed by the highest classes as well, because, so Greenberg discovered, popular culture proved rather powerful as a means to kill time, an asset of which the culti-

6

Sascha Bru "with Laurence van Nuijs

vated rich had much to spend/ "Low" culture for Greenberg thus by no means signified "low class" alone. Greenberg's view of "high" culture, by contrast, was more quaint, as "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" further implied that only the cultivated rich could catch on to the critique of capitalism that was entailed by the avant-garde's violation of aesthetic conventions. Two things are wrong here. First, the allegedly "difficult" modernist and avant-garde art was of course not only there for the rich. Jacques Ranc h ' s work on proletarian culture has convincingly done away with the idea that the proletariat lack(ed) cultivation and education; a unified 'low class" culture simply never existed. Second, it is stating the obvious today to say that formal experiments in art need not involve a critique of capitalism. Complicating the matter further is the uneven development of capitalism itself As this book evinces, the relationship between capitalism and the avant-garde's and modernism's experimental aesthetic was highly varied throughout Europe.

From Folklore to the Everyday As complacent as the ties between 'low" or popular culture and commerce may be, they do not exhaust the semantic range of the notion "popular" Morag Shiach, Pascal Durand and Marc lite, among others, have shown that the term "popular" has a long and complex history.^ In the "high" modermst, Greenbergian view of arCnot much good can come from the popular - Theodor Adorno's mandarin stance still appears so much more subtle in this sense. Unsurprisingly, the notion in Greenberg came mainly with negative overtones: popular culture is mechanical, vulgar and unrefined, mauthentic, at worst populist. This view was not uncommon among writers and intellectuals we now often associate with "high" modernism, as Dominika Buchowska reminds us in her chapter on The New Age. Yet as Raymond Spiteri illustrates in his discussion of jean Cocteau's and Lms Bunuel's films, avant-gardists of course often deliberately sought out the ab,ect in a productive attempt to renew art. Moreover, Walter Benjamin's work on modern art's loss of "aura" illustrates that all the negative overtones Greenberg attached to popular culture could

4

The late but great Mate, Calinescu later expanded on this in his Five Faces of Moderns, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kttsch, Postmodern^, D u r h a m 1987.

Modesty:

^

Morag Shiach, Disco** on Popular Culture: class, gender and tistory in cultural analys,s 1730 to the presenhondon 1989. See also the special issue („° 42) of Heries, revue de Hnstitut des saences de la communication du CNRS edited by Pascal Durand and Marc Lits in 2005, entitled, "Peuple, p o p u l a r , populisme"

Introduction

7

also be turned positive. And needless to say there are still other ways of regarding the popular. In the most literal sense "popular culture" denotes the culture of the people, or, more aptly in light of Europe's rich cultural history, people,. Chapters reminding us here that modernism's and the avant-garde's attraction to popular culture also coincided with local geo-political stakes, and, perhaps more importantly, with a near ethnographtc pro,ect include Pal Dereky's and Geert Buelens' discussion of avant-garde poets' turn to traditional popular song, Regma Samson's discussion of Jorge Lms Borges, and jobst Welge's work on Ramon del Valle-Inclan. In different ways these chapters evoke the complex bond between experimental writing and folklore. Taken together, the chapters in this section of the book further testify to the linguistic and formal as well as historical diversity of Europe's popular culture,. Debbie Lewer's discussion of Dada draws on Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the carmvalesque to suggest that a detemtorialised notion of popular culture was often at work m the avant-garde as well. Stuart Hall's semmal "Notes on Deconstructing the 'Popular'" (1981) figures in the background here, not least because the "FoMore" section of the book as a whole also illustrates that popular culture is always the ground on which historical changes and culLal transformations are worked. When in doubt, it might help to read Beata Smecikowska's chapter on the reception and appropriation of that once "alien" entity called jazz in experimental m t e J a r Polish poetry. It is only when modernists and avant-gardists start paying attention to the smallest detail in so-called "ordinary" people's lives as ethnographers, that yet another, radically different aspect of "low" culture shows itself There is indeed a silent dimension to the "lower" end of the cultural spectrum, which "high" culture in particular for a long time deemed unimportant, not even worth words. Art, literary and cultural historians of diverse casts m the foregoing century have often just called that dimension the everyday. As readers familiar with that towering record of the quotidian, James Joyce's Ulysses, we know what attention to the everyday can amount to. At least we have a sense of it, for if there is any truth to Maurice Blanchot's assertion that the everyday is that what remains (and still escapes) when everything has been said and done, then we also grasp why the everyday is at once an inherent aspect and a cognate, the shadow at best, of the popular. In their chapters on Surrealist writing, Wolfgang Asholt and Ivanne Rialland exemplify that the everyday often came close to coinciding with the popular in the avant-garde. The ephemeral streetwise dimension of the everyday is also discussed in Caroline Blmder's chapter on the representa-

Sascha Bru "with Laurence van Nuijs

tion of the mun1C1pal chair in interwar avant-garde photography. Upping the ante in her chapter, Agata jakubowska's analysis of Magdalena Abaka nowicz's work reminds us that the everyday also has a pronounced gender dimension, jakubowska, along with Gregory Williams, whose chapter analyses the work of Joseph Beuys' student Imi Knoebel, and Harn Vdvo, who scrutinises Finnish literature, explores how in the post-war avantgardes the earlier fascination with the everyday was renewed and reinvigofflted. Media The final section of the book looks at the interstices between popular (mass) media, the avant-garde and modernism. Sara j . Angel first looks at how the newspaper helped shape the work of Pablo Picasso up and until Guerntca (1937) Karoly Kokai and Gabnele jute then turn their attention to the centre of Europe, Kokai looking at the role of film in the journal Ma during its Viennese phase, jute at me incredibly rich and challenging work of Lazlo Moholy-Nagy in light of present-day media theory. The bulk of the "Media" section turns to me so-called neo-avantgardes. Covering film, the plastic arts and literature, Elena Hamalidi, Maria Nikolopoulou and Rea Wallden introduce an English readership to the fascinating work of the Greek avant-garde that beg^n to form itself in the 1960s under the dictatorship. With jesper Olsson we ,ump to the North of Europe to land in Sweden during the 1960s where Olsson invites us to relive an appearance of avant-gardists on a popular national television show. Ross Elfline brings us back to the South in a discussion of the Italian architecture collective Superstudio. Elfline unfolds an aesthetic programme that is m so many ways typical of the whole 20*-century avantgarde adventure, as Superstudio desired to have an architecture without buildings, an art with no more divides. And yet divides there were as Koen Rymenants and Pieter Verstraeten remind us in their chapter on mterwar Belgian radio. Rymenants and Verstraeten look into how the radical experimentation of modernists and avant-gardists was presented to a wider audience during the mterwar period. They situate their work within a broader trend in Western modernism studies that turns to the vast cultural "space in between" high- and lowbrow: middlebrow. For, indeed, not all art and literature in me 20* century was as complex and self-conscious as that of the avant-garde and modernism, nor was all other art simply 'low". There was a large proportion of work, in literature and art, that to an extent educated less cultivated consumers by incorporating certain innovative aspects of modernism and the avant-garde, while simultaneously also looking at the 'low" end of

Introduction

9

culture for inspiration. Such work, whether we en,oy reading it or not, deserves our attention too if we want to shed light on the vexed relation between "high" versus 'low" culture in the first (and perhaps more so, the second) half of the 20* century. Greenberg, again, would come to recognise this, too, after the 1930s.

Terms and Canons The aforementioned parameters are explored in the opening section of this book. Discussing various media and such diverse figures as Loie Fuller, Man Ray and Fedenco Garcia Lorca, Esther SancL-Pardo shows how in a variety of subtle ways popular mass culture informed changes in avant-garde art production and technique too. Domimka Buchowska canvasses the inherent political dimension of this book's theme, highlighting the tension between populism and elitism in modernism. Most contributions here, however, explore theoretical and terminological concerns in more detail. David Ayers wonders why those adhering to the "anti-art" interpretation of the avant-garde a century later still cling on to an essentiatet notion of "high" art. His essay could be read in tandem with M a r i ne Perloffs. She argues that the distinction between "high" and 'lowculture is essential. Not only does that distinction in her mind give shape to a dynamic ordering of art works in the field, it is, for that reason, also a very tangible point of anchorage in historical research. Charting the context in which Duchamp produced some of his readymades, Perloff puts forth a point Alexis Paterson rehearses in her chapter on British Expenmentalism. Hierarchies, Paterson shows, are everywhere. Even within the respective fields of "high" and "low" culture, works, products if you want, are always ordered and ranked. There is bad popular culture too, as we all know. And there is "high" art that will come too close to popular culture, such as the compositions of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, which will be ranked lower within the field of "high" art. This complex dynamic, Chnstophe Gemn illustrates, has gone through a series of changes in the course of the 20* century, as a great variety of forces and currents among "the people" at large always inform matters of taste. Yet if one thing stands out throughout this book, it is that, indeed, the division between "high" and "low" seems perennial. Perhaps that division is as old as Antiquity. Already in Rhetoric Aristone averred that all discourse needs to adapt its substance to its ends. Treatises on this pragmatic dimension of rhetoric since traditionally have distinguished between three sorts of style: the stilus bumiUs, stilus medtocns, and stilus gram; a simple or low (pastoral) style, a moderate or middle one,

10

Sascha Bru with Laurence van Nuijs

and an elevated or sublime style. The difference between h l g h and low may in other words be just the offspring of a deeply sedimented rhetorical tradition. Depending on what we aim to achieve and who we address, we pick our register and pitch. This is so in modern and late modern times, but it was also so in Antiquity. Moreover, Qcero, in the Orator, believed that the three styles corresponded to three ^s: probere (to prove), dekctare (to charm), and flectare (to move). If that is still the case, too, then the question is what Greenberg's Kitsch or the popular "proves" beyond the abundance of time and boredom in the life of its consumer? More importantly, perhaps, if modernism and the avant-garde were part and parcel of high culture, who were they in turn trying to "move", really, apart from Greenberg's leisured class? Yes, it's true: while nothing has changed, everything is different Most chapters gathered in this book began as conference papers at the second biennial EAM conference organised in September 2010 at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznah, Poland. Let us hope that the EAM continues to prosper, too SB with LvN

Terms and Canons

"The Madness of the Unexpected": Duchamp's Readymades and the Sur^val of "High" Art Marjone Perloff (University of Southern California)

Some myths die hard. Almost a century after the creation of Duchamp's early readymades - the Bicycle Wheel (1914), the Battle Rack (1915), the snow shovel called In Advance of the Broken Arm (1915), and the upsidedown urinal famously called FoLdn (1917) - the common wisdom continues to be that the readymades, what Duchamp first called la sculpture toute-fatte\ are ordinary manufactured ob,ects that the artist selected, labelled, and signed, pronouncing them "art" by simple fiat. "Duchamp's Readymades", Allan Kaprow remarked in 1973 "are radically useful contributions to the current scene. If Simply calling a snow shovel a work of art makes it that, the same goes for all of New York City, or the Vietnam war, or a pedantic article on Marcel Duchamp. [...] Conversely, since any nonart can be art after the appropriate ceremonial announcement, any art, theoretically, can be de-arted ('Use Rembrandt for an ironing board' Duchamp)" 2 Assessments like Kaprow's recall Peter Burger's still influential (though more skeptical) pronouncement in Theory of the Avant-Garde: W h e n D u c h a m p signs mass-produced objects (a urinal, a botde drier) and sends them to art exhibits he nfgates the category o f individual production. The signature, w h o s e very purpose it is to mark what is individual in the work ... is inscribed in an arbitrary chosen Z s product, because all claims to individual creativity are to be mocked. D u champ's provocation not only unmasks the art market where the signature means more than the quality o f the work; it radically questions the very principle o f art in bourgeois society according to which the individual is considered the creator of the work of art. Duchamp's Ready-Mades are not works of art but manifestations.3

1

* 3

Marcel D u c h a m p , letter to Suzanne D u c h a m p , 15 January 1916, in Affect/Marcel: The Selected Correspondence ofMarcel Duchamp, Francis M. N a u m a n n & Hector Obalk (eds.), Jill Taylor (trans.)fLondon2000, 43. Allan Kaprow, "Dr. MX).", Allan Kaprow: Essays on the Blumng of Art and Ufe, Jeff Kelley (ed.), Berkeley CA 2003, 128. Peter Burger, Theory of the Avant-Garde, Michael Shaw (trans.), Minneapolis 1984, 51-52.

14

MarjonePerloff

These words were wntten some thirty-five years ago but there is no indication that Burger has ever changed his mind. In a recent catalogue essay for a Jeff Wall exhibition in Vienna, for example, Burger repeats his conviction that Duchamp's readymades have nothing to do with individual artistic gemus; they are famous simply because Duchamp was the first to make the claim that any ordinary object can be a work of art if the artist saysitis.^ The corollary, of course, is that there can be no meaningful distinction between "high" and "low" art. In his influential After the Great Dmde (1986), Andreas Huyssen echoes Burger in asserting that Duchamp's urinal can be classified as art "only by virtue of the fact that an artist exhibited] it". As Huyssen puts it: I n t h o s e days [e.g. the war years], the audience recognized the p r o v o c a t i o n and was shocked. I t u n d e r s t o o d all t o o well that D a d a attacked all the holy c o w s of b o u r g e o i s art-rehgion. A n d yet D a d a ' s frontal attack was unsuccessful, n o t only because the m o v e m e n t e x h a u s t e d itself in negation, b u t also because e v e n t h e n b o u r g e o i s culture was able to c o - o p t any k i n d of attack m a d e o n it. D u c h a m p himself saw I n s d i l e m m a a n d w i t h d r e w from the art scene in 1923.5

This statement is oddly confused. Dada may well have "attacked all the holy cows of bourgeois art-religion" (even this is a sweeping generalization), but Duchamp is not synonymous with Dada.« The fact is that Duchamp hadn't so much as heard of Dada when, on a notepad of 1913, he posed the urgent question, "Can one make works that are not works of r art'"?v, or when in 1913-15, he produced the "mechanical drawing" of the Chocolate Grinder, the wood box with canvas "measure" snips on glass called Three Standard Stoppages, and the first readymades - the Bottle Rack and the Btcyck Wheel- these last two left behind in his Parts studio when he came to the US, and accidentally thrown in the trash by his stster Suzanne. The first enigmatic notes and drawings for the Large Glass were made in 1915. By 1916, when his friend F r a n k s Ptcabta introduced Duchamp to Tnstan Tzara's La Premere Aventun"celeste de Monsteur Antipynne, D u c h L p had completed In Advance oft the Broken Arm (the snow shovel 4 ^

See Burger, " Z u r Kntik der NeoAvantgard^', in Jeff Wall: Photographs, exh. cat. Museum M o d e m e r Kunst, Vienna 2003, 174-98. Andreas Huyssen, After the Great Dmde: Modems, Mass Culture, Postmodern^, Bloomington 1986,147.

6

See Marjone Perloff, " D a d a without D u c h a m p / D u c h a m p without Dada: Avant-Garde Tradition and the Individual Talent", in: Stanford Humamties Re^, 7, 1999, 1, 48-78; and idem, "The Conceptual Poetics of Marcel D u c h a m p " , in: Trventy-Krst Century Moderns, Oxford 2002, 77-120

7

Marcel D u c h a m p , " A L'lnfinitif" (1913), in The Essential WMngs oft Marcel Duchamp, Marchand du Sell Salt Seller, Michel Sanouillet & Elmer Peterson (eds.)1 L o n d o n 1975, 74

D u c h a m p ' s Readymades and the Survival of " H l g h " Art

15

suspended by its handle in a glass case), With Hidden Noise (the ball of strmg between brass plates with a "secret" noisemaker inside) and Fountain. "It wasn't at all after seeing Dada things", that these works were made, Duchamp assures Pierre Cabiine." Indeed, in 1920, he refused to participate in the Pans Dada salon, responding to his friend jean Crotti's invitation with the two-word telegraln "Pode bal> (Peau de balle, or "Balls to you"). As for withdrawing from the art scene in 1923, as Huyssen claims, Duchamp was, on the contrary, beginning a new phase of his career, which included the various boxes and boites en vahe, the Rotorehft, and especially his ultimate "readymade", Etant Donnes. The latter, after all, did not go on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art until 1967, the year before Duchamp's death. Were the readymades, as Huyssen implies, a response to World War I? Indirectly, yes, in that it was the war that prompted Duchamp's decision to leave Paris and its increasingly oppressive "milieu artistique''^ for New York, where he came in contact with a whole new world of "advancedtechnology. Were the "indifferent" ob,ects Duchamp found or bought designed m Burgenan terms, as an "assault" on bourgeois high culture and rapidly co-opted by the capitalist art market? Was theirs an assault on the institutionalization of art in the modernist museum?- Or was something else at stake? Duchamp scholars - Calvin Tomkms, William Camfield, and especially Thierry de Duve" - have written brilliantly about Fountain itself - its purchase its submission to the first exhibition of the Society oft Independent Artists in April 1917, its vociferous reaction followed by witty rehabilitation via Stieglite's "artful" photograph and its particular visual and seman-

B

See Pierre Cabanne, Dtalogues mth Marcel Duchamp, N e w York 1971 [1967], 56.

'

See D u c h a m p ' s letter to Walter Pach, 27 April 1915, in Correspondence, 35.

io

This is the view of T. J. D e m o s in The Stales of Marcel Duchamp, Cambridge M A 2007. D u c h a m p ' s "first readymades of 1913-14", writes D e m o s , "[...] internalized the circulatory mobility of objects within m o d e r n capitalism by inserting commercial objections into either the domestic economy of the home studio or the institutionalization of the art gallery" (7). See also Benjamin H. D . Buchloch, "The Museum Fictions of Marcel Broodthaers", in Museums by Artists, A. A. Bronson & Peggy Gale (eds.), T o r o n t o 1985, 45.

»

Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A B,ographj, N e w York 1996; William A. Camfield, Marcel,'Duchamp/Fountam, H o u s t o n 1989; Thierry de D u v e , "Given the Richard Mutt Case", in K,nt After Duchamp, Cambridge M A 1996, 88-143. An earlier version of de Duve's essay, with responses by other critics following, may be found in de Duve's edited book The Definitely Unfimshed Marcel Duchamp, Cambridge M A 1992, 187-241. I cite this version, which is longer and contains more images than the KaKt after Duchamp version. See also de Duve's important earlier study, Bctonal Nommahm: On Marcel Duchamp's Passage from Pamting to the Readjmade, D a n a Polan (trans.), Minneapolis 1991 [1984]. Some good documentation from the 1917 exhibition may be found in Mating M.cMefi Dada Invades Ne„ York, Francis M. N a u m a n n & Beth Venn (eds.), N e w York 1997.

16

MarjonePerloff

tic meanings- - but little attention has been paid to the relation of Duchamp's urinal to the art works (mostly paintings), submitted and shown by the Independents - works that reflect the popular conception of "art" m the war years. It is a relationship important, not only in clarifying Duchamp's own aesthetic, but in helping us attain a ,uster picture of the way individual gemus positions itself vis-a-vis the dominant art practices and even the "experiments" of its own time.

The Deferral of Painting The directors of the First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, held at the Grand Central Palace on Lexington Avenue m the spring of 1917, consisted of three groups. William Glackens, the president! George W. Bellows, Rockwell Kent, and Maurice Prendegast represented the Ash-Can School, which dealt primarily with realistic subject matter, although Bellows's entry for the Independents, Cattk and Meadow HiUs, 1916, used bright Expressionist color to create mood. Alfred Stieglrte's 291 group was represented by John Marin; StiegHtz was not on the board, but he and Paul Strand did contribute some eadier photographs (for example, StiegHte's great The Steerage of 1907) to the exhibition The third group was drawn from the Arensberg circle - Arensberg himself was managing director - and included Duchamp, Man Ray, Joseph Stella, John Covert, and Morton Schamberg. D u c h J p was also chosen to be the chairman of the three-man Hanging Committee (the others were Bellows and Kent) - an irony since he himself was no longer making paintings. It was Duchamp who came up with the notion that the sequence of exhibits, to be hung m alphabetical order, as had the pamtings m the earlier (1910) "Exhibition of Independent Artists",- should be determined by drawing a letter from a hat. The arbitrariness of this procedure - the letter turned out to be "R" - caused consternation among Society members: the powerful artist Robert Henri withdrew from the Society and the noted patron and collector John Qumn called it 'Democracy run riot"." The rationale of the "No jury, no prizes" policy governing the exhibition was based on the policy of the Soaete des Artistes Independents in Paris, 12 13

14

Catalogue of the First Annual'Exhibition of The Soaety of Independent Artists (New York: Society of Independent Artists, printed by William Edwin Rudgef 1917). The 1910 Exhibition of Independent Artists in N e w York consisted of 260 paintings, 20 sculptures and 219 drawings and prints. Any artist who could pay the entry fee could submit work which was arranged alphabetically by each artist's last name. The organizers were the artists J o h n Sloan, Robert Henri, Arthur B. Davies, and Walt Kuhn.

Tomkins,D*^,180.

D u c h a m p ' s Readymades and the Survival of " H l g h " Art

17

founded in 1884. The Independants had eked the authonty of none other than the most prominent of classical painters, Ingres, who had declared, "A jury, whatever the means adopted for its formation, will always work badly. The need of our time is for unlimited admission [to the Salon ...]. I consider un,ust and immoral any restriction tending to prevent a man from living from the product of his work" 15 The greal Impressionist painter Renoir was also cited as an opponent to the prize system. No prizes, no ,unes: ergo anyone could be an artist. According to Article II, section 3 of the bykws of the Society of Independents, "Any artist, whether a citizen of the United States or of any foreign country, may become a member of the Society upon filing an application therefore, paying the initiation fee and the annud dues of a member, and exhibiting at the exhibition in the year that he joins". The initiation fee was one dollar, the annual dues, five; for six dollars, any self-designated artist could therefore exhibit up to two works; for another four dollars, each artist could buy the space for one illustration in the catalogueThe response to this call for submissions was astonishing. The exhibition included 2125 works by 1235 artists (821 men, 414 women), arranged in alphabetical order "regardless of manner or medium", although in practice the medium was predominantly oil painting, along with a few sculptures, drawings, and photographs. Among the 1235 artists, were some famous names, from Picasso and Picabia to jean Metzinger, Marsden Hartley, John Sloan, Arthur Dove, and Charles Demuth, most of these presented by earlier and lesser work and hence not especially noted by the exhibition's reviewers. The vast ma,onty in any case, were entirely unknown: on the two-column list of P's in the catalogue, for example, Picabia is next to Love Porter, Picasso next to Alexander Portnoff The democratic policy governing the exhibition elicited strong response: 20,000 people were reported to have filed through the galleries of the Grand Central Palace on Lexington Avenue during its month-long (April 10-May 6)run. Duchamp, whose New York reputation was still based primarily on his Nude Descending a Statrcase, exhibited at the Armory Show of 1913, made no submission to the Independents. But two days before the official opening on April 10, an ob,ect titled Fountam was delivered to the Grand Central Palace! together with an envelope bearing the membership and entry fee of one Richard Mutt from Philadelphia. Duchamp, in the company of Arensberg and Joseph Stella, had purchased this ob,ect (see fig. 1)

15 "

See Foreword to the Catalog*, 11. Catalogue, 11-12; de D u v e , The Definitely UnfimshedMarcelDuchamp,

190-91.

18

Marjone Perloff

Fig. 1 (left): Marcel D u c h a m p , Fountain (1963); third version selected by Ulf Linde after lost original of 1917. Signed by D u c h a m p . Fig. 2 (right): Marcel D u c h a m p , Fountain, 1917, readymade 1917 (lost). Original 1917 photograph by Alfred Stieglitz, silver gelatin print, 9 5/16 x 7 in. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Louise and Walter Arensbero- Collection.

a few days earlier from the showroom of J. L. Mott Iron Works, a manufacturer of bathroom fixtures, at 118 Fifth Avenue. It was a "flat-back Bedfordshire" model porcelain urinal. "Duchamp", Calvin Tomkins tells us, "had taken it back to his studio, turned it upside down and painted on the rim at the lower left, in large black letters, the name R. MUTT and the date, 1 9 1 7 " " The reaction to this entry was electric: Bellows found the urinal obscene and refused to exhibit it; Arensberg praised its 'lovely form", but to no avail. At the zero hour before the opening, the ten-member board of directors met and voted by a small margin to turn down Richard Mutt's submission. When Glackens, the president, declared that it was "by no definition, a work of art", Duchamp and Arensberg immediately resigned from the board in protest. Fountain disappeared from the premises: no one could say for sure what happened to it. But a week later, it turned up in Stieglitz's 291 Gallery, and soon, at Duchamp's request, the great photographer made the urinal immortal by photographing it in front of a painting by Mardsen Hartley entitled The Warriors, setting its smooth curve against the similar ogival shape in the painting so that it resembled a sculpture in a niche: it was soon dubbed, by Duchamp's acquaintance , the Madonna or Buddha of the Bathroom (fig 2).18 17 18

Tomkins, Duchamp, 181. See Camfield, Marcel/Duchamp/Fountain, 136; de D u v e , The Definitely Unfinished Marcel Du, 144. Hartley's painting is in the Regent Collection, Minneapolis.

D u c h a m p ' s Readymades and the Survival of " H i g h " Art

19

Fig. 3 (left): Louis Elshemius, Rose Marie Calling (Supplication), 1916. Oil on board, 61"x40" (collection Roy F. Neuberger). Fig. 4 (center): D o r o t h y Rice, The Claire Twins. Reproduced in the New York Sun of 15 Arpil 1917 (Photo Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University). Fig. 5 (right): Constantm Brancusi, Princesse Bonaparte, polished bronze, (Arensberg collection, Philadelphia Museum).

But why did Duchamp want Stieglitz to give his urinal this aesthetic dimension? It was a move in keeping with a related one: on the opening night of the exhibition, Duchamp declared that the two best paintings in the show were Louis Eilshemius's Rose Marie Calling, also known as Supplication (fig. 3) and Dorothy Rice's The Claire Twins (fig. 4). This judgment, cited the next day in The New York Sun by the art critic Henry McBride, was as widely quoted as it was wonderfully absurd. Eilshemius was a painter influenced by the Hudson River School, who was largely scorned by the New York art world for his kitschy eroticism as well as his extravagant self-promotion: in a series of pamphlets, he claimed to be an unrecognized genius — "painter, poet, musician, inventor, linguist, mystic, educator, prophet, etc.".19 As de Duve puts it, "Everybody gossiped about him, nobody took him seriously, no gallery was showing him".20 Indeed, the large-breasted, arm-waving, histrionically posed nude in a pastel landscape of Supplication, reproduced on the final page of the exhibition catalogue, belongs, not to the world of charming, delicate, and elegant portraits that dominated the Independents' galleries, but rather to the parodic world of the moustached Mona Lisa of L.H.O.O.Q. or, even more uncannily, to the sphere of Etant Donnes.21 But the case of The Claire Twins is even more intriguing. The painting (now lost; we know it only through the black-and-white reproduction in the New York Sun for April 15, 1917) is a poorly painted double portrait of 19

de D u v e , The Definitely Unfinished Marcel Duchamp, 197.

20

de D u v e , The Definitely Unfinished Marcel Duchamp, 201.

21

O n D u c h a m p ' s complex attitude toward Kilshemius, Marcel Duchamp, 202-18.

de Duve, The Definitely Unfinished

20

MarjonePerloff

the enormously overweight and grotesque female twins who evidently performed in a sideshow for the Barnum & Bailey circus.- Absurdly decked out m fancy dress, with inappropriately girlish headbands and flowers m their harr, the two women have vapid expressions. One holds a doll m her awkwardly pamted hand. The relation of figure to dark ground is handled with little skill. Indeed, this unpleasant painting bears I r k resemblance to the countless "pretty" portraits in tlJ.exhibition - portraits of younggiris in flouncy dresses and charming matrons silhouetted against fireplaces and windows In his review of the Independents for the New York Sun, Henry McBnde remarks that, after seeing one too many "soponfically correct pictures of the sort that are usually reacted even by the academy", he was delighted to "stumble upon that stupendous production by Miss Dorothy Rice, The CMremns":* "Everybody laughs when they see those twins. Even the Baron de Meyer laughed. Marius de Zayas of the Modern Gallery seemed positively glued to the floor in front of them. "You'll be having that down in your gallery next", I bantered him. "I should be only too proud", he returned "I can't believe a woman did that. It's strong". "She asks but $5,000 for it", said Mr. Montross, examining the little white card beside the picture.

And McBnde adds, "In regard to the 'Clatre Twins' there will be many to agree with Mr. Duchamp m spite of the price mark, but no one that I have heard of yet agrees with him in regard to 'Supplication' except Mr. Eilshemius"What was it about The Clam Twins that made everyone laugh? To begin with, Duchamp's selection and high price tag are patently absurd, given the amateur status of the painter. The information about Dorothy lice (1892-1960) is scanty, but we know the following.^ The daughter of a 22

See Catherine McNickle Chastain, "Louis Eilshemius's ar le populisms mdustnel, soit la conception mdustnelle et marchande du peuple comme objet duplication du marketing. D'ou une distinction conceptuelle entre democratic et popuHsme que met en place Bernard Stiegler pensant la « telecratie »35 conJne la negation de hpMa necessarre au v t r e ensemble. De meme s'est constitute une mediaculture qui retentit sur le modele francos de legitimate culturelle et sur les nouvelles organisations du corps social-

33

Jean-Pierre Balpe (ed.), Les caUers du numenque, « L'art et le numenque », 1, 2000, 4.

34

Vincent Amiel, « Les ecrans multiples. Une esthetique de la situation », in : Esprit, « La societe des ecrans et la television », 2003, 293, 35-42.

33 36

Bernard Stiegler, La telea-atie Conte b demote, Pans 2006. Eric Maigret & Eric Mace (eds.), Penser les meMacultures. Nouvelles pratiques et nouvelles approches tela representation A a,™*, Paris 2005.

94

Christophe Genin

Une sooete et des vies en mille-feuilles La categone de culture popularre, le clrvage culture populate/culture savante, Opposition entre Jne elite « haute » et un peuple «bas» sont-ils encore pertinents, et sont-ils meme utiles ? L'exetnple du sport de haut mveau qui met une elite de la performance au service de spectacles de masse semble rendre caduc ce distinguo ^ Cette question tfhistoire des idees renvoie a une question de prindpe : y a-t-il des concepts penmes, penssables ? II faut bien y faire attention, car c'est bien l'effet du marche tnomphant que d'amver a faire croire que meme le monde de Fame pent s'apprecier al'aune des echanges de biens de consommation, et qu'il en est de la vie mteneure comme des effets de mode, ,etables et mterchangeables, comme si un groupe de notions devrarc etre reforme pour relanLl'audiencedemedias. Pourtant de fait une culture savante existe, diffuses dans des milieux specitiques (universkaires, mdustnels collectionneurs, polrtiques eclaires et avertis, haute bourgeoisie), mais die ne donne pas necessakement son ton a l'ensemble de la societe civile. Autrement dit la distinction pertinente n'est pas une difference de nature entre bas et haut, topologie hentee des ordres feodaux et anstocratiques, mais une dtfference de degre, d'mtensite entre des niches culturelles poreuses, mterpenetrables, susceptibles d'etre appreciees ou depreciees selon des valorisations marchandes fluctuates. Si tout est affaire de marche, alors un micro-marche (une niche) ne pent qu'etre appele a se developper. Des lors la volonte de tenir la valeur marchande, comme optimisation de l'mvestissement, pour parangon de toute production, ramene toute forme de culture, populate ou savante, a une contrefacon kitsch- Le charme d'un art est transforme en emotion kitsch- ou la ngueur d'une pensee est reduite a un adage repete en boucle sur les medias. l a r exemple, la musique baroque est Jputee belle et exigeante, mais non populate. Tons lesmatins du monde (1991) est un film d'Alam Corneau recueilli sur la spirituals de cette musique. Ce film donne a entendre des timbres de voix deroutants et rehe le cadrage cmematographique a la lumiere d'une pemture d'epoque. Cette forme de sevente ne nurc pas au succes. En revanche, Fanned (1994), de Gerard Cor37

Patrick Mignon, « La sociologie du sport a-t-elle besom des Cultural studies ? », in : Soaologu du sport. Perspectives mternationales et monMahation, F a l l e n Ohl (ed.), Pans 2006, 153-58 ;« Culture p o p u l a t e et innovation musicale : les origines i n d u s t r i e s du rock anglais », conference du jeudi 20 novembre 2008, Colloque « Musique et industne », Paris, Palais de T o kyo.

3B

Cf. notre ouvrage Kttsch dans I'ame, Paris 2010.

*

Francoise Parouty-David, Metamorphoses des styles et contratfid«Clalre. Nouveaux Actes Semiotiques [en ligne]. Actes de colloques, 2006, Kitsch et avant-garde : strategies culturelles et )ugementesthetique.

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biau, fait de l'opera baroque un spectacle kitsch, falsifiant l'historre et meme les sonontes des voix, pour centrer l'intrigue sur la castration vue depris l'emotivite contemporaine polansee sur la sexualite. Le probleme id qu'onne peut plus prodmre deux colonnes de comp o n e n t s , Hes a deux standards economiques, avec leurs attribute esthetiques ou ethiques respectifs, comme si les contenus de l'un etaient exclusifs de 1 W Si l'on pouvarc dire dans les annees 1960 que Ttnttn ouAstenx relevaient de la culture populate, ce n'est plus exact au,ourd'hui ou fls donnent aussi lieu a des etudes savantes. De meme la BD peut parfois etre tenue comme un art difficile, voire repute elitiste (Joann Sfar) La bande dessmee est un art de masse avec l'mdustne des mangas et un art d'elite avec la vente aux encheres de planches origmales. Les images de premiere commumon, qui formaient une imagerie populate, sont detournees par Pierre et Gilles, qui en font des contrefacons kitsch a des fins de revendication homosexuelle. Parler du cinema comme d'un art populate n'a pas grand sens quand on compare un blockbuster et du cmema experimental. Des hommes a des dteux de Xavier Beauvois est un film austere! mais qui, contre toute prevision, connalt un succes grand public grace, entre autres facteurs, a Faction des reseaux Chretiens. On ne peut plus penser selon un modele de paralleHsme, par une homologie entre savorrs et pratiques culturels et classe socio-economique, comme si un contenu culturel specifique (art, genre, medium) etait affects a une classe, car les nouvelles lilies de partag? sont, paradoxalement, a la fois d'ordre identities et marchandes Plus radicalement encore, alors qu'en realite tout un chacun est habite par une « dissonance » culturelle qui lui fait egalement aimer le facile comn^e le difficile, il apparalt que disttibuer des savoirs et pratiques en « populates » ou « elitistes » releve mjme d'une lutte intestine entre les p r o d u c e r s culturels pour s'arroger la maltose des canons culturels ou pour s'eriger en modele de gout.Les etudes culturelles ont done une vertu : l'examen de conscience pour decouvrir en soi les effets differes ou mattendus d'une BMo dommend,

*

Bernard Lah.re, La c«lt«n des t«dt«dus. Dissonances cuticles

et dtstinction de sot, Pans 2004.

Folklore

Dada, Carnival and Revolution Debbie Lewer (University of Glasgow) Dada scholarship has been alert for some time to the broadly "carmvalesque" dimensions of the m o v e m e n t The abundant love of masks and pseudonyms, absurdity, games and hoaxes and the transgression of natural boundaries all present memselves as ready evidence. Mikhail Bakhtin's semmal Rabelau and Ms World provides a seductive filter through which to view them.^ The rich European tradition of the Fool as a ffgure in art, philosophy and vernacular culture accommodates just as readHy much of Dada's activity. It is clear that the Dadaists themselves understood the popular secular traditions and the power of the Fool. Within Christian tradition, the Fool's origins He in the book of Psalms where the essence of his foolishness is his denial of God: "The fool says in his heart: 'there is no God'". (Dixit mspiens in corde suo: Non est deus, Psalms 12, 14).' Such demal also sheds light on Dada's copious and intentionally provocative blasphemy, itself one of many forms of Dada's hierarchical inversions.* In the "Oberdada", Johannes Baader wrote a note to Tristan Tzara saluting him with the Nietzschean pun "Lieber Tzara Tustra!", and informed him

Th 1 S essay is an extended version of papers presented at the annual Association of Art Historians Conference 2010 (Glasgow, UK) and at the European Avant-Garde and Modernism Conference 2010 ( P o L n , Poland). It is related to a larger research project generously supported by a Fellowship from the Alexander von H u m b o l d t Foundation and by m y academic hosts at the Kunsthistoosches Institut, University of Bonn, Germany. 1

For two good studies, see Richard Sheppard, "Tricksters, Carnival and the Magical Figures of Dada Poetry" in Richard Sheppard, Moderns - Dada - Postmodern.™, Evanston 2000, 292-303 and Hanne Bergius, " D a d a as "Buffoonery and Requiem at the Same Time'", in: Debbie Lewer (ed.), Postlmpresstomsm to World War II, Maiden 2006, 366-80.

* 3

Mikhail Bakhtin, RabeUs and Us World, Bloomington 1984. Chnsta Grossinger, Humour and Folly in Secular and Profane Pnnts of Northern Europe 14301540, L o n d o n 2002, 112. For a discussion of blasphemic inversion in Berlin Dada, see Debbie Lewer, "Revolution and the Weimar Avant-Garde: Contesting the Politics of Art 1919-1924", in: J o h n A. Williams (ed.), Wamar Culture Rented, N e w York 2011, 1-21.

4

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that "in German we have the wonderful word 'Fool' (Narr) for genius''.^ Satire's basis in a concept of the "world turned upside down" also links Dada with the traditions of both folly and carnival Finally, contemporary reception of Dada during and just after the First World War shows that it was regularly understood - often negatively - in carmvalesque terms.* My purpose here though is more specific: it is both to test and to histoncise Dada's putative "carmvalesque" by situating German Dada in relation to theories of carnival in the Weimar period and to its historical and modern German forms. I will consider some of Dada's carnival properties beyond those most apparent or most spectacular. There is a methodological danger m overstretching the theoretical model of carnival so that it simply becomes a catch-all for more or less any form of excess, licence, parody, anti-authoritarianism or ludic impulse. Play is an essential part of carmval but carnival does not encompass all kinds of play. In the German context, there are also different terms for, and variants of, carnival. There is a contested distinction between "Karneval" and "Faschmg" for example, which is largely, though not exclusively, regional. Standard dictionaries have the terms as synonyms.? Hemnch Boll, however, argued in a 1960 essay for a distinction between "Karneval", as it is known in the Rhmeland, and "Faschmg" as it is often known in central and southern Germany (as distinct from "Fastnacht"). Boll was, of course, a native of Cologne, the epicentre of modern German carmval, so his views are hardly impartial. Nonetheless, to him, "Karneval" was truly indiscriminate, something "vulgar, with all the greatness and all the terribleness of the vulgar, but never frivolous", something "classless in the way that an infectious disease knows no class difference" "Faschmg", m the other hand, he called "an mvention of the boheme", remote from the life of a city and therefore possible to ignore, while "to try to ignore Carnival m Cologne would be futile: one can only remove oneself from the infectious zone"*

5

6

? B

Greeting inscribed on a fragment from a Dada publication, reproduced in Hanne Bergius, N o r b e r t Miller & Karl Riha (eds.), Johannes Baader, OBERDADA. Schnften, Mamfeste, Flugblatter, BMets, Werke und Taten, Lahn-GieBen 1977, 72: "Lieber T 2 ara Tustra! / Wir haben im Deutschen fur Genie das schone W o r t 'Narr' - Vielleicht kannst D u dieses W o r t das nachste Mai in Deiner Anrede gebrauchen. / G n . 6 / D e r Oberdada" Should it not be apparent, the Nietzschean pun is on T 2 ara Tustra / Zarathustra. Dada's reception and frequent disavowal in Weimar Germany was also articulated in specifically "carnivalesque" terms. N u m e r o u s contemporary newspaper responses to Dada utilise the language of popular carnival or Fool figures ("FastnaMsu/k", "Hansvurstiade" and so on). For one of the more sophisticated reviews of this kind, see the Expressionist Kasimir Edschmid's review of the Dada Almanach, Frankfurter Zeltung 9.12.1920 (n.p.). See e.g. "Karneval", in: Meyers Grofies Konversations-Le^kon, (6* ed.) 10, Leipzig 1908, 664. H e i n n c h Boll, "Was ist kolnisch?", in: Heinrich Boll, Bnefe aus dem Rhemhnd. Schnften und Reden 1960-1963, Munich 1985, 46-49, 46-47.

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Fig. 13: Private photograph of two German carnival revellers. Inscribed on the reverse "Krna and Lotte in costume, Saturday 7.2.1927 before Krna and Lotte "went to the ball". Private collection.

In the case of Dada there are also differences. On the one hand, there is Dada's structurally "carmvalesque" confrontation of sense with nonsense as part of a critique of rationalism. I would argue that this is different from, and not to be confused with, its more straightforward embrace of modern, commercial Shrovetide festivity, which can best be understood

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as part of Dada's wider enthusiasm for contemporary popular culture (and for selling tickets). Examples include a "Faschmgsfest", or carnival party, held at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich on 23 March 1916, featuring a programme of Futunst comic and musical elements. The Berlin Dadaist Johannes Baader - described by one disparaging colleague as a "centaur", half "fool" and half "businessman"* - was a keen organiser of so-called Faschmg balls. These kinds of events were common and popular, especially among artists. They were an opportunity for the gentle subversion and fnsson of mask wearmg, creative dressing up and role-play- They were also a fixed part of the wider bourgeois social calendar (see fig. 13). The distraction they offered, however, took place only within the brief and contingent Utopia represented by institutionalised carnival. A remark made by Terry Eagleton is wry but apt: "Carnival, after all, is a Itcensed affair in every sense, a permissible rupture of hegemony, a contained popular blow-off as disturbing and relatively ineffectual as a revolutionary work of a r t " " Indeed, in the case of Zurich Dada at least, precisely such "carnival" festivities have prompted historians of the movement to highlight its relative ^engagement from the immediate concerns of contemporary, local politicsThe divergent visualisations of carnival in a wartime drawing by George Grosf sometimes entitled "Bloody Carnival" (1915/16) and a 1911 postcard from Cologne Carnival, highlight the ways in which carnival itself could be understood as dystopian chaos on the one hand or festive order on the o t h e r " The postcard shows the latter: an orderly streetlevel festivity, with only glimpses of "chaos" in the wobbling architecture which perhaps suggests a drunken city (see fig. 14).

'

Hans Baumann [pseud?], "Erne dadaistische Pnvatangelegenheit", in: Richard Huelsenbeck (ed.), DadaAlmanach, Berlin 1920, 29-35, 33.

10

See O t t o Gnebel's accounts of visiting a N o v e m b e r G r o u p "masked party" with George G r o s 2 in Berlin (both artists dressed as apaches), of an artists' themedI Fastnacht party in Dresden and other festivities. O t t o Goebel, Id war an Mann der Strafe. LebensennneLJn e,nes DresdnerMakrs, Frankfurt am Main 1986, 137-38, 270-72.

»

Terry Eagleton, Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism, London 2009, 148.

*

See e.g Raimund Meyer, "Dada ist gross D a d a ist schon. Z u r Geschichte von "Dada Zurich"', in: Hans BolligL, Guido M a g L g u a g n o & Raimund Meyer (eds.), Dada in Z«nCh, Zurich 1985, 9-79, 16 Meyer writes: "The Dadaists withdrew, in their activities, from the questions of day-to-day politics. While workers' protests took place, they celebrated without inhibition at their carnival ball".

13

For a different reading of the "untitled" drawing, which does not relate it or the "clownfigure to carnival, see Martin Kane, "George G r o s 2 und die Politisierung des Berliner Dada", in: Wolfgang Paulsen & Helmut G. H e r m a n n (eds.), Sinn aus Uns.nn Dada International, Bern 1982,121-52, 129-31.

Dada, Carnival and Revolution

: KOIner Carneval auf der Hohestrasse bei Nacht.

Fig. 14: Postcard (Anon.), "Cologne Carnival on the H o h e Strasse at Night", 1911. Private collection.

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These caveats notwithstanding, the Dadaists' enthusiastic embrace of trickery, folly, blasphemy, bluff, travesty, effigies, intoxication, hybrids, inversion and anti-authoritarianism is sustained by carmval in its modern form and by its long and more sprawling traditions, elements of which can be traced back to me Middle Ages and antiquity. The question remains though: how were evocations of Carmval m both its subversive and its institutionalised forms part of the politics of Dada in the specifically German context at the end of the First World War? I want to s u r e s t that alongside the relatively banal instances of generic carmval festivityfthere is also a critical carmvalesque in German Dada and that it is discernable in Dada's playmg out of two failures: its own and that of the German revolution" In what follows I single out three dimensions of experience relevant to Dada and Carmval. These are, first, calendar time and its rupture; second, the trope of the inverted or topsy-turvy world and third, the relationship between order and disorder, both social and theological.

Ruptured Time Bakhtin's effusive and subversive reading of laughter, festive joy and the potential for re-birth in carmval finds a darker counterpoint in a German text from the early 20* century that is much less widely known. This is Florens Christian Rang's long essay "Histonsche Psychology des Karnevals" (The Historical Psychology of Carnival), a version of which he first delivered as a scholarly paper m Vienna in 1909 and which was published posthumously in 1928 in the Viennese quarterly journal Die Ktvatur.^ Rang's work is seldom discussed today outside circles of specialised scholarship- If he is mentioned, this is most often in connection with his close friend, Walter Benjamin- indeed, some regard him as B e n i n ' s most important intellectual interlocutor of the 1920s. Rang himself came from a background of conservative Christian intellectual thought, and

" 15 « «

J o h a n Hu 1 2 1 „ga e m p h a s e s that "play does not exclude seriousness". H u i . m g a , Homo louden, A Study of the Play Element ,n Culture, Boston 1950, 180. Florens Christian Rang, "Historische Psychology des Kamevals", Die Kreatur 2, 1927/8, 311-43. My thanks to Tim Beasley-Murray for d L i n g my attention to this text. See e.g. Jtirgen Thaler, "E,n Knseln geht durch unsere schuttere Zat". Zur Transformation des Karnevalsm den Schnften von Florens Christian Rang (1864-1924), Vienna 1996. O n Benjamin, carnival and Rang, see Eagleton, Walter Benjamm, 143-72 and Carrie L. Asman, t h e a t e r and Agon / Agon and Theater: Walter Benjamin and Florens Christian Rang", in: MEN, 107, 3, April 1992, 606-24.

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Benjamin is said to have seen in him "a personification of the true German spirit"." The focus of Rang's essay on carnival is much further back in the history of civilisation thSi Bakhtin's" He locates and reveals the origins of Carmval in pre-Christian culture, the astrology of antiquity and the ritual festivities of the cult of Dionysos and has little to say about Carnival during the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, those periods which Bakhtin examined. Rang's pre-Christian Carmval is one it its most primal and bloodiest, ringing with what he calls the "hideous laughter" of "mockery",- with its violent transgression reaching the extremes of infanticide and cannibalistic orgy. There is little joy here: mocking or derisive laughter - in German, "Hohngelachter" - is for Rang the subterranean and bestial root of carmval, likened to the laughter of hyenas or of monks in hell. According to Rang, mockery itself, closely related to fury, preceded even the birth of laughte? Since then, as Rang puts it, "we can clearly trace the history of laughter: as a history of increasing harmlessness— Nevertheless, considering carnival withm religious history, he also has it that "Carnival's laughter is the first blasphemy"Similarly, central to Rang's history of carnival's "psychology" is the "volcanic" and unstoppable human drive to intoxication There is plenty that could be said about Dada and drunkenness and about carnival's laughter as blasphemy. For now though, I want to highlight another element of Rang's account: his emphasis on Carmval as a ruptoe in astrological order. The focus on ruptured time or temporal re-birth is not unique and can be found in Bakhtm and elsewhere. Bakhtin, writes, for example: Carmval celebrates the destruction of t h e old and the b i r t h of t h e n e w w o r l d - the n e w year, t h e n e w spring, the n e w k i n g d o m . T h e old w o r l d t h a t has b e e n destroyed is offered together w i t h the n e w w o r l d a n d is r e p r e s e n t e d w i t h it as the dying p a r t of t h e dual b o d y *

For Rang, whose vision of Carmval is darker and more primitive, Carmval is the invisible manifestation of a "Schaltzeit" - that is, a time of transition m the cosmos and in the calendar. One example of the "Schaltzeit" is the "Schalt,ahr", or leap year, but the other, more significant, is the carIB «

Gerschom Scholem, Walter Benja^n: The Story of a Friendship, N e w York 1981, 141. While some scholars have suggested that Bakhtin may have known Rang's text, most agree this is unlikely. See Thaler, zfrTransfonnation, 105-14.

20 *

Rang, "Histonsche Psychologic", 312. Rang, "Histonsche Psychologic", 313.

^

Rang, "Histonsche Psychologic", 314.

23

Bakhtin, R.beMs, 410.

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nival period from winter to early spring - roughly, from November or January to February or March, or, m Christian terms, to Lent through to Easter From this perspective it is significant that when Huelsenbeck quoted a passage from Friedrich Nietzsche's 1886 Jensats von Gut und Base (Beyond Good and Evil) in a prominent text in tie Dada Almanack, he did so to frame not only Dada^s parodic function and its carmvalistic, (mocking) laughter, but also precisely to set up the epistemological pretext for Dad^s own ruptured temporality In the passage Huelsenbeck selected, Nietzsche writes of his age as one uniquely ready for "carnival in the grand style", "carnival's laughter" {Faschingsgelachter) and "mockery of the world" As Huelsenbeck quotes, Nietzsche sees m the "realm of our invention" the possibility for originality as "parodists of world history and God's buffoons {HansmJ Gottes)". "If nothing else of today has a future", Nietzsche writes, "maybe our laughter still has a future".- Taking on for Dada the Nietzschean mantle of "parodists of world history and God's buffoons", Huelsenbeck maintains that Dada "has the ability to see historically its own appearance in time" - which is implicitly transitory - but concludes, "Dada will not die of Dada. Its laughter has a future"* His text ends: "The time is ripe for Dada. It will be taken up by Dada and will disappear with D a d a — There is a long history to the relationship between carnival, ruptured time and revolution. The term "revolution" itself was part of the vocabulary used by astronomers, astrologers and chronologists to refer to the return, or W , of a star that had completed ks orbit.- As Victor Stoichita and Anna Maria Corderch show in their study of Carnival and Goya m the age of Revolution, 1789 involved a conceptual re-birth of time. They arg^e that the French Revolution was tied both symbolically and practically to Carnival - symbolically because it represented a threateningly or liberating "real" reversal and practically because for a time, there was an attempt even to replace Carnival festivity with celebration of the Revolution- In this context, Rang's emphasis of the pause that Carnival represents in terms of "the interregnuni between a renunciation of the throne and accession to the t h r o n e - is significant.

24

Nietzsche quoted in Richard Huelsenbeck, "Einleitung", in: Huelsenbeck (ed.), Dada

Almanach,^,!. * 26

Huelsenbeck, "Einleitung", 8. Huelsenbeck, "Einleitung", 9.

•n

Victor Stoichita & Anna Mana Coderch, Goya: The Last Carmval, L o n d o n 1999, 25.

2B

Stoichita & Coderch, G ^ , 28.

*

Rang, "Histonsche Psychology", 317.

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Given this, it is worth considering DadaV attitude to time in connection with revolution and carnival. In the case of Dada in Berlin (a Protestant and not traditionally carnival city), there were very different responses to what we might understand as the violent rupture of time in the period of the German revolution: November 1918 to April 1919. Added to the profound state of political and cultural crisis of this period, its bloody conflicts and the collapse of the old order and of old time, there is another rupture to consider: the discrepancy between the violence of streetfighting and political murder on the one hand and the paltry, compromised Change brought about by the nominal German Revolution of 191819. This discrepancy became a trope in the critical polemic of the leftwing avant-garde - expressed as a tragedy and a travesty of revolution. In an embittered article called "Cautious Revolution" from 1920, in the Malik Verlag journal, Der Gegner, in which several Dadaists also published, Pol Michels remarked that after the revolution of the German soldiers' and workers' councils and its suppression by the paramilitary Fmkorps under Gustav Noske, "what was left over was a revolution of German disgrace, of primally-German grotesque ridiculousness" ("der urdeutschen grostesken Lacherlichkeit").3o Michels mocks this revolution's failure and its own "LMcherltchketf, literally, its "laughableness". Johannes Baader was, and remains, a divisive figure. Already in 1920 some Dadaists dismissed him as a "dilettante-brain with cosmic underp a n t s " - Dada scholars are still today unable to agree on his significance for Dada. The documents and material traces of Berlin Dada do make clear, however, that for a time - around 1919-20 especially - Baader was a key figure for Dada. Revolution as a rupture in historical time and carnival as a rupture in cosmic time meet in the parodic rupture of the calendar performed by the "Oberdada" which took place in the violent spring of 1919, between Carnival and April Fool's Day no less. A passage in Baader's Club der blauen Mtlchstrasse (Milky Way Club) poster of 1919 reads: T t e first year of w o r l d peace has b r o k e n with the n o w nonsensical system for the m e a s u r e m e n t of time. E v e r y o n e calls the p r e s e n t year 'A', t h e next and so o n until •Z' c o m e s . ... It suffices t h a t the w h o l e w o r l d starts w i t h A = l . H i e m o n t h s are indicated b y small l e t t e r s . / It has b e g u n a n e w act in the divine c o m e d y and its m o t t o is: T t e p e o p l e k n o w that they are in heaven.

30 3!

Pol M 1C hels, "Revolution m l t Vors.cht", in: Der Gegner, 2, 1 9 2 0 / 2 1 , 1-2, 43-44. Hans Baumann [pseud?], "Erne dada.stische Pnvatangelegenhek", in: Huelsenbeck (ed.' DadaAlmanach, 29-35, 34.

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15: Cover of Der Dada 1, Berlin 1919 (reprint).

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Dada, Carnival and Revolution

109

The last sentence echoes another from a programme to a lecture Baader gave on 21 March 1916, although here he emphasised the verb " k n o w " This echo rang repeatedly through his work. The first Lue of Der Dada in 1919 features a new dating system which can be seen above in the lower right of the journal's cover under the phrase "The new time begins with the year of the death of the Oberdada" (see fig. 15). Baader's gesture is blasphemous, replacing as it does the central Christian truth of the death and resurrection of Christ with his own fiction. Baader also supplied the newspapers with the news of his own death on April Fool's Day, a story the press obligingly indulgedBaader's megalomania in this instance has been read in connection with the esoteric end of volkisch-nationalistic thought. It is apparent that Baader took his new dating system extremely seriously and he used it consistently. The rupturing of time finds its most extreme form in the Apocalypse and the end of d a y s - Baader re-writes in order to mock with irony a time of violence - the present - as a time of "world peace" in which "the people know that they are in heaven". The critique of Expressionism was growing at this time. On the Left in particular, a focus of dissent was directed towards later Expressionism's affectation of and attraction to the cosmic and the "Apocalyptic". Adolf Behne, a friend of the Dadaists, wrote: W h a t the Secession was s h o w i n g three years ago [in 1919], (Apocalypse, Last Supper, G e t h s e m a n e etc.) was banal journalism N o t o n e of the 'cosrntc p r k n a l f o r m s ' c a m e f r o m any k i n d of perceptual experience. H o l l o w , e m p t y a n d merely 'overexcited', thetr ' s y m b o l s ' s t a n d pomde^sly beside one another.35

Given the Dadaists' boisterous antipathy to Expressionism, expressed not least by Baader's collaborator Hausmann, it is also possible to read Baader's laconic heralding of the end of time and the beginning of a new cosmic order as a carnivalisation of the profoundly serious but, for many, impotent, Expressionist discourse of Apocalypse By 1921, the critic Hans Backer was writing in the journal Die Memlande:

32 33 34 33

Pamphlet for: Besmh be, Chnstian Wagner. Offender Vortrag des ArcKtekten Johannes Baader (Beri) 21. March 1916 in Gustav-Siegle-Haus, Stuttgart. n.p See e.g. StbvaUxbe Merkur (Morgenblatt) and WMtembergtsAe Zelt«ng, both of 11 April 1919. O n the significance of the Apocalyspe for especially m o d e m German culture, see Klaus Vondung, meApokaljpse in DeutJand, Munich 1988. Adolf Behne, "Expressionismus als Selbst 2 weck", in: So^ahtische Monatshefte, 28, 1922, 10, 578-82,581.

110

Debbie Lewer There is no respite from the mutation and exaggeration on the part of the 'Creative', of the 'New Man', the 'Chaotic', 'Cosmic', ' v f o n a r y ' , 'Ecstatic', Humanitarian', of those who let their feelings flood over the chaos in powerful, glowing waves, of the 'spiritual', the heralds of 'Love' and of 'Goodness'. It may well be that all these which frivolously laughing Dada submits to meraless exposure and refreshing truthfulness, now open up their (art) tricks {Kunststucke) before L i t astounded circuf audience out of hard-nosed business -mindedness or out of — more or less 'idealistic' — selfobsessed self-deception; this is naturally just the craZy circus and carnival of an age hopping around like mad in the void, [an age] that is definitively at its end.36

Dada's laughter has become the catalyst for the termination of a time (the age), a cultoe (late Expressionism in the apocalyptic register) and for the inexorable ending of Carnival.

Die verkehrte Welt An important metaphorical representation of carnival, popularised since the late Middle Ages, was that of the world turned upside-down. It has been shown that L i r e and irony structure the literary inverted or "perverted" world.« Stoichita and Coderch have addressed the problem of the topos and iconography of the world turned upside down. They are referring to a Spanish example, but their points apply just as well to comparable German popular imagery when they write "the world turned upside down was on the one hand Utopian and on the other a criticism of society". They go on: By fixing what in the Carnival was no more than fleeting - substituting high for low and low for high - the carnivaliZation of the world is offered as the sum total of a series of acts ofteversal. Their nature is unreal, dreamlike and Utopian, and the intrinsic possibility of their ever happening results in laughter: the hen will never mount the cockerel, the donkey will never climb onto its master^

The sense of the orderly place of carnival's temporary disorder was also conveyed by Franz Bid in 1929. Looking back on the pre-Christian Roman saturnalia and comparing them wryly with the stiffness and respectability of the social celebrations of his own age, Blei wrote in a text on Carnival for the mildly titillatingQuerschmttmagazine: * 37

3B

Hans Backer, "Ende und Anfang im Expressionisms", in: Die Hhanlande. Monatsschnft fir deutsche KunstundDuhtung, 31, Jan Dec. 1921, 87-89, 87. See Klaus L » ™ c 2 > Verkehrte Welt. VorstuMen ^ aner Geschuhte der deutschen Satire, Tubingen 1963 and for the suggested appropriateness of the term "perverted world" or "mundus perversus" the review of the san^e by Basil Mogodge in German Ufe and Letters, 21, 1968, 362-64,364. Stoichita& Coderch, Goya, 20, 22.

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The need to turn one's self and all things upside d o w n has not gone. But it has lost its corporative character and is only found more sporadically in individuals, expressing its e l f i n irony, in caricature, also L crime. Or in die very private saturnalia, dangerously close to madness.^

Bid's remarks confirm the power of public "order" over the private, "saturnahan" "madness". Georg Scholz was a member of the Dadatsts' circle and his "inverted world" clearly draws on the old historical tradition. However, his world derives its irony from the fact that the folly its inversion claims to reveal is both real and dystopian (see fig. 16). The effect of laughter is suspended by the image: this is not the extra-ordinary, disordered inversion, but the ordinary - ordered perversion: in this world, the worker subordinates himself to the will and the interests of his oppressor. In German, the world "verkehrt" means not only inverted or upside-down, but also "wrong". Here, in Scholz's vtston, after Revolution - that is, after a revolution that has failed to achieve the rupture of time and redeem the old order - things are "verkehrt", the wrong way around.

Ruhe und O r d n u n g I want to conclude by considering a final aspect of the relationship between Dada's Carnival's disorder and its dialectical opposite: order. A common slogan of the counter-revolutionary movement in early Weimar Germany and, as such, the counter to the rupture represented by revolution, was "Ruhe und Ordnung" ("Quiet and Order"). During the most brutal phase of the conflict, the term Ordnung, which in right-wing circles often meant the "old order", took on a paradoxical meaning. Particularly in the Communist press, Ordnung became a synonym for counter-revolutionary vioknce" As Thomas Lmdenberger has shown in his study of the history of the coupling "Ruhe und Ordnung" in Germany, "Order" in 1918-19 had become an inverted concept in itself - somethmg like a synonym for its ostensible opposite, "chaos"« Grosz's drawing on the cover of the fifth issue of DerBlutige Ernst - a special issue on the "Return of the Monarchy" - works on this basts. It shows a scene of murderous violence and a disintegrating city, its proletarian inhabitants rounded up at gun-

V * «

Franz Blei, "Kameval", in: Der Querschmtt, 9, 1929, 102-3, 103. These remarks are related to another discussion in Lewer, "Revolution", 15-16. T h o m a s Lmdenberger, "Ruhe und O r d n u n g " , in: Etienne Francois & H a g (eds.), Deutsche Bnnnemngsorte II, Munich 2001, 469-84.

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V E R K E H R T E

WELT

D e r D i c k e : lebt von der Arbeit der Diinnen D i e D u n n e n : verbreiten die Weisheit des Dicken Fig. 16: Georg Scholz, "Verkehrte Welt", in: Der Gegner, 3 (1922), 2, 38 (reprint).

point and herded into prison. In the foreground Freikorps soldiers stand to attention, weapons aligned in obedient order. At the feet of their saluting commander is a wreath with a ribbon inscribed "Civil Peace of the Party heads Ebert Scheidemann Noske". The drawing carries the explanatory caption: "Return to ordered conditions!" In 1920, in Cologne, the consummate German city of Carnival, Dada ironically appropriated the rhetoric of "Ordnung". This was in a poster made for the re-opening of the Dada Early Spring exhibition in the city, which had been temporarily closed under suspicion of obscenity. Under the familiar slogan "Dada Triumphs" (Dada Siegtl), the phrase "Dada istfiir Ruhe und Orden" appears. The statement is a sardonic pun on the ubiquitous post-war slogan. Slyly distorted, it reads in approximate translation:

Dada, Carnival and Revolution

113

"Dada is for quiet and military honours (or medals)"^ " R u h e and Ordnung" was part of a dystopian vocabulary in the left-wing Weimar avantgarde and m Cologne Dada in particular: a grotesque drawing, "The New Germama" ("Die neue Germama"), published mSo^ahtisde Repub&k in October 1919, which has been attributed to Hemrich Hoerle and Max Ernst, shows a bestialised female figure decorated with crown and the iron cross and from whose body the slogans of political polemic spew.« At her feet a toy tank issues the pathetic command "Ruhe und Ordnun£. Sabine Kriebel argues quite rightly, in her essay on Cologne Dada, that the pun enacted by the Cologne poster and its reference to military orders or decoration can be read as "referencing the intervention of police authority m a subversive gesture— I WO nder though, whether it may also mobilise widespread local familiarity with the strong carnival tradition of "decorating" particularly devoted "Fools" with carnival medals. For example, the word for these honours is also "Orden" and they were a prominent part of Cologne's carnival in the Wilhelmine and Weimar periods. There is a small but thought-provoking coincidence of history: the Cologne Dada Early Spring exhibition, its very name suggestive of the Carnival season, was mounted in a gesture of defiance, ifwas called to "order" by the police and re-opened with the proclaimed "triumph" of Dada. Its venue was the Brauhaus Winter in Cologne. By chance, it transpires that the family member who by then was possibly running this very beer-hall, came himself from the highest order of Cologne's inverted carnival world - a photograph exists of him in 1900 as the most prestigious and important of all Cologne carnival figures - that year's Prince

Conclusion Dada's subversive, playful, critical and political aspects emerge in a new light when considered from the perspective of the traditions and structures of carmval. The Dadaists (and others) were acutely aware of their time as one of interregnum, of rupture, of inversion and one in which "order" could very well mean its opposite, "chaos". By 1925, Dada was over. In this year, Albert Soergel published his monumental (almost 900« «

«

Max Ernst, Dada Stegti, poster for the Dada-VorfMng exhibition, Brauhaus Winter, Cologne 1920. For the attribution and a reproduction of the drawing, see Dirk Teuber, " K u n s t u n d / o d e r Politik - stupdund D a d a KSln", in: Karl Riha & J o r g t n Schafer (eds.), Fatagaga-Dada. Max Ernst, UanfArp^ohannesTheodorBaargeldundderllolnerDaMsmus, Giefien 1995, 198-214. Sabine T. Kriebel, "Cologne", in: Leah Dickerman (ed.), Dada, Washington 2006, 216-37, 231.

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page long) survey of recent German literature. His chapter on Dada, "Satyrsptel nach der Tragodte - Dada!" (satyr's game after the tragedy - Dada!) ended with the following remark: T t e Dada carnival is over, the metropolis carnival goes on. But its days are numbered too. 'Our time', wim these words Paul Ernst ends his observations on the 'Collapse of German Idealism', 'is over, thank God! It's over. A new age is dawning

«

Albert Soergel, Duhtung und Duhter der Zeti. E.ne SMlderung der deutsAen Uteratur der IetKte„ Jahr^hnte. l l Banne des Bxpre^omsmus, L e l p 2 1 g 1925, 623-34" 634.

SpurenderVolksdichtung in der unganschen Avantgardeliteratur PalDerekyCUniversMtWien) ffistonsche

Avantgarde

Die Anfange der historischen unganschen Avantgardeliteratur um 191415 wurden zum GroBteil von den Aktivrcaten und von den Ideen des zentralen Protagomsten, des ausgebMeten Schlossers, Dichters, bildenden Kunstlers und vor allem Organisators La,os Kassak (1887-1967) bestimmt. Er war Autodidakt, und e lg nete sich seine Hteransch-kunstlerische Welteicht durch Selbststudmm s o 4 durch erne ausgedehnte BMungsreise durch halb Europa im jahre 1909 an. Der von mm seit 1916 p r o p a g a te, doch erst Anfang 1919 auch offrziell verkundete ungansche Aktivismus war zunachst erne Ideology kommumstisch, proletansch, anti-milrcansch, emanzmatorisch, und stand naturlich fur em alternatives BMungsideal und Kunstverstandms. Von den Zeitgenossen wurde der ungansche Aktivismus auch als Stil wahrgenommen, doch was Hteransche Texte betnfft, so ist er kaum etwas anderes als erne Mischung von Stilelementen des itaHemschen Futunsmus, des deutschen Expressiomsmus und des franzoS1schen Simullanismus.1 Erwahnenswert sind auBerdem 2 w e i weitere Emflusse im Stilgemisch des fruhen unganschen Aktmsmus: Der von Walt Whitman (den ich hier nicht behandeln werde) und der der unganschen Volksdichtung. Die Ergebmsse der VolksHeder-Sammeltatigkeit Bela Bartoks (1881-1945) vor allem in ,enen Randgebieten des Konigreichs Ungarn, m denen der archaische Dorfalltag noch lebendig war, wurden von den unganschen Avantgardisten enthusiastisch begruBt Fur sie spielte dabei kerne Rolle, dass dieser Dorfalltag emmal der Folge der jahreszercen entsprechend nach krrchHchen Feiertagen und emmal der indrviduellen Lebenszeit entsprechend nach Brautwerbung, Hochzerc, Geburt und Taufe des Kindes, MHtardienst, Tod und Begrahnis struktunert war, sie entfremdeten das Folklore-Material sofort und radikal semem Ursprung. Das i

Pal Dereky, Ungansche Amntgarde-Duhtung

in Wun 1920-1926, Wien 1991,12 ff.

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emzige, was die Aktmsten mteressierte, war die Kraft, die Ausdruckstarke des Volkstanzes und der Volksdichtung, denn diese Eigenschaft passte hervorragend zu den formalen Erfordermssen der aktivistischen Dichtung. „Der emzige Gradmesser unserer Dichtung ist ihre Kraft" - schneb Kassak 1916 m semem Programm-Mamfest, und da traf es sich ausgezeichnet, dass die Avantgarde-Dichtung genauso wie die Volksdichtimg als kollektive Leistung visiomert warded Kollektiv war auch die Gewaltorgie des ersten Weltknegs zu nennen. Die unganschen Avantgarde-Dichter waren ausnahmslos gegen den Krieg, obgleich es einige gab, die sich dem MiHtardienst nicht entziehen konnten. Auch Aladar Konfate dreiteilige SoldatenMer m 1916 stehen in der Tradition der Antiknegsgedichte. Die drei Teile heiBen in der Reihenfolge des Soldatenschicksals Musterung - Marschkompame - Verscholkn. KomjS verwendet fur seme Montage erne uralte VolksHedform, die der SoldatenHeder, die naturhch nicht das traunge Ende der Soldaten besmgen, sondern den Schmerz der Scheidung von der Familie oder der Braut. Dagegen thematisiert Komjite Musterung von der ersten Zeile an unmissverstandHch, dass selbst diejenigen Soldaten zu seelischen und nervlichen Kruppel werden, die das Schlachten uberleben. Hervorgerufen wird dieser Emdruck durch die Umkehrung der gewohnten, naturlichen Reihenfolge und § der emotionalen Wertung der bauf rlichen Mannernamen: Kreuzbraver, Hans-Peter! TaugtalsTeildesKrempels. Spudos,KasparIgnaz! GutrWnStlkdesHenkers Gebetmuhl.Mtchael! WtrdnntFluchenwerfen. FrSblrch-Stng, Andreas! WtrdKlageweib werden [•••?

Der Sprecher der Marschkompame, em Bauernbursche, beginnt groBsprechensch: SchatziLassrmchdemeTktenpacken! Ste haben es besser, wenn ste trotzrg schmoUen! 2 3

Lajos Kassak, „Programm", in: A Tett [Die Tat, Budapest], 2, 1916, 153-55. Aladar Komjat, „Musterung", in: UsAucb der unganschen AvantgardeMeratur, Pal Dereky Prsg.), Budapest & Wien 1996, 356. ( W i t mcht anders angegeben, alle Ubersetzungen in diesem Werk von Pal Dereky und Barbara Fnschmuth).

Spuren der Volksd.chting in der unganschen AvantgardeHteratar

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La-la-la, tralala, la! Schau her Kamerad! Zigarre im Maul! IchmarschieredraufloswieeinHerr!

Doch je naher der Front ruckt, umso groBer und zum Schluss spricht er schon Klartext:

W1 rd

seme Verunstcherung,

Tralala, lalala,hei,hui! Auchichkrepiere,wiedieanderen! U n d Z u Hause das Weib, im Gras, auf der Lichtung, vielleichtauchimBett, Z u m Teufel mit w e m d e c k t s i e sich Zu?4

Der letzte Tefl der Trilogy sollte die oder den VerantworHchen fur den Massenmord benennen. Doch im unganschen VolksHed W1 rd nicht poHtisiert Kaiser und Konig Franz Josef I war beretts in mythologtsche Feme entruckt. So bheb nur die Gotteslasterung, die in der Volksdtchtung in der Form des Fluches bzw. der Verwunschung oft vorkommt. Umrahmt von neunmal wtederkehrendem, gnadenlosem Kehrretm verscholkn, verscholkn, dem widerlichen Euphemtsmus der Kriegsverwaltung, erschemt Gott, der die von ihm erschaffene Kreatur gieng veTspetst: ® g P Verschollen, verschollen! D i e Herde bekehrt sich: Gottes Mund wird vor Gier schon wassrig*

1917, em jahr spater, expenmentierte Kassak mit der Montage stadtischer Folklore, konkret mit dem Embau von Zeilen ernes Gassenhauers in die simultanistische Beschreibung ernes jahrmarktes. Im Text prasseln die Emdrucke aller Smnesorgane (erganzt vom Bauchgefuhl des Sprechers) gleichzeitig meder, unterbrochen nut von den Fragmenten des montierten VolksHedes. Zusammenhangend lautet das Lied so: „Teure Mutter ich durff nicht frei wahlen / LteB't den Schuster mich zum Weibe nehmen / Leiden lasst mich tagHch dieser Laffe / UnausstehHch dummer Schusteraffe" Und m den Textfluss emgebettet: „ [...] Unter der Dreifaltigkeit Z1 ttert em M e n s c h mit hervortretenden A u g e n (das jausenbutterbrot brennt nur hmauf bis Z ur Zunge) , T e u r e Mutter ich durff mcht frei wahlen, LieB't den Schuster mich Z u m Weibe n e h m e n . . ." Mittagsgelaut ergieBt sich in Str6men aus der H 6 h e Aus I t e m K i n d L a g e n recken sich Boulevardschlag.eilen „Leiden lasst mich taglich dieser Laffe" ich spiire, wte meine Eingeweide herrlich funktiomeren)

4

Aladar Komjat, ^ a r s c h k o m p a m e " , in: Lesebuch der unganschen Avantgardehteratur, 357, 359.

^

Aladar Komjat, „Verscholle„", in: Lesebuch der unganschen AvantgardeMeratur, 359.

118

PalDereky „Unausstehlich dummer Schusteraffe" IWdliche,prickelndeFr6hlichkeit! Hoch-hoch-hoch-stangengleichgestapelt, gebundelt, aufgestellt, lebend Tiefe. Papagaienhafte Kriimmung der Formen Ausdehnung „Sieben, sieben, sieben - alles um sieben!" Spatzen paaren sich auf der rostigen Dachrinne [...]

Wenngletch Jahrmarkt und tch von der zettgenosstschen Leserschaft zunachst mcht als em Hteransches Werk angesehen und anerkannt wurde, so mussen sie die Frische und die Kraft dteser Zeilen wohl beemdruckt haben, denn es gibt etHche zercgenosstsche Dtchtwerke, die auf eme ahnliche Art und Weise expenmentieren. In den darauf folgenden VolksHedmontagen aus der Zwischenknegszerc spielte die Heraufbeschworung des Emdrucks von Kraft, Wahrhaftigkeit, UrsprungHchkeit usw. kaum noch eme Rofle. Dessen ungeachtet weist die Csardas-Adaptation von Tibor Dery alle diese MerkmSe auf, uberschneben von emer beiBenden Kritik des unganschen Feudalismus, des reformunfahigen Landadels, dessen selbstzerstorensche Lebensweise das ganze Land mit in den Untergang reiBe. Der Csardas ist em Paartanz. Langsam begmnen sich die Paare zu drehen, lmks-rechts, ziemlich langwerlig, links zwet-rechts zwei, bis die Musik immer schneller wrrd, die Paare sich immer schneller drehen und mdmduelle ImproviSierungsgabe, Termperament, Wildheit immer starker zum Tragen kommen. In de^Schlussphase des Tanzes werden die Tanzermnen und Tanzer oft von auBen, von den Zusehern durch Schreie angefeuert. „Wir sterben me", sose halunk me& war em charaktenstischer Ausruf der frohlichen Gentry. Dery schneb das Gedicht 1923 m der Wiener Emigration, m zekgenossischen unganschen Blattern hatte er es mcht publizteren konnen. Es erschten noch im selben jahr in Kassaks Wiener Zeitschnft A£4peute,bzw.Gegenwart). Unsere eltern s ltZ en auf der turschwelle und trinken milch unsere lander schimmern im dunkler werdenden Z immer wie die ewigen lichter langsam drehen wir uns im tan Z e oben auf dem hugel kem we 1Z enkorn entgleitet unseren ernsten her.en auf unserer stirn leben drei kusse aus erde und stem farbige tonfiguren mit eingeschlossenen marchen in handen die warmen uns wenn wir uns beriihren und bevor wir sterben

6

Lajos Kassak, J a h m w k t und ich", in: Lesebmh der unganschen Avantgardekteratur, 293.

Spuren der Velksdichting in der unganschen Avantgardeliteratur

119

Wxr sterben me! Pack seme Hand! Ergrexf ihre Hufte! Den Mund Z und an! Zerbnch das Glas und verschutt den We1Zen! Hals abschnuren und Haus an Z unden! Schlag tot! Wxr sterben nxeP

Die Anlethen am lebenslustigen csdrdds bzw. seme rabenschwarze Neukontextualisterung wetst typtsche Merkmale der dadatstischen Verfremdung auf, im Smne der Merz-Bilder beisptelswetse, in denen Alltagsgegenstande oder deren Bruchstucke ihrem Normalgebrauch entfremdet werden. Durch die Art der Montage wrrd das Temperament als Mordlust umgedeutet, die Zuseher rufen die Tanzer mcht zur Auffuhrung ihrer Bravourstucke, sondern zum Totschlag auf. Nach der Konsolidterung der politischen Lage in Ungarn wurde 1926 erne Amnestie verkundet und die linken Emtgranten konnten hetmkehren. So auch Dery. Seme schonste und bedeutendste Avantgarde-Montage Vandcto nepdalra (Variation auf em VolksHed) entstand noch wahrend seiner Emigration, erschten ,edoch erst in semem Budapester Gedtchtband Bnekelnek es meghalnak (Ste singen und ste sterben) von 1928. Das hter zur Montage verwendete Material ist allerdmgs kern Volkslted, sondern erne alte stebenburgtsche Volksballade. In memer Prosaubersetzung kltngt § Derys Gedtcht folgendermaBen: * Mem gott, o gott, lass die fluten schwellen lass ste memen k6rper tragen / lass ste ihn ans tor des elterriauses schwemmen / vom tor memes vater^ / an den tisch memer mutter / der kalte fisch hat mem her. gefressen meme augen verschluckt ich werde von raben begraben / die nacht uberfluLe schon das eisentor des vaters, den eisentisch der mutfer / mem leichnam wurde unter der briicke geborgen / die briicke war eingestur Z t / das ufer war verwustet / ich land das blunge tuch memes hebsten unter dem wasser unter dem berg unter dem schwar.en sand / unter dem schwar Z en sand Z irpten grfllen m den ohren des toten / unter dem schwar.en sand / mckten ameisen / L h e L n des toten / im blut memes Hebsten / badete ich mich wie die Sonne sich badet in den fluten [...]8

Den angewendeten poetischen Mitteln nach gehort die Bearbercung der Volksballade in die Reihe der surrealtstischen Texte Derys. Dery full? betnahe unmerkltch die Leerstellen der Volksballade mtt Fremdmatenal auf (tm Gegensatz zur brutal stchtbaren Merz-Montage): „der kalte fech hat mem herz gefressen...« bzw. „unter dem schwarzen sand ztrpten grfllen in den ohrendes toten...". Erst bei genauer Lekture stellt stch die Gewtsshett em, dass solche Bflder in kemer Volksballade vorkommen konnen. Die Ballade ist schwer emdeutig zuzuordnen. Im Balladenbuch von Zoltan Kallos gibt es gletch dret Balladen, in denen die Heldin Aire Letche ?

Tiber Dery, „Unganscher Ta„ 2 " (Titel im Ung: Csardas), in: Usdmcb der unganschen Avantgardeltteratur,lll

B

Tiber Dery, „Vanaci6 nepdalra", in: Tiber Dery, FeMdlhtok, Budapest 1970, 59.

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Oder ihre Leichenteile nach Hause schwemmen lassen mochte: Die dret WatsenHnder (die ,ungere Schwester bittet die beiden alteren Geschwister, sie zu toten, ihr Herz und ihre Leber zu entfernen, in Wermutwem zu waschen, in em grunes Kastchen zu tun und das Kastchen in die Fluten des Heitmatflusses zu werfen), Der Rauber vom Grofien Berg und Das Sklavenmadchen der Turken. Die brutale Mitteilung des eigenen Todes an die Eltern ist naturlich em Vorwurf: Wieso hat der Vater die bose Stiefmutter ms Haus gelassen (Die drei Waisenkmder), wieso hat er seme Tochter mit emem Rauber verkuppelt, wieso lieB er sie m turkische Gefangenschaft geraten. Ich glaube den Ursprung des montierten Materials im Text der Ballade vom Rauber zu entdecken, ,edoch nicht in der von Kallos publi21 erten Vanante. Emige Varianten dieser siebenburgisch-unganschen Ballade befmden sich in der rumamschen und m der sudslawischen Folklore, und m emer Ruckentlehnung ms Ungarische findet sich ,ene Geschichte, m dessen Folge das Madchen an emen Rauber verherratet, und von diesem gezwungen wrrd, die blutige Beute bzw Kleidung zu waschen. Ernes Tages fmdet sie den abgeschmttenen Rmgfmger / das blutige Stecktuch ihres Brautigams / ihres Bruders in der Beute und verwunsdit anschheBend die Eltern.* Es kann nur gemutmaGt werden, warum Dery gerade diese Ballade 2 ur Bearbeitung herangezogen hat, fest steht aber, dass sem Verhaltms 2 u den eigenen Eltern auBerst problematisch war. Auch die Versuche von Attila jozsef- emem der bedeutendsten unganschen Dichter der ZwischenknegUerc - 2 ur Verschmelzung von Folklore und Avantgarde erfolgten im Zeichen des Surrealismus. Allerdmgs nicht im Zeichen der im Westen allgemem verwendeten ecriture automate, sondern im Zeichen der sog. WorLgte - emer besonders in den ost- und sudosteuropaischen Literaturen beliebten und gangigen Montageart.10 Erne opulente Auswahl semer Dichtung ist unlangst m deutscher Ubersetzung," mrc emem Vorwort von Ferenc Fejto erschienen." Fejto war nicht n u r t m Zekgenosse Attila jozsefs (1905-37), sondern bewegte sich auch in dessen mtellektuellem Kreis. In seinem Vorwort zitiert er erne Begebenhek aus dem Redaktionsalltag der von mm, Pal Ignotus und Attila jozsef gegrundeten Literaturzercschrift SZep SZ6: „Attila jozsef kam gerade von

' io » 12

Lajos Vargyas (Hg), Magyar nepkoh^et (Ungarische Volksd.chtung; Magyar Nepra )2 / U ^ s c h e Volkskunde, Bd. 5), Budapest 1988, 355 ff. Andor Nemeth, ^Wortmagie", in Dereky, Ungate Avantgarde-Duhtung in W,en 1920-1926, 164,dielet 2 t end r e iAbsa4. Attila J62sef, Bin mlder Apfelbaum mil uh rverden Geduhte 1916-1937, aus dem Unganschen uberseU ausgewahlt und herausgegeben von Darnel Muth, Zurich 2005. Francois Fejto (1909 - 2008) war em fran.os.scher ffistoriker, Journalist und Publisist unga^scher Herkunft, der seit 1938 in Frankre.ch lebte und mternationale Anerkennung genoss.

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Bela Bartok in die Redaktion, er hatte den groBen Kompomsten gebeten, emen Artikel zu verfessen. Sem Gesicht strahlte [...] „Was ist mit dir Attila?" fragte ich „Woruber freust du dich so sehr?" - „Stell dir vor, was rmr Bartok gesagt hat. Dass ich in der unganschen Literatur das bin, was er in der unganschen Musrk ist"." D e m kann man nur beipflichten, muB allerdmgs traung hmzufugen, dass Bartok ,a nicht ubersetzt werden musste. Wahrend die reife Dichtung von jozsef die langeren Arbercen seiner letzten Periode auch in Ubersetzungen annahernd das smd, was sie fur muttersprachHche Rezipienten waren, lasst sich die Schonheit seiner fruhen avantgardistischen Dichtung - Texte, geschneben mit zwanzig, zweiundzwanzig - kaum verrnitteln. Ich mochte wemgstens erne Folklore Komponente erwahnen, die vor ihm memand verwendet hat, und die durch ihn (bzw die Vertonung vieler seiner Gedichte in den 1970er jahren) allgememe Anerkennung fend, und zwar die mystisch-magische Komponente der unganschen Volksdichtung bzw. die Heraufbeschworung emer (imagimerten) Urdichtung. Sem Igos enek braucht emiges an Erklarung. Im Altunganschen hieBen die, die in. Trance sprechen, d h. die Schamanen, regos, nach der ChnstianiSierung bedachte man mit dieser Berufsbezeichnung Histonenerzahler, Wandersanger. Erne noch spatere Entwicklung ist rege, die Sage, die Marm unserem heutigen Sinne. Regales ist heute em Weihnachtsbrauch auf dem Land. Roka - heute: Fuchs - ist im Stamm ro- (+ Dimmutivsuffix -ka) zwar em altes fmmsch-ugrisches Wort, hat jedodi in der Gememsprache die sekundare Bedeutung ravas^ schlau. Und der Stamm rejt- hat heute die Bedeutung verstecken, im Altungarischen - so zummdest die dichtensche Suggestion - auch die Bedeutung rev- (revul), in Extase geraten, in Trance verfellen. Im Zusammenhang mit den ubngen zwei Wortern und der ArchaiSierung wird hier die Schamanen-Praxis der Weissagung in Trance angesprochen" Vier SequenzenaufUngansch: K o m o r o r i bikat fejtem, / rege, r6ka, rejtem, / sorsot neznr bikatejben, / rege, r6ka, rejtem. / H e t c s 6 b 6 r 6 m j6 vasaban, / rege, r6ka, rejtem, / l o b o t v e t o t t h a b o s a b a n , / rege, r6ka, rejtem [ . . . ] " U n d die U b e r s e t z u n g , o b n e Kebrreim: „ G r a d e e m e n Stler g e m o l k e n , finster-ernst sem N a s e / u m Z u seben in der Stiermrlcb dustere Schrcksale / vollgefiiHt s m d b e r e k s steben Melkermer aus E t s e n / in d e m M i l c b s c b a u m b l u b b e r n Blasen, was sie w o h l verheiBen [...]15

Die aus Folklore und Avantgarde gemischte Fruhdtchtung von Attila jozsef hat oberflachHch gesehen zwetfdlos emen etwas unernsten, sptele«

J6 2 sef, Bin mlderApfelbanm Ml id, werden, 16.

"

S. in Karoly Rede. (Hrcg.), Uralses etymologies WorterbuA, aus dem Ungaoschen von Maria Kaldori Uralische und finnisch-ugnsche Schicht, Budapest 1988, 422-23. Die Nachdichtang in J6 2 sef, E,n mlder Apfelbaum mil uh werden, 121.

15

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nschen, manchmal kindischen Zug, vielleicht war sie gerade deshalb gut fur die Vertonung durch Muster der Tanzhausbewegtmg gee lg net. Heute konnen sehr vMe ungansche jugendhche A hetedtk (Der lebte) von Attila jozsef smgen, es gOTt zahlreiche Musrk-Aufnahmen- bis hin zu Ethno Rock und Heavy Metal - dabei ist das weder em Kindergedicht noch eme Brullvorlage fur angetornte Halbstarke, sondern psycholog^erende, pseudofolklonstische Lebenserfahrung um die magische Zahl sieben. WtfstduzurWeltausexWn, sexdannsxebenfachgeboren! EimnalwerdeKindkiFWnen, exxxmalxnexsxgenFluten, exnmalunterdenTollhauslem, exxxmalxndenWexzenfeldenx, exxxmalxndenhohlenKlSstem, exxxmalxndenSchwexnekobenSechse schrexexx schon, wxllst du nxcht schrexn? Der siebte musst du selber sein! [.. .] 1 7

Gegen Ende der Avantgarde-Penode jozsefs um 1929 wurden auch ,ene Periodika emgestellt, die zuvor die VMfalt der Ismen dokumentiert hatten, bzw. wurden neue gegrundet, die nunmehr die Expenmentierfreude hmter S1ch lieBen und sich auf die Vertretung von poHtischen Standpunkten verlegten. Eme erneute Versuchsre&e zur Verschmelzung von Volksdichtung und Avantgarde schien ausgeschlossen, zumal z w L h e n 1939 und etwa 1956 totalJre Regm.es von rechts und links literati* und Kunst (und elgentl1Ch alles, alle Bereume des Lebens) streng und komprormsslos uberwachten.

Neoavantgarde Dennoch sollte es anders kommen, denn um 1955 meldete sum eme neue Generation ,unger Narodmkt mit emer sozusagen popuHstischen Vanante der Neoavantgarde, die noch emmal genau W1ssen wollte, ob alle MogHchkeiten der Folklore-Avantgarde-Montoge bereite ausgeschopft waren Die Antwort lautete naturgemaB nem, es geht noch weker. Auch der alte Kassak begruBte sie, besonders Laszlo Nagy (1925-78) und Ferenc juhasz (*1928), freudestrahlend. Eme e lg ene Zeitschnft durften sie zwar mcht grunden, so wek re1Chte die neue Toleranz dann doch mcht, immerhm "

«

Slehe die klassische Version von Ferenc Seb5 aus dem Jahr 1975 . Es grbt weitere Vertonungen auf joutube. Suchanfrage: Jozsef Attila A hetedrk. J62sef, Bin mlderApfelbaum mlluh rverden, 165, 167.

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aber konnten sie publmeren. Beide gehorten zu ,ener Generation von armen Bauern,ungen und -madchen, die um die Mrcte der 1920er jahre geboren waren und denen die Volksdemokratie die MogHchkeit emer EHteausbildung eroffnet hatte. Fast alle hatten sie ihre Kunst in den Dienst der kommumstischen Propaganda gestellt und hatten bald erkennen mussen, dass ihr Idealismus auf das schandHchste missbraucht worden war. Ernes der ersten Werke, das im Zeichen der Neuonentierung entstand, war 1955 die Neubearbercung der Cantata Profana von Bela Bartok durch Ferenc juhasz, geschneben aus Anlass des zehnten jahrestages von Bartoks Tod. Bartok, der 1940 in die Veremigten Staaten emignert und 1945 dort verstorben war, war 2 ur Zerc des StSmismus verpont, verboten, seme Werke standen auf dem Index. 1955 war das jahr der radikalen unganschen Bartok-Neubewertung, in dem das beruchtigte Diktum des stalimstischen Kulturpolitikers jozsrf Revai - „Kakophonie!" - fur obsolet erklart wurde. Mit diesem Wort fangt das ebenfalls 1955 entstandene Gedicht Bartok von Gyula Illyes an: ^^Hangzavart?"" - Azt! Ha nekik az, / ami nekunk vigasz!" ( P rauchen wir] Kakophonie? - ja! Wenn sie das, was uns Trost ist, Kakophonie nennen!). Sie (die Bosen und wir (die Guten) werden sauberHch getrennt, aber warum ist die Musrk Bartoks uns, der Nation, Trost? Kurz: Weil sie Vaterland und Menschherc wieder ms Lot brmgt, weil sie naturlich-menschHch ist und schmerzvoll erfahrene Utopien wie den proletanschen Internationalismus, die klassenlose Gesellschaft und ahnhche unnaturhhe Konstrukte emfach durch ihr Sem ungultig erschemen lasst. Die Cantata Pr.>^-Bearbeitung von juhasz ist allerding? differenzierter als das Bartok-Gedicht von Illyes Die von Bartok im Fruh,ahr 1914 aufgezeichnete rumanische Volksballade wurde in der Uberstezung von jozsef Erdelyi 1930 in der Budapester Literaturzekschnft Njugat unter dem Titel A sZarvasokkd vdlt fink (Die m Hirsche verwandelten junglmge) publiZiert- Fur sem groBangelegtes Werk fur Tenor, Banton, gemischten Doppelchor und Orchester verwendete Bartok allerdmgs seme eigene Ubersetzung ms Ungansche„„In der Cantata Pro/ana geht es [...] um em UbergSigsgeschehen: die Verwandlung. „Von Gestalten zu kunden, die in neue K6rper verwandelt wurden, treibt mich der Geist" - dieser erste Satz von Ovids Metamorphosen konnte als Motto uber Bartoks Erzahlung von den Zauberhrrschen stehen. Die Quelle der Dichtung, auf die der Kompomst hier zuruckgriff, Hegt m der Volkspoesie, genauer gesagt: in den Colmden, den Texten rumanischer WemnachtsHeder. „Der weLtliche Tefl dieser Texte steht in !B «

J6 2 sef Erdely, (Ubersetzer): „ A s.arvasokka valt fiuk" In: N ^ g a t , J g 23. (1930), Heft 1. (Cf. < h t t p : / / e p a . o s 2 k . h u / 0 0 0 0 0 / 0 0 0 2 2 / n y u g a t . h t m > ) . Bela Ba r t 6k, Cantata Profana, Deutsch von Bence S 2 abolcs 1 ; EngKsch von Robert Shaw, Wlen2008.

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kemer Be 21 ehung zum chnstHchen Weihnachten", schneb Bartok 1933 in emem Artikel fur die Sch^ensche Sanger^atung, allesamt seien sie „Textdenkmaler aus heidnischen Zeiten" Aus der Legends von den neun Brudern, die so lange in der Wfldnis ,agten, bis sie sich in Hirsche verwandelten, formte er, diese selbst ins U n g L c h e ubersetzend, das Libretto seiner Cantata Pmfana. Anfang September 1930 fertiggestellt, hielt er die Partitur noch erne Zeit lang zuruck, denn er plante zwei oder sogar drei weitere Vokalwerke, die zSsammen emen groBen Zyklus bilden sollten [ . . . ] " Die fehlenden Teile wurden allerdmgs me fertiggestellt. Die Urauffuhrung erfolge 1934 in London, in Budapest wurde das Werk 1936 zum ersten Mai aufgefuhrt. Die heidnischen Colmden sind eng mit den unganschen r^-Brauchen verwandt (von denen bei Attila jozsef bereks die Rede wlr), ihre Anbindung an Weihnachten / jahreswechsel ist sekundar, ursprungHch waren sie wohl Tefl von Erneuerungsnten. Die jagd-Colmden, zu denen der Urtext der Cantata Profa™ gehortfsind dem Kreis der Initiationsnten zuzurechnen, d.h. den Brluchen bei der Aufnahme der junglmge m die Gememschaft der Manner. Es gibt zwei ahnHche oder entfernt verwandte Strange, die Bartok ms Werk emgewoben hat: Zum Ersten zitiert die orchestrale Emlekung die Matthaus-Passion von j . S. Bach, also die Wandlung vom Mensch-Sem zum Hoherwertigen, zum Zweken deklariert der Schlussteil das Credo der Verwandelten: „nur noch aus klarer Quelle" (trmken zu wollen). Daher beschwort der Vater seme Sonne vergebHch, ms Elternhaus zuruckzukehren, nach der Verwandlung ist ihnen eine Riickkher nicht mehr moglich, als hoherwertige Wesen konnen sie nicht mehr in die fruhere p r i m L e r e Dasemsform schlupfen. Interessant ist sowohl m der Volkspoesie als auch bei Bartok die Art der Verwandlung. junge jager werden in Tiere verwandelt, wobei ihr Statuswechsel nicht dahingehend akzentmert wird, dass sie von jiigern zu Ge,agten werden, d.h. nidit als erne Art Strafe bewertet wird - im Gegenteil er ist erne Art Erlosung. Die Fleischfresser werden zu Vegetariern! auch wenn das nicht explizk mk diesen Worten ausgedruckt wird. Sie konnen ,edenfalls das Haus nicht mehr betreten, sich nicht mehr zu Tisch setzen, kerne menschHchen Speisen und Getranke mehr zu Sich nehmen, fortan werden sie grasen und Quellwasser trmken. Bartok wies mit dem Lob des „heiligen Primitivismus" auf die schopfensche Urkraft der Volksdichtung / der Volksmusik hin und betonte zugleich ihre KompatibiHtat mit der

20

Helge Jung: Re„e X 1 o„e„ von Liszt, Bart6k und L l g e t , In: Programmheft N , 42. der Berliner Philhannoniker (17-29. Januar 2007) ()Bart6kwollte die „Cantata Profana" urspriingKch 2 u m E m b l e m einer .dealen Volksgemeinschaft der Slawen, Rumanen und Ungarn irn Karpatenbecken ausbauen.

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desemiotisierten, ich-dissimtlierten, montierten Avantgarde. In semem Aufsatz Die Bauernmunk Ungarns schretbt er: Es ist auf aHe Falle bemerkenswert, dass em gew6hnlicher Musiker ebenso wemg die wahre Bauernmusik versteht wie die komplilerte Welt der modernen DissonanLen. Fur ihn h6rt sich eine einfache alte BaueLtelodie unertraglich modem an, weil sie mcht die bequemen und gewohnten Tonika-Dominante-Wechsel der Dur- und MollLeiter in semen Ohren erklingen, sondern ihn Dor-, Lid-, Mixolid- und andere seltsame und bemerkenswerte Tomeihen h6ren lasst. Zu alledem gesellt sich die denkbar ungebundenste Rhythmik: mcht abgedroschene Wiederholungen emer em Z igen TaktArf, sondern Rubato-ReZitative n i t den merkwiirdigsten Koloraturen, eferfolgen mitunter vier oder funf Taktwechsel innerhalb einer einzigen kurzen Melodic 21

Die 1930er Adaptation der Volksdtchtung durch Bartok folgt - sehen wtr mal von der Vertonung ab - im WesentHchem dem selben Muster wte Tibor Derys Arbettsweise in semer Varidao nepdalra (Variation auf em Volkslted) von Mitte der 1920er jahre: Sie ist erne Bearbettung, die - formal avantgardistisch - den Inhalt unberuhrt lasst. Die 1955er Neumterpretation von juhasz enthalt etmge gravterende Anderungen. In semer i g d i c h t u n g mit dem Titel ruf des tn etnen htrsch verwandeLjiinglzngs aus dem tor der gehetmntsse ist der Vater berercs tot. Die Mutter und der alteste Sohn fuhren das Zwtegesprach. In dtesem wrrd der Mtssbrauch der Bauern durch das System (wenn auch verklausultertsymbohsch) thematistert, das tragtsche Schicksal des Klembauerntums, das fur lmke, egalitare Ideen ursprJngltch offen war, und sich em besseres Leben von der Volksdemokratie erhofft hatte. Es schemt evident, dass Bartoks Cantata Vrofana von der unganschen Interpretationsgememschaft 1955 berercs auf erne emztge Zefle, ja auf erne emzige Losung heruntergebrochen war, die „nur aus klarer Quelle" (csak tiszta forrasbol) hteB. Unausgesprochen wrrd mit klarer Quelle all das gememt, was mcht Sowjetkomnmmsmus, sondern naturltch gewachsene, nationale Volksgememschaft ist. Auch im Poem wtrd die Ware Quelle mcht wetter speztftztert oder interpreter^ nur heraufbeschworen Dte zentrale Passage des Poems lautet: weh meme mutter, weh meme mutter, gute mutter, unter deinem dach ist kern bleiben fur mich, ichwohneimwald,hieristmemort, mem gespreiZtes geweih passt mcht m dem haus, mem friedhofsgeweih mcht in deinen hof, mem belaubtes geweih ist em donnernder baum, sterne seme blatter, die spiralnebel sem moos, nur duftende graser schmecken mir noch, *

Bela Bart6k, UagyarorsKdg paras^eneje p i e Bauernmusik Ungams), in: Bartok Beta oss^ujmttMsa,, Andras sfol5sy (Hrsg/), Budapest 1966, Bd. I, 35457.

126

PalDereky nur ersthaariger rasen behagt meinem speicheL ich kanS nicht mehr aus geblumtem glas^ trinken, sondern nur noch aus klarer quelle.23

Es gflbt emtge Charaktenstika dieses Poems, die nahelegen, dass es in die Nahe der Neoavantgarde geruckt werden kann und soil. In ihm werden nicht - wie bei Illyls - B6se und Gute, Sie und Wrr sauber getrennt, auch Vateriand und Menschhett werden nicht mkemander vers6hnt, die Unversohnlichkerc tntt offen zutage. Es wird vor allem betont, dass die erfolgte schmerzvolle Transformation der halbfeudalen Agrargesellschaft m eme Industnegesellschaft, und die damrc emhergehende Auflosung der bauerlichen Lebensform und Tradition nicht mehr ruckgangig gemacht werden kann. Auch die Wissensgesellschaft wird angesprochen, konkret die Entwicklung der Naturwtssenschaft, wie z.B. durch die Montage der Sptralnebel im obigen Zitat (Edwin Hubble wies 1925 nach, dass der Andromedanebel M31 were auBerhalb unserer MilchstraGe licgt). Die stattgefundene Metamorphose wird im Poem also nicht verurtetlt doch die Wandlung weist auch keme trostliche (geschweige denn sakrale) Zuge auf. Als Spur emer Weisung in die Zukunftkann hodistens die kosrmsche Situierung des Zauberhtrsch-jungen gesehen werden, seme Platzterung im Weltall, wemge jahre vor dem Begmn der bemannten Raumfahrt. dort stand er am berggrat der zeit, dort stand erauf der tarmspitze des alls, dort stand erim tor der geheimnisse, seme geweihspitzen im sternenhaufen, undithtrschstimmeantworteteer, riefzuriickzu seiner mutter: meine mutter, liebste mutter, ich kann nicht zuriick [...] jede meme, geweihspitzen 1st em zweibeimger eisenLst, eder meiner geweihzweige ist erne h o c h s p — g s l e i t u n g , meme augen find hafen I r groBe handelsschiffe, meine Idem dunkle kabel, meme zahne eisenbriicken, m memem herzen schaumen die meere, meme wirbel smd geschaft^e metropolen, meme milz ist erne rauchende stembarke, meme gewebezelkl smd fabriken, mem ruckenmark die milchstraBe, jeder punkt des raums ist em teil memes leibs, die dolde der galaxis eine ahnung meines gehirns.

1955, m ,ener dunklen Zeit der stch wmdenden, in Stucke zerschlagenen Gesellschaft, die mit dem 1956er Volksaufstand beendet wurde, hat 22

Auch: „Tnnkglas mit Blumenmuster"

23

I„: Ferenc Juhas2, Geduhte. Aus dem Unganschen iibertragen von Paul Kruntorad, Martha und IstvanS.epfalusi, Frankfurt am Main 1966, 25. Es gibt erne 2welte Ubertragung ins Deutsche von Martin Bischoff mit dem Titel „Das Rufen des in einen Hirsch verwandelten Junglings aus dem Tor der Geheimnisse", in: Ungate Lynk des ^an^gsten ]ahrhunderts, Paul Kkpati P r s g ) , Berlin & Weimar 1987, 311 ff

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man den inharent anachromstischen Charakter des Dichtwerkes nicht als storend empfunden. Die Re 2ipi enten haben die offensichtliche Verkleidung des Sprechers als volksnahe Figur eher als emen gelungenen Streich v e r s L d e n , es gefiel ihnen, dass sem Habitus em offensichtlidi montierter war, aus Schichten wie etwa der unganschen Urdichtung, der Bauerndichtung und aus Zitaten wie z.B. Anspielungen auf die KtLda. 1955 wurde der Rufdes in emen Htrsch verwandelunjungtngs aus dem Tor der Gehetmmsse als revolution^ Tat ernes Dichters verstanden und gewurdigt, der Ihnen zeigte, was mr von Ihnen - den Verratern, den Unterdruckern - halten. Audi die kuhne Form gefiel, die wohltuend-erfnschend anders war als die Schablonenhaftigkeit der meisten literarischen Werke, die im Zeichen des sozialistischen Realismus zwischen 1948 und 1956 entstanden waren. Im Zuge der Konsolidierung nach 1956 war in Ungarn ab Anfang der 60er jahre nach und nach erne Art von kleinburgerlichem Wohlstand entstanden, der spater im Westen Gulaschkommumsmus genannt wurde. Diese bescheidene matenelle Besserstellung musste mit der Aufgabe des offenen Widerstandes erkauft werden, die Parole der Partei lautete: „Wer nicht gegen uns ist, ist mit uns" Der Kompromiss war zwar nicht geheim, aber L h nicht urn besondere Sichtbarkeit bemuht. GroBe mdividuelle Gesten waren verpont - deshalb tielen auch solche Aktionen, w l e Umn tn Budapest von Balmt Szombathy (1972) unangenehm auf, der abseits des offizidlen Maiaufmarsches mit einem Lemn-Tragbild sozusagen pnvat d e m o n s t r a t e - Das stillschweigend geschlossene Abkommen wurde von den Intellektuellen etwa Mitte der 80er jahre ebenso stillschweigend gekundigt. Die Literatur begann etwa urn diese Zeit (also bereits emige jahre vor der Wende 1989) ihren Status als eminent wichtiger Teil der nationalen Seelenhysiene zu verlieren. Dichterinnen und Dichter wurden nicht mehr als Nationalhelden oder Propheten (usw.) wahrgenommen, sondern zunehmend als Literaturproduzenten.Im Zuge dieser Wandlung verlor auch die Dichtung von Ferenc juhasz groBe Telle ihrer AnziehSgskraftDer Rufdes in emen Htrsch veJndelten Jungltngs aus dem Tor der Gehetmmsse wurde nun als narver Ausdruck einer o P portunistischen Haltung bewertet, mit der die forcierte Industnalisierungund Kollektivierung rechtfertigt werden sollten (was er defimtiv me war)Die Textgrundlag? der Cantata Trofana war von dieser Wandlung 'nicht betroffen. Pathos und Sentimentalismus waren der authentischen mitteleuropaischen Volksdichtung (und Volksmusrk) fern - wahrend die Verwendung dieser Mittel in der juhasz-Bearbeitung nicht geleugnet werden kann. Bartoks FolkloreAvantgarde-Montage war nicht an irgendemer Aussage onentiert, das Bartok Modell „...lasst nicht einfach Folklore-Elemente im Werk auf24

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schemen, sondern bearbeitet sie umwertend-mtertextuell, um zeilgpnossische kunstlensche Grundfragen besser vergegenwartigen m konnen. Die Frage der Begreifbarkeit und der Einheit der dargestellten Personlichkeit ist verbunden mrc der Auswercung der Grenzen und Bedeutungsbere1Che der Musrksprache, wodurch auch das Verhaltms von Indmduum und Gesellschaft standee Neumterpretationen erfahrt; und sie ist verbunden imt der Zuruckweisung des schHchten Vertretungsanspruchs [...]«.* Das Fehlen ernes konkreten Vertretungsanspruchs ist wichtig: je wemger der kollektive Charakter der Volksdichtung, der Volksmusik mdmduaHsiert und spezifmert wrrd, umso besser eignen sie sich fur den Embau in Avantgarde-Werke, umso zeitbestandiger bleiben die damrc geschaffenen K u n s t L r k e - Bartoks Cantata Pro/ana erzMt erne wunders^me, konkret nicht nachvoll21ehbare Wandlung Der Zauberhirsch-Junge von juhasz kann seiner Volksgememschaft auch als anerkannter Sprecher doch mchts anderes empfehlen, als sich im offentHchen Leben den weltHchen Gewalten zu fcgen, um im Pnvaten ungestort dem Kult der A u t h e n t i c - der klarer Quelle - huldigen zu konnen. Es ist wemg verwunderHch, dass weder die Leser im Westen 1966 noch die im Osten 1987 etwas mit dieser ms Deutsche ubersetzten Dichtung anfangen konnten. Der Rufdes in etnen Htrsch verwandelten Jiingltngs aus dem Tor der Gehetmmsse war zu parabelhaft, um selbst vor der Folie der Cantata Profana gemeBbar zu sem.

*

Gabor Tolcsvai Nagy, S^embesules a naiv koltot nld^tes hataratval (Kon&ontation m l t den G r e n . e n einer naiven dichterischen Weltkonstmktion), in: A ma&ar mdalom ttrtenetu (Gesch 1 C hte„ der unganschen Literatur), Mihaly S 2 egedy-Mas 2 ak (Ffcsg.). Budapest 2007, Bd. 111,462.

26

I „ e l „ e m Budapester Vortrag im Jahre 1931 sagte Bart6k: „Ich habe diese beiden Attribute: bauedich und pnmitiv bis j e t * mehrmals benut 2 t. D o c h bitte, miBverstehen Sie mich nicht, ich tat es durchaus nicht in einem geongschat 2 igen Sinne. G a n 2 im Gegenteil: ich will gerade mit diesen beiden Worten auf eine schlackenlose, uralte, ideale Einfachheit hinwtisen" In: Bela Bart6k Weg und Werk. Schnften und Bnefe, Bence S.abolcsi ( H r s e ) , Mtinchen 1972, 166.

Musical Boxes: The Impersonal Avant-Garde Poem, Everyday Language and Popular Song Geert Buelens (Utrecht University/ Stellenbosch University) Avant-garde wnting with its verbal experiments is often considered difficult. Yet, especially in the 1920s, the later phase of the development of the historical avant-garde, these experiments tended to aim for the very opposite - towards me use of a simpler, even a remarkably straightforward language. Avant-garde poetry developed not only in the wake of Mallarme (absolute language, idiosyncratic use of esoteric vocabulary), another strand experimented with the use of demotic language, often in the context of song-like structures. This article will explore die usage of popular song material in high brow poetry since the Romantic period and discuss examples from a variety of Western poetries, focusing on Apollinaire, Albert-Birot, Brecht, Garcia Lorca and Van Ostai,en. In a 1941 piece for the Trotskyist The Partisan Revtew on the poetry of Bertolt Brecht, Clement Greenberg noted that some of the work of poets like Apollinaire, Cummings, Lorca and Mayakovsky was very much^characterized by "folk or popular culture": "It is anti-literary and antirhetoncal. It takes over me attitudes and manners of folk and popular poetry for their tang, sincerity, irreverence and lack of pretention, as against the formality and overstatement of 'book' literature, as against the endowed, the established, the respectable, in other words, as against Literature itself'.^ I am not aware of a study that explores this folk-informed avant-garde poetry, and I hope to show that it deserves closer scrutiny.

i

Clement Greenberg, The Collected Essays and Cntiasm. Volume I. Perceptions and judgements, 1939-1944, J o h n O ' B n e n (ed.), Chicago/London 1986, 49.

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A Romantic Impulse and Strategy Poetry and everyday language are not a straightforward match.^ Poetry is artificial, artfully manipulated or decorative language. Everyday language is, as the name suggests, everyday, normal, ordinary Literature, as Pound famously said, is 'language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree"" Poetry often extends this to the utter uppermost degree. It is usually not meant to be understood on first reading Everyday language is. Poetry does communicate something, but it does not use language m order to communicate directly, like when you are ordering a pi 2 2 a or discussing your love life. Or as Wittgenstem wrote: "Do not forget that a poem, even though it is composed in the language of information, is not used m the language-game of giving information"* Modern, modernist, avant-garde poetry has an even more complicated relationship with everyday language It tends to experiment with language, tearing it apart, exploring its aural qualities, using imagery to the extent thai its so-called metaphors seem to lack any referent, displaying a preference for an esoteric vocabulary that is typically found at the periphery of the lexicon, or not even there. The hieratic language of Stephane Mallarme stands as a prime example of this evolution. "[V]erse makes up for what languages lack", he claimed in Crise de vers {Crisis In Poetry)? making clear his desire for a total rupture between (everyday) language and poetic speech. In the early 20* century, that quest led some poets to even remoter corners of the poetic universe. Velimir Chlebmkov's Zaum and Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, for instance, display a yearning for some sort of absolute language. Dictionaries, let alone grammars, offer a way out of this labyrinth. Poetry becomes a spiritual and some exercise, so far removed from everyday language that it might as well be called ™ instead of literature. In his influential 1956 study Die Struktur der modernen Lynk (The Structure of Modem Poetry), Hugo Friednch presented an x-ray of the genre which still stands today: modern poetry, as it developed in the wake of Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Mallarme! is willfully difficult and obscure. It has lost its representational function and communicates at best indirectly, presenting a dark and broken world through fragmented pieces of highly

2

The broader topic of everyday language in m o d e r n poetry seems underexplored as well. Exceptions are Harald Wentzlaff-Eggebert (ed.), Die legation der Alltagssprade in der moderns Lynk. Ant^orten aus Europe fnd LateLLka, Erlangen 1984 and a few articles in Wolf-Dieter Stempel, Annette Saban & Christian Schmitt (eds.), Sprachluher AUtag Ungms-

tik^etonKUtera^ssenschaft^uh^nmA. 3

Ezra Pound, ABC ofReadmg, N e w York I960, 28.

4

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Zettel, G. E. M. Anscombe & G. H. von Wright (eds.), Berkeley 1967, 28.

5

Stephane Mallarme, S elected Poetry and Prose, Mary A n n Caws (ed.), N e w York 1982, 75.

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metaphorical language.* Yet avant-garde poetry also expenmented with forms of everyday language. Sometimes on an mtertextual level (ready mades - sampling bite and pieces oifound texts o, speech), sometimes imitating (i.e. artificially recreating) its enchanting simplicity or powerful straightforwardness. A strikmgly common feature of both Friedrich's complex and the more clear-cut everyday language variant is their penchant for impersonality. Romantic poetry is often associated with the spontaneous outpouring of personal emotions, but in fact many of these poems are far removed from the imponderabilia of random subjectivity, appearing, instead, as if they have always been around, like a mountain or a!i ancient temple. The longing for a transrational absolute language as well as the preference for the simplicity of everyday language are the results of that impersonal Romantic inspiration of the avant-garde. It displays a deep distrust of self-centered dvilrzed bourgeois culture and a strong belief m the power of primitive forms. One of these forms is the popular song. The stage for the Romantics was set m 1765, one could arg^ef when Bishop Thomas Percy published his collection of ballads and popular songs, Revues ofAnaent Engltsh Poetry. The collection not only inspired j . G Herder to edit Volkslteder (1778-1779) and Walter Scott to collect Mmstrelsj of the Scottish Border (1802) it was also crucial for the development of Romantic poetry itself in that these songs in,ected everyday language into the often artificial poetic practices of the day. The hugely influential anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn {The Boy Magic's Horn, 1805-08) by Achim von Amim and Clemens Brentano set a rather colloquial tone for much 19*-century German poetry. In Von VolksMem {On Folk Songs), his afterword to the first volume, Amim stressed how strong and free the language was in these popular songs compared to the rigid rhetoric and stale works of his educated contemporaries who treasured their genius and originality.' Of course, Amim was usmg the Volkslteder to plead his own case as he included some of his own poems m the a n t h o l o g y V r f ^ , thus positioning himself as an alternative to the official poets of his time. Similarly, Wordsworth spoke out 6

H u g o Friedrich, Die Struktur der modernen Ljnk. Von BaudeUre Us ?ur Gegen^art, H a m b u r g 1956. (Translated into English: The Structure of Modern Poetry: from the Mid-Nmeteenth to the md-rlentieth Century, Evanston 1974.) Echoes of Friedrich's theses abound most prominently in Octavio P a 2 ' s , ChUdren of the mtre. Modern poetry from Romantic to the aJnt-garde, Cambridge, Mass. 1974 (original: Los Ujos del Brno; del romanticsmo a h vanguards, Barcelona 1974). Mariorie Perloffs seminal The Poetics of Indeterm^acy. Rimbaud to Cage (Princeton 1981 redraws the map of Modernist poetry by stressing its difficulty (undecidability). A comparable survey, and one which structurally links the literary texts with their social and political context, is Peter Nicholls, Modermsms. A Uterary Grnde, Berkeley 1995.

7

Achim von A m i m , " V o n Volksliedern", in: Achim von A m i m , Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Alte deutscheUeder, Clemens Brentano & H e i n 2 Rolleke (eds.), Stuttgart 1987, 379-414.

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against the "poetic diction" of his contemporaries in the 1802 Preface and Appendix to the lineal Ballads, emphasizing his desire "to bring my language near to the language of m e n " ' This poetic pro,ect also had clear social ambitions. These lyrical Ballads, its author stated famously in the 'Advertisement' to the 1798 edition, were to be considered as experiments "to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure''.^ The great Romantic adventure, of which me historical avant garde provides one of the most enthralling chapters, began, so to speak, with an attempt to fuse poetic diction with everyday language, using song forms as examplesAn Avant-Garde Impulse and Strategy About a century after the Romantics a new generation of poets looked for ways to revitalize poetic speech. Popular songs once more proved productive m this respect! but the whole idea, or rather, mventwn of a pure folk art that had been essential to Romantic poetics had became hard to reconcile with the by now fully industrialized and urbanized societies of modern Europe. Consequently, the avant-garde artists had to look further afield and toned their attention to the surviving primitive rural societies in Africa and some remote corners of their own continent" At the same time they also explored the potential of a new kind of popular culture, one that did not originate in, but was catering for, the m a s s e s - The invention of the gramophone made popular songs ubiquitous. Lines from and references to these songs would soon be used in avant-garde poetry, giving them an appealing!* fresh and accessible quality that was missing in most symbolist verse. In French poetry, the works of Guillaume Apollinaire and Pierre Albert-Birot provide ample proof of these techniques. In the early Rhenanes poems like 'La Loreley' he would collect mAllls (1912) Apollinaire mixes material from traditional German folk songs by Brentano and Heme with colloquial speech. These mixed forms were worked into couplets or B

William Wordsworth, The Major Works, Stephen Gill (ed.), Oxford 2000, 600.

' 10

Wordsworth, Major Works, 591. In 1815 Wordsworth attested to the importance of Percy's Relies collection: "for our own country, its Poetry has been absolutely redeemed by it. I do not think that there is an able Writer in verse of the present day who would not be proud to acknowledge his obligations to the Reliques" William Wordsworth, "Essay, supplementary to the Preface (1815)", in: Wordsworth, Major Works, 656. Jack Flam & Miriam D e u t c h (eds.), PnmXnsm and Twentieth-.entur, Art: A Documentary Htstory, Berkeley 2003.

» *

J o h n Storey, Inventing Popular Culture. From Folklore to Global^tion,

Maiden 2003, 6-9.

The Impersonal Avant-Garde Poem, Everyday Language and Popular Song

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quatrains. In 'Les cloches' ('Bells'), an unhappy love story, the verbless third stanza is almost entirely composed of proper names and nouns referring to family relationships, giving these rhyming lines a deliberate impromptu and conversational tone: DematnCypnenetHenn Mane Ursule et Catherine Leboulangereetsonman E t p m s Gertrude ma cousrne"

In his 1917 poem for two voices 'Balalaika' Apollmaire's fellow cubist poet Pierre Albert-Birot tries to evoke both visually and aurally the experience of an exotic musical display. Italicized parsmgs and variations on the name of the Russian instrument are spaced to suggest an accompaniment, while the other, parlando voice tries to hypnotize the reader, or rather listener, into an erotic revene: labalala ika Close your eyes to see more clearly Balalaika What do you see Lalai ka Colored lamp turmng round balala labalalaika and hands that W e laika and breasts that pomt balalaika ilka and breasts that tflt lai-ka»

The avant-garde poets took the idea of a poem as a verbal score from Mallarme's fJ« coup de des, yet their use of contemporary pop culture and everyday language made their poems far less obscure. The work of the Antwerp poet and theorist Paul van Ostai,en (18961928) is a case in point. Both the typographically experimental BeZette Stad (Occupied Gty) and the multicolored handwritten De Feesten van Angst en Vtjn {Feasts of Fear and Agony), written in exile in Berlin during the November Revolution and the early years of the Weimar Republic, feature fragments of real speech which often turn out to be quotes from the songs, adver«

"

"Tomorrow Cyprian Henry / Mary Ursula Catherine / The bakeress her husband / And cousin Gertrude". Guillaume Apollinaire, Akools, Anne Hyde Greet (eds.), Berkeley 1965, 146-47. Pierre Albert-Birot, "Balalaika", in: The CuUst Poets in Pans. An Anthology, L.C. Breunig (ed.), Lincoln 1995, 11.

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lubriek klapperen vaandels officiers bieden huo seks aan de ekstatiese meni£te een remonstrans pastoors sprenkelen

wijwater

lubriek Te Deum van hinnikende loopse wijven orgel patriotccrt magnificat anima mea toutes !es femrnes de Vitchecou puis nous aurons la musique ca vous donne en avant k

potpourri

Vcni Creator spiritus c'est

lui

1'plus

beau

costo

c'est lui le roi du Sebasto Tota pulchra es Maria ellc s'appelait

Suzanne

elie avail une jambc de bois de bois

de bois

Ave Maris Stella Vice

de Beieren trekken

l'

Autrichicnne

lerug

VIVE LA

BAVAROISE

Fig. 17: A page from Van Ostaijen's Occupied City (1921) about the celebrations in Belgian streets after Armistice Day, 1918. H e mixes the "patriotic" language of the Latin Te Deum-mass (sung, in local practice, to symbolize the union between G o d , the Catholic church and the royal house of Belgium) "with the highly secular urban sounds of popular French songs.

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tisements and films of commercial pop culture. What rmght seem authentic utterances at first are actually standardized and consciously crafted pieces of borrowed language. In the final phase of Van Ostai,en's artistic development, when the aural qualities became increasingly important, he longed to create what he called "zuivere lynek" (pure lyricism), poems that were meant to be included m a volume called TheFmtlok of Schmoll. Taking its title from a popular piano teaching book, it was supposed to contain simple, impersonal, yet highly musical verse. (The poet died before he could complete the volume, but the title became well-known nevertheless.) Quite a few of the poems written for this volume include names of popular dances like the polka, the waltz and the ,azz in their title. They axe obviously highly crafted (typography, repetition, the odd rhyme), yet their subtle musicality and inconspicuous yet driving rhythm give them an exceptionally arhetoncal quality. Van Ostaijen at this stage no longer quotes from popular songs, but adopts and adapts their highly syncopated rhythms, repetitions and variations. Parody and Tribute Two of his most accomplished poems in this respect have 'Charleston' in their title. The poems allude to the "hysterical popularity of the Charleston dance" in the mid-1920s,15 adding a touch of irony and twisted couleur local. The first one, published in the Dutch catholic magazine De Gemeenschap (The Community) in April 1927, is filled with cliched American references a girl from Milwaukee, to be abducted in a Ford to a Texas pastor to marry her, uncles in Chicago and Oklahoma, negroes with "thick lips", quick money in oil and advertising...), which give the title of the poem, "Oppervlakkige Charleston" ("Superficial Charleston"), an interesting twist The Charleston, received in Europe as the ultimate American fad! devoid of cultural values like the New World itself, becomes a focal point through its collocation with the seemingly redundant ad,ective 'superfic i a l ' - In "Boere-Charleston", published in February 1928, Van Ostai,en 15

Alec Wilder, American Popular Music. The Great Innovators, 1900-1950, James T. Maher (ed.), N e w Y o r k / O x f o r d 1990, 459. European Charleston hits include the D u t c h "Moeder is dansen" ("Mother's out dancing") by Louis Davids (1927), Maurice Chevalier's "La lecon de Charleston" ("The Charleston Lesson", 1926), "Jacky apprend le Charleston" ("Jacky learns the Charleston") by Georgius (1926), "Elle danse le Charleston" ("She dances the Charleston") by Fred Guoin (1927) and "Kannst du Charleston? T a n . s t du Charleston?" ("Do you know the Charleston? D o you Dance the Charleston?") by the Tan 2 orchester Bernard Ette.

"

Cf. G e r o t Borgers, Paul van Ostayen, een documentatu, The Hague 1971, 825. O n the hostile reception of j L in the Netherlands and Germany, see: Kees C.A.T.M. Wouters, Onge-

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moves the urban craze into a rural environment, using local dialect, filling lines with rather common Christian names (like Apollmarre, cf. supra) and mentioning instruments associated with brass bands and including a reference to a typical country pub:" Country Chadeston Tulip bulbs and bulbs of tulips tulip petals rose petals farmers' roses farmers' faces farmers' fumes farmers'fumes and dancing faces faces dancing basses dancing bulbs and basses bugle and bassoon - O hop! Mane Cathleen Mane Katnne who has seen the htde bugle who has seen the big bugle who's seen Mister June with his bassoon for this is no pavanne or saraband now thisisnogigueorallemandnow and not a wait, thiststhechadeston the country chadeston by Mister June on his bassoon and who has seen the htde bugle and who has seen the big bugle who's seen Mister June and his bassoon The Htde bugle's sitting by the roses With Rosalie the big bugle's sitting in the buggy withMelame

mnschte

«

Mu^ek. De bestnjdtng van ja^ en moderne amusementsmu^ek in Dmtsland en Nederhnd 1920-1945,^ Hague 1999 In 1926, during the height of the craze, the Dutch bourgeois newspapers wrote about the Charleston almost on a daily basis, often with a mixture of awe and disbelief. E.g. "Negerkunsten" (Negro Arts) in Nieuw Kotterdamsche Courant, 25 July 1926, 3, on Josephine Baker and Florence Mills. The colonial Sumatra Post printed a substantial interview from Paris with Piet Mondrian (most likely taken from the Dutch newspaper De Te/egraajj in which the painter declared himself a passionate Charleston-lover. Yes, Europeans tended to make it into a hysterical frenzy, but negroes like Josephine Baker displayed a remarkably sustained concentration of speed. «Bij Piet Mondriaan Het knstalklare atelier. Apologie van den Charleston", Sumatra Post, 13 October 1926. For a substantial discussion of the Charleston craze in the United States, see Amy Kontz, Culture Makers. Urban Performance andUterature in the 1920s, Urbana 2009, 64-85. Some of these are lost in translation: "Mister June" was "Gaston" (pronounced like the Flemish - not French - Gas-t6n, to rhyme with charle-ston and "basson", "bassoon"), the pub "Cafe La Lune" was "In de ton", "In the barrel". "Wie danst er mee de Charleston" ("Who joins in doing the Charleston?"), an interesting Charleston-song in a similar Antwerp dialect, also enumerating proper names, can be found in the 1927 Liederenblad. published just across the Dutch border, in Roosendaal. See the Dutch Song Database:

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M a n e Cafhleen M a n e K a t n n e a n d Mister J u n e are sitting in the saloon I m e a n Cafe La L u n e Bulbs and faces dancing basses bugle a n d b a s s o o n ^

A classic of modern Dutch poetry, this "Boere-Charleston" is not easy to categorize. It is partly a tribute to the energy of the hyped dance, partly a parodist clash of country and city culture, but it is above all, perhaps/an accessible and ,a 22 y reworking of the German E x p r e s s i o m s t V J t o , opening up the ngidness of the August Stramm-lync to display the joy of aA almost childlike wordplay.

Easy as O n e , Two, Three just like the many Charleston songs of the 1920s, these Charleston poems present all but a traditional first person lyric. The language and content of the poems open up the poetic field, adding a touch of grotesque folk humor to the repertoire. A master at this trade was Bertolt Brecht. Such Wortkunst and wordplay were far from his mam concern, but in his 1927 mock-religious Hauspostille {Manuel of Ptety) he presents a cycle of ballads many of them originally written on a guitar J tilled with folk tales about pirates, adventurers and other gang members, and often in American settings. Withm the context of German Expressionist poetry at the time, obsessed as it was with the affirmation of the subject in revolutionary t i m e s - this was a bold step. Even the autobiographical appendix "On the Poor B.B." had an impersonal ring. E x p r e s s e s ! pathos was replaced with irony or sarcasm, the overly dense language with a deliberately social idiom. Writing of the volume in his "Guide to the Use of the Individual Lessons", Brecht even claimed that these ballad-like chronicles were "put so simply they can even be considered for publication in grammar-school primers" - Irony, perhaps, but not only that Modernity with its striving towards standardization had a profound effect on language. While the ffrst generation of philologists were collecting

">

« *° *

Paul van Ostaijen, "Country Charleston", in: The Hrst Book of Schmoll Selected Poems, James Holmes (ed.), Amsterdam 1982, 113. Online, with the original: Jan Knopf, Gelegentluh: Poes,e. Em Essay uber Me Lynk Bertolt Brechts, Frankfurt am Main 1996,291 Cf Eva Kolinsky, Engager Expresstomsmus. Poktik und Uteratur ^sden Weltkneg und WetlnarerRepubl,k,^uttgLl91Q. Bertolt Brecht, Manual of Hety. (Die Hauspostille), Eric Bentley (ed.), N e w York 1966, 9.

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ballads, folk songs and fairy-tales in the language of the people (what we would call dialed), they were also involved in the production of dictionaries and grammars which would lead to the development of an official standard, 'high-brow' language and the concomitant marginalization of many dialects throughout Europe. Official high brow culture tended to use that standard language both for economic and cultural reasons: you could reach a bigger Audience while proclaiming yourself to be a member of the modern elke. The more widespread this Standard language became, the more writers started to upgrade it, introducing their own idiosyncratic variations, thus developing a literary lingo with complex syntactic structures, highly charged chtffres and symbols. Although the lure of upward social mobility should not be underestimated as a factor in the careers of avant-garde artists (often of middle class background), it must be noted that the more politically inclined among the artists tended to have a complex relationship with this use of language. Agarn Van Ostai,en's lyrical evolution provides a case in point In a poem called "February", which he wrote soon after the February revolution of 1917, he announced and celebrated three major shifts: the (inpoettas traditional trope of) Winter time changing into Spring, the independence of all peoples (to live free from automatic rule - whidi in his native Belgium meant to be free from Francophone bourgeois domination) and a new kind of literary language: "Yesterday it was all alexandrines [i.e. classicist French verse], today itis the laughter of a young boy".- All too elevated conventionalized language was replaced with a natural, vigorous, Mng one. Sophistication gave way to simplicity and authenticity. The 1918 volume Ret Stenjaal {The Signal), m which this poem was included, is characterized by long, meandering Whitman-like free verse lines, closer to daily speech than most of its contemporaries, yet maintaining a poetic richness in its imagery and rhythm. The use of inversion, topicalization, parallellism and repetition still marks this type of language as a consciously crafted one, although one which could be called rhetoric £gk. In the 1920s, Van Ostai,en denounced his own Whitman-like verse and Berlinera experiments as non-lyrical. As a follower of the 19* century poetpriest Guido Gezelle, who wrote in his native West-Flemish dialect because he believed it to be the language of God, Van Ostai,en wanted his verse to have the natural ring of folk poetry. However, this lyrical straightforwardness did not imply directness or banality; like the Romantics, Van Ostai,en believed that spontaneous nursery rhymes and childmade couplets had a remarkably suggestive quality that avant-garde verse

22

Paul van Ostaijen, Ver^ameld mrk. Amsterdam 1979, 119

Poe^e. Musu-Hall, Het Stenjaal, De Feesten van Angst en Pyn,

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could only hope to emulate. We are obsessed with the musicality of poetry, Van Ostai,en observed, yet compared to Gezelle and his WestFlemish followers, the avant-garde poets "use words like skeletons".- As an example of his aspiration he quoted the Antwerp nursery rhyme "Parapluke, parasolke, ene voor de regen, ene voor de zon, pardon"- _ w h l c h roughly translates as: "Little umbrella, little parasol, one for when it rams, one for the sun, beg your pardon" - but this little couplet about umbrella's {Regenschtrm & SonnenscHrm) is still being sung today. Its popularity may be because the closing word "pardon" (from the French pardon, also used m 'Boere-Charleston')! despite its lack of logical or semantic function, has a rhythmic and lyrical quality similar to the funny rythmes which toddlers make from the few words they know.

As Demotic as Gongora The inclination to find poetic excellence in folk songs, ditties or popular speech is also a feature of Federico Garcia Lorca's 1926 defense of Gongora, "La imagen poetica en Don Lms de Gongora" (The Poetic Image m Don Lms de Gongora). Lorca's defense is all the more surprising because Gongora, as no other Western poet, epitomizes high brow, ob scunst, even unintelligible poetical language. Lorca, though, disagreed with this received opinion invoking the Andalusian people's everyday language to make his point: "At the basis of all language is the image, and our people have been especially prodigal in these. To call the projecting element of a roof an a/ero is a magmffcent image; to call a confection bacon of heaven and another nun's stgh, is a shrewd and engaging conceit; [...] In Andalusia, folk imagery reaches an epitome of refinement and sensibility; and these transmutations are wholly Gongpristic".* Both examples - Van Ostai,en's ditties and Lorca's appraisal - illustrate that the precise characteristics comprising literary language which make it different from everyday language still remain elusive. Indeed, "Parapluke parasolleke" can be heard on Flemish streets all the time, as are, one would guess, Lorca's examples of Andalusian poetic imagery. Such phrases and expressions are clear examples of everyday language. The poets, though, appreciated them as examples of poetic usage of language, recognizing m them elements of their own experimental ambitions.

23

v a n O s t a i j e n , Ver^ameld

Werk

ProKa. Besprekngen

en Beschovmngen,

386.

24

v a n O s t a i j e n , VenpmeU

Werk.

ProKa. Besprekngen

en BesAoumngen,

381.

^

Federico Garcfa Lorca, "The Poetic Image in D o n Luis de G6ngora", in: Poet in Ne„ Ben Belitt(ed.), N e w York 1955, 167.

York,

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GeertBuelens

In his summary of Lorca's essay, Hugo Fnednch stressed the autonomous qualities of Gongora's imagery and sound patterns and how they resulted in a type of poetry "die den Leser mcht sucht, sondern flieht" (which is not welcoming to the reader, but runs away from him).26 This assessment fitted neatly into Fnednch's overall argument about the obscurity of modern poetry, but it seems somewhat at odds with another characteristic the Romanic scholar mentioned in passing in his treatment of modern Spanish poetry, namely its interest m popular or folk poetry ("volkstumlichen Poesie") - I n p u n c h ' s view, though, it was not. In their dark suggestiveness he claimed, these gypsy ballads had already shown some of the quintessential traits of modern poetry. Lorca's appreciation of Gongora rL along similar lines: what people tended to ,udge as obscure was in fact no more difficult than the daily idioms of these very people. The argument also worked the other way, as Lorca showed in his lecture on the cante jondo: the gypsy ballads that were often frowned upon as "dirty, only belonging in taverns" to him possessed a "beautiful clarity and suggestiveness".As with so many poetical treatise and ars poetica, Lorca's Gongora and Cante jondo lectures were to some extent about self-defense %A selfpositioning. Although he hated what was officially respected as literature ("The last thing I am interested in is literature. Besides I never intended to 'do literature'"),- Lorca wanted to be taken seriously and to be free to develop his own style. By publicly praising the artistic merits of what many considered to be mere folklore^ and by stressing the folk roots of what was generally seen as too artistic, Lorca created an artistic middle ground that would serve him well. His productive immersion in Andalusian culture set him apart from the official literary circles of the 1898 Generation and also provided, as Herbert Rams den has put it, an "escape from the over-profuse lyricism of Romantic tradition"-The commercial success of Romancero gttano (1928) - the first edition of 3500 copies sold out in a few days - confirmed his ambition to write a popular w o r k Lorca's ambitions were not unlike Van Ostai,en's: he wanted his poems to have the immediacy of old, anonymous folk songs. The cries they tended

26 •n

F n e d n c h , Die Stokkr, Fnednch, DleStr«ktUr,

113. III.

2B

Quoted in: Moraima D o n a h u e , "Lorca: the Man, the Poet, the Dramatist, As Seen Through His Lectures, Letters and Interviews", in: Manuel Duran & Francesca Colecchia (eds.), Lorca's Legacy. Essays on Lorca's Lifi, Poetry, andTheatre, N e w York et al. 1991, 73.

*

D o n a h u e , "Lorca: the Man, the Poet", 72.

30

Herbert Ramsden, "Introduction", in: Fedenco Garci'a Lorca, Romancero g,tano, Herbert Ramsden (ed.), Manchester & N e w York 1988, 6.

3!

Albert Bensoussan, Fedenco Garcia Lorca, Pans 2010, 139-41.

The Impersonal Avant-Garde Poem, Everyday Language and Popular Song

141

to begm with were not only meant to attract the audience's attention, they also communicatee! without needing semantically charged words. And, just like Van Ostai,en's later poems, Lorca's Canaones (Songs, 1927) are filled with quotes from or references to nursery rhymes and childlike simple songs or nonsense-rhyme- as avant-garde musical boxes that sound ancient yet eternally fresh at the same time. The Public's Eye and Ear Sometimes direct heirs of an oral folk tradition, sometimes the products of the early urban, commercial music industry, popular songs inspired avant-garde artists with ambitions to unite art and life or, more modestly, to inject their art with a shot of vitality. The poets' broader ambitions may have been social and political (brmgmg new art forms to the people by incorporating elements the people recognized as their own), or primarily artistic (exploring traditions that were frowned upon, making tt L by using society's vibrant leftovers). In short, the avant-garde's dealings with the popular song can be seen as symptomatic of its complex relationship with authenticity! alienation and artistry. Like most avant-garde poetry, these song-inspired poems differ from the main-stream of modern poetry in that they do not use a lyrical I. However, unlike most avant-garde poetry these impersonal lyrics seek a form of lyrical connection to the reader through their use of relatively easy language as well as well-known forms like the ballad, chorale or the Charleston. The poets' self-conscious mimicry of these popular religious or commercial song forms tended to have an ironic effect, mainly due to the clash between their more or less codified form and their often critical content. At the same time these poets wanted their work to be as accessible as the widely known originals they spoofed. Samples of peculiar language which had become so common that they no longer struck the people as being extraordinary were welcomed by the avant-garde as rich and powerful pieces of literature. This gesture was not necessarily reciprocated experimental texts that incorporated everyday ditties and images were not automatically recognized as great literature by the general public. Ironically, this same public tended to expect something more recogmzably or 'traditionally' literary poems, that is, showing off familiarly rhetorical flourishes and forms. The everyday or literary quality of language, is, it seems, as much in the eye of the beholder as other forms of beauty 32

Cf. D . Gareth Walters, "Canc.ones" and the Early Poetry ofLona. A Study in Cntical Methodology andPoeticMatunty, Card 1 ff2002,144,185-90.

W h a t D i d They N e e d j a 2 2 For? Ja22 Music in Polish Interwar Poetry Beata Smecikowska (Polish Academy of Sciences) While certam critics claim that ,a 22 emerged in Poland only after the Second World War,! quite a few other scholars and writers have suggested the opposite.^ In his famous novel Ferdjdurke, for example, Witold Gombrowicz, noted that the interwar period in Poland was "the ) a 2 2 band era"/ which others between the wars frequently described as wild, fascinating and terrifying. Interestingly, these t t o views are not contradictory, provided one discriminates between popular ,a 22 bands and experimental, elitist, "high" jazz. Obviously, ,a 22 is a phenomenon possessing contradictory features: it is folk-driven, popular, suitable for dancing and, simultaneously, virtuosi, avant-garde and elitist. Polish ) a 2 2 of the interwar years was a "low" rather than 'Trigh" kind of entertainment. It was a domain of light dance music, not of serious or conscious experimentalism. However, one should not underestimate the achievements of the musicians begmning their ,a 2 2 - or ",a 22 y" - careers from scratch, with little contact with live American jazz. A brief survey of Polish ,a 2 2 and its reception during the interwar period makes that very clears The early 1920s were the pre-history of Polish jazz, the time of the first contacts with the new music. During these years, however, the first Polish professional ,a 2 2 bands came into being (the groups of Zygmunt 1

See, among others: Boguslaw Schaffer, "Histona m u 2 y k i ,a 2 2 owe, w Polsce. R o 2 m o w a 2 Andr 2 e,em Tr.askowskim", in: Pokki, sae^ki A > ^ , Krystian Brodacki (ed.), Wars.awa 1983, 147; Andr 2 e, Zarebski, "Nie ssukajmy klucla do otwartych dr 2 wi, c 2 yli cI podcinaniu kor.eni i fundamentali.mie", in: JaZZPoL,33, 1998, 1-2, 56-58; A n d r . e , Schmidt, Histona j a ^ , vol. 3, Warszawa 1997, 229; j e L y Radlihski, Objwatelja^ Krakow 1967, 44.

2

Compare R o m a n Kowal, Po&kija^ WcKesna Ustona , tnff Uografie Kamkni,te: Koineda - KosK Seifert, Krakow 1995, 11-33; D i o r S y Piatkowski, C^asKoJedj, Mosina 1993, 10-12; Krystian Brodacki, Histonaja^ w Poke, Krakow 2010, 31-75.

3 4

Witold Gombrow 1 C 2 , Ferdjdurke, Krakow 1987, 149. Th 1 S historical outline is based on the following studies: Brodacki, Histona ja,^, 31-75; Kowal, Po&kija^ 11- 33; Piatkowski, CZas Komedy, 10-12; A n d r . e , J6 2 wiak, Dancmg retro. Histonaja^Pokce 1918-1939,WatSZ awa 1989.

Jazz Music in Polish Interwar Poetry

143

j

Fig. 18: Tadeusz Makowski, Jfifffi, 1929. Painting by the Polish artist "who lived and "worked in France.

KarasmsM and Szymon Kataszek, Artur Gold and Jerzy PetersbursM). The 1920s were also the heyday of numerous dance clubs offering; "jazzy" dance muse and revues playing cover versions of popular American songs. Jazz was an extremely intriguing and controversial phenomenon. As early as in 1922 an anonymous journalist described an outrageous "sacrilege" in a professional musicians' magazine. The text entitled "Profanacja sztuki. Przerobki Chopina przez Jazz-Band^" (Profanation of Art. Adaptation of Chopin by a Jazz-Gang) reads: A few days ago we n o t e d w i t h c o n d e m n a t i o n that in t h e "Wielka Z i e m i a n s k a " [ironically m i s n a m e d f a m o u s cafe in W a r s a w — B. S.] a j a z z - b a n d was playing a foxtrot, three parts of w h i c h consisted of the adaptations of C h o p i n ' s Yantaisie-Impromptu in Csharp minor ( O p . 66), Walt^ in D flat major ( O p . 64, N o . 1) and FuneralMarch\ Y o u m a y imagine w h a t it was like — w i t h the roaring of the t r u m p e t s , h o w l i n g of the w h i s d e s , growling of various d r u m s , castanets, x y l o p h o n e s and o t h e r indispensable accessories of t h a t N e g r o music. A n d all t h a t m e t w i t h the ovation and b u r s t s of applause from the unrefined audience. 5

5

After: Brodacki, Wstoriajastf*, 33.

144

BeataSmeciowska

Remakes of the classics resembling the experiments of happy ) a 2 2 were, however, not very frequent. Still, the interest in black music was growing. In 1927 a new magazine Ja& a separate supplement of the periodical Muyka (Music), wa? released The editorial in the first (and only) issue of > ^ (see fig. 19) was written by a famous pianist and musicologist, Zbigmew Drzewiecki His opinions differed significantly from the statements of the indignant cntic quoted above: The extraordmary, specific, independent rhythm is the most important and most valuable feature of ja ZZ band music, which has influenced the whole of modern music very strongly; it is also the reason for the unprecedented popularity of ja ZZ as it reflects one of the most fundamental qualities of human nature and of existence itselfthe need for listening, for motion, for life in rhythm. [...] The most basic manifestations of the human rhythm - pulse, breathing, walking - are commonly known. ]a Z Z band music triggers these elements L humans more t b L any other type of must J

Both the release of the new periodical (the only Polish interwar magazine devoted exclusively to jazz) and its prompt closure are very telling Still, critics kept on writing about ,azz and their knowledge of the new musical forms was constantly growing. A turning point in the early history of Polish ,azz was the national Expo in Poznah ^owszechna Wystawa Kra,owa) in 1929 presenting the 10 years' achievements of independent Poland The biggest attraction of the main pavilion was the concert (not just dancing to mutic) of Karasihski and Kataszek's band, which proved the new music was being "formally" appreciated as well. Yet not all its forms met with equal applause. In me early 1930s there were already 7 professional ,azz bands and numerous amateur groups consisting mostly of school boys or young soldiers fascinated with the modern sound. Western records and books on ,azz were quite easily available. There were also popular radio programmes broadcasting ,azz and, last but not least, the first American sound films. As a result jazz band music seemed ubiquitous. A contemporary account reads: The rubble of sounds falls on you, buries and chokes you; you cannot breathe, you cannot gather your thoughts [.. ] a^ something wails, yells, thunders [...]. Man-eaters' music is just like the man eaters themselves, it devours alive everything different from scream and howl. [...] The ja ZZ band is everywhere as the Deluge was [...] You cannot hear the nightingale as the great gorilla roars ]a Z Z bands became so common that you no longer pay attention to it. [.. ] the black riffraff [...] produced records, took over the r a l Microphone, swept the concert halls, choked operas, drowned out talks,

6

Zbigniew Dra^iecki, "Kilka sl6w o wsp61c2es„e, mu 2y ce tanec.ne,", in: }aKKl 1, 1927, 1, 3-4.

Ja 2 2 Music in Polish Interwar Poetry

145

made people throw the poetry books into the garbage can [...] and now it is alone in the battle field mighty and triumphant, self-intoxicated, impertinent and insolent?

The reason for the outrage over the overwhelming music must have been partly the banal lyrics of the popular songs, exploiting two topics: love and wilderness. For instance a refrain of a Charleston from 1926 reads: Gdy garsona tahc Z y charlestona, / DrZa_ w ekstaZie wsZystkie lona. / Temperament, m u - i n jak atrament / I Z myslowe roje par. / TaZZ-band rycZy, mur Z yn kwicZy krZycZy. / Br.mta_pu.ony, bebny glosne, saksofony / Gdy gaionk tancs/chadestona,/DrZ^wekstaZiewsZystkieW...B (When a hoyden dances a Charleston, / In ecstasy all loins tremble. / Hot temper, Negro as black as ink / And sensual swarms of pairs. / ]a Z Z band roars, Negro squeals, screams. / Trombones sound and loud drums, saxophones. / When a hoyden dances a Charleston, / All loins tremble in ecstasy . . /

Yet trends changed fast. The next milestone in the history of ,a 2 2 in Poland was marked by the arrival of distinguished ,a 22 musicians of Jewish ortgm escaping from Na 21 Germany after 1933. Among the best of them were Erwm Wohlffeiler, Arkady Flato and the Polish Armstrong" Ady Rosner,- w h o then established the best professional ,a 22 band in interwar Poland. The late 1930s were the swing era, the time of a growing " ) a 2 2 consciousness" and the first Polish jam sessions in the > 2 2 Club" at the YMCA in Warsaw. While it is still open to debate whether we may speak of ,a 22 or only ,a 22 y light music in the Poland of the interwar era," the evolution of the new music and the growth of knowledge on ,a 2 2 throughout the period was conspicuous.

J a 2 2 and Poetry? The relations between ,a 2 2 and poetry have been widely discussed in numerous English-language studies and anthologies- but this has not led to

7 B ' io » 12

Komel Makus2y„ski, "Notatki pisane petitem" (1932), after: Polskte sae^t do jaKKu, KrysnanBrodacki(ed.),Wars 2 awa 1980, 7-8 After: B r o d a c k i , H ^ ™ 7 ^ , 37. All the English translations of the literary works of art are mine - B.S. Pi3.tkowski,Ci«rW&10. Cf Zarebski, 2.

The Municipal Chair in the Photographs of Kertesz and Doisneau

199

The idea of a participatory photography adds another slant to Doisneau's use of the familiar. In me photograph of children moving the chairs the lines drawn in the sand are as iinportant as the traces of people who have occupied the chairs, who have moved them in the course of the day. In fact, it seems distinctly crucial that the image of the chairs, after they have been moved, precedes the image of the children in the process of domg so. In contrast with Kertesz's chairs, as we will see, Doisneau's set-ups are more obviously in line with earlier more sentimentalized representations of Parisian parks. Similar to late 19^-century representations, the park increasingly functions as a discernible site for me comingling of social classes, of ages, of genders and indeed of artistic genres. Seemingly unchanged by the entry into the 20* century, the municipal chair thus references a iV-century sensibility in which the park becarne, if not genuinely classless, then at least tentatively a space in which the merging of the working and upper strata of society was acceptable. If, as Scott points out m Street Photography, the impressionist painters had colonized the streets of Pans as a fubject matter for aesthetic innovation prior to the advent of street photography, Doisneau's use of the chairs would reflect this continued relationship between urbanity and class division and the ways in which class sometimes momentarily dissolves in the pastoral environment of the park. It is no coincidence, men, as Scott points out, that it is the "wrought iron chairs, which haphazard, unoccupied, still reverberant with the life that has touched them, were to become one of the visual preoccupations of the street photographers"For Andre Kertesz, the identification of street photography with perambulation as a distinctly modernist occupation takes a slightly different and in some respects more personal edge. Defined in man? S t a n c e s as the quintessential model for the photographer/flaneur, Kertesz's work, whilst caught up in the activity of strolling and observing, is nonetheless tempered by the sense that Kertesz isn't always entirely at home on the streets that he photographs. In somewhat simplistic terms, one might compare Kertesz's use of everyday ob,ects within the city as a way to document his own practice and life as a photographer with Doisneau's more visible interest m the sub,ects i.e. the people mat use those everyday objects. While Kertesz steps back from the potential sentimentality of social interaction, Doisneau seems to counter it by actively incorporating it into his photographic process. The fact that Kertesz's 1920s artistic sensibility predates Doisneau's by a decade is also crucial in this instance. Kertesz's immersion in Russian and German photography, his friendship with the painter and theoretician Mondnan and his intimate knowledge of Brassai's ">

Scott, Street Photography, 26.

200

Caroline Blinder

work lent itself to an artistic sensibility in which human interest stones were downplayed by Kertesz's more formal interest in photography's graphic nature Some critics have been unsure as to how to position Kertesz within the usual modernist mappings of photography in the interwar penod because of this. More often though, Kertesz is placed as an inbetween figure, as a photographer whose images of the city, in particular, align themselves to Surrealist, Modernist, Formalist, and Realist aesthetics m equal measure. In two of Kertesz's images of chairs, the colliding materials of iron, the ground, and the shadows that they generate are at me forefront. While this image appears to be first and foremost about the graphic and tonal possibilities of the chairs' shadows and about urbanity as a site of contrasts, it also reflects the mechanical process of photography itself through its focus on permutations of light and shadows Another way to put this would be to read Kertesz's chairs as more stringent examinations into what constitutes a genuinely photographic way of looking at ob,ects. Returning to the idea of the photographer as flaneur, Kertesz's movement across an increasingly modernized space is - photographically speaking a genuinely observant one, one that possibly keeps a more discrete distance than Doisneau's immersion in what for D o L e a u , would be something more familiar. Less interested in those constellations and arrangements that occupy only an instant, Kertesz seems to operate with a certain gravkas, with more intent. One possibility is that Kertesz is less engaged m flanene, less engaged in what Scott defines as a form of " i n d i s c r e t e looking, the procedures of the dilettante and flaneur" in which the "pavements, empty chairs, ram and umbrellas, stalls and shop windows are forms of ocular invocation, the teasing out of transitory revelation by a glance"Scott's definition of the flaneur as one engaged in "indiscriminate looking", the "teasing out of transitory revelation" is then, as regards Kertesz, a problematic definition. For Kertesz, the icomaty of the chairs and their locations seem not so much to tease out meaning as firmly establish their importance. There is, then, a co-mingling of a sense of photography as both liberating and contained in the work of Kertesz. If we no longer need to know the exact details of the situation in front of us - in a documentary sense, if we no longer need to await the transitory revelation of a particular arrangement, the interpretation of the instant can be served by its ability to eliminate the necessity for detail rather than the necessary incorporation of it. The pleasure of Kertesz's chairs thus lie in the gratification felt partially through a recognizable object, as well as from the »

Scott, Street Photography, 73-4

The Municipal Chair in the Photographs of Kertesz and Doisneau

201

Fig. 22: Pans 1929 Jardm des Tuilenes/Champs-Klysee, Pans, 1930 Reproduced courtesy of the Kstate of Andre Kertesz, N e w York.

202

Caroline Blinder

knowledge that no extraneous material need enter the photographic process Sid disrupt that pleasure. In "jardm des Tmleries Paris 1 arrond, 1928" aesthetics seem to take center stage through the focus on a configuration of seated and standing figures, some of whom appear related and others who seem to be there at mndom. Despite this, there is a distinct sense of design at work here, as though, to quote Doisneau "the composition is harmonious because the various components that no have no fixed place have arranged themselves as they think fit and taken on, for fleeting moments, the familiar shape of a letter of the alphabet".- Doisneau's quote, despite ostensibly being about the fleeting moment of arrangement, nevertheless touches on a crucial aspect of K e r b ' s procedure?, the attempt first and foremost to construct a language of photography in which familiar shapes, patterns, and m this instance ob,ects, become as distinguishable within the vocabulary of modermsm as a letter in the alphabet. Familiarity in this respect has less to do with the creation of factual records and more to do with the ways m which certain configurations seem almost to be about internal rather than external events, In this particular instance, the figures in the park are in fact somewhat aimless and ghostly, as though they are looking for instruction or guidance as to what^ they are doing there in the first place. Part of this comes out of the ways m which Kertesz crops his images, taking ob,ects and entrenching them in the spaces conveyed. The chairs, despite being relatively weightless ob,ects are for instance firmly situated on the ground and the framing and cropping accentuate this. The "jardm des Tuileries" image also shares something characteristic of much of Kertesz's later New York-based street photography, the more voyeuristic pleasure implied in seeing things from a distance. In comparison to Doisneau's focus on the acknowledgement of returned gazes and the street level eye view, Kertesz oftentimes employs a more oblique perspective, looking down into the street or at things from behind other things. Kirk Varnedoe in A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern (1989) reads Kertesz's "view from above as an emotional as well as spatial emblem of distance, detachment, and - certainly no view better embodies the word - estrangement— The notion of estrangement might be pushing the pomt a bit in this respect. While Kertesz at a distance may align him self with the solitude or sense of disconnectedness of the chair? occupants he is also m different yet equally crucial ways creating a community of observers. Like the photographer the occupants of the chairs are en-

20 a

Robert Doisneau, Three seconds from etern.tj, Pans 1979, 2. Kirk Varnedoe, A Fme Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern, N e w York 1989, 242 as eked in Scott, Street Photography, 37.

The Municipal Chair in the Photographs of Kertesz and Doisneau

203

gaged in the act of looking, and indeed invited to do so by the presence of the chairs. In this respectThe pleasure derived from the downward view is still contingent on the photograph's ability to turn the viewer into a flaneur, just as it indirectly conffrms the photographer's ability to render the city a very planned rather than merely 'come upon' series of settingsRaymond Williams m The PoMcs of Modemtsm posits the credentials of the modernist artist as largely reliant on the ability to take what appears to be ' an ob,ective milieu', such as the park, and render it the perfect modernist environment. In his chapter 'Metropolitan Perceptions and The Emergence of Modernism' (1989), Williams outlines the new 'effective metropolis' as a site wherem the modernist theme of "an individual lonely and isolated within the crowd" is firmly established. If, as Williams argues, modermsm relies on the "paradoxical self-realization in isolation" of the artist it also simultaneously takes that theme as the starting point for a definition of art, which in the end is less about "the general themes of response to the city and its modernity" and more about the city as the site of a community of artists.- The issue of community is, in this respect, crucial for an understanding of Kertesz for whom - perhaps more so than for Doisneau - the history of his own photographic practice was one of artistic alignments, of referencing and of adapting existing genres. This I not to say that community was not paramount for Doisneau simply that it was a community generated through a different impulse, a love for his sub,ects and for the recognizably democratic impulse that lay m acknowledging that Parisians spend a considerable time looking at each other. KertesS's chairs, in this respect, are perhaps more about their own icomcity, despite their very Parisian contextf and about how they reference the modernist impulse towards the incorporation of the everyday in order to comment on our desire for visual continuity within an otherwise potentially overwhelming urban space. For Kertesz it was decidedly more important to present himself as unique, as an explorer in an otherwise uncharted territory, which partly explains his insistence on being the first to photograph the municipal chair "At the time photography was zero only the ordinary commercial kind of shots with little or no artistic value. Nobody photographed the chairs in the parks, in the Luxembourg Gardens, in the Tufleries. I did. Of course, at that time I did not know that this was modern or unique".* Kertesz's insistence that he was unaware of

*

It is no coincidence that Kertesz shares B r a s s e s tendency to render Pans a series of settings, les halles, the squares of Pans, the very distinct corner where the prostitute waits for her clients, as these settings in turn confirm the spectatooal qualities of the city as well as the city as an imaginary space created through events both discrete and connected.

23

Raymond Williams, The Potties ofModerns,

24

As quoted in Michel F n 2 o t & Annie-Laure Wanaverbecq, Kertes^ Pans 2010, 144.

L o n d o n 1987, 40.

204

Caroline Blinder

the modernist connections in his focus on certain ob,ects has to be taken with a large gram of salt, but more importantly perhaps, the comment elucidates Kertesz's feeling of being in uncharted territory, of playing by his own rules as an outsider. For Williams this sense of rebelliousness, a form of desired outsider status, is firmly linked to the immigrant status of so many inter-war modernist artists in Paris at the time: It cannot too often be emphasi.ed how many of the major innovators were, in this precise sense, immigrants. At the level of theme, this underlies ... the elements of strangeness a i d distance, indeed of alienation. ... But the decisive aesthetic effect is at a deeper level. ... the artists and writers found the only community available to them: a community ty of the medium; of their own practices.^

The idea of a community of practice rather than of artists, a place in which the artist establishes his or her own individual artistic manifesto can be seen in Kertesz's interest in repetition, in the more formal properties of the chatrs, their patterns and shadows. Kertesz is also, however, using this to comment on me ways in which the icomcity of the chatrs is both generated by their repeated representation and how that representation in turn proves their charismatic nature. What Kertesz wants to avoid is - in the end - what Scott defines as the "easy equations of localisation and authenticity" in documentary practice, the temptation to turn the Parisian environment into a guarantor of a particular form of realism.- If one is tempted to level precisely this criticism at Dotsneau's photographs of everyday events and the people of Pans, it is perhaps because we remain reluctant to accept Dotsneau's comfortable sense of being genuinely situated amongst the people he photographed. Williams in this respect may have been right; we gravitate towards a modernism in which the alienated artist takes precedence and we see this sense of melancholy in the poignancy of Kertesz's chatrs. Returning to the initial assertion, that the municipal chatr proves the photographer's ability to capture "those icons" emblematic of both movement and stillness within the crty, Dotsneau and Kertesz's distinct styles say a great deal about how versatile a seemingly innocuous everyday object can be in photographic terms. Ultimately, the attraction of the chatr as a distinctly photographic and modernist object for Kertesz and Dotsneau may have been m its to ability to render the precise moment when the flaneur recognizes the lyrical potential of the everyday.

*

Williams, i % ^ e f A f * * ™ » , 45.

26

Scott, Street Photography, 197.

Everyday Life in Andre Breton's Tnlogy Nadja, Vases Commumcants and VAmourfou Wolfgang Asholt (University of Osnabruck) In Andre Breton's prose works Nadja (1928), Us Vases Commumcants (1932) and UAmourfou (1937), everyday life is as a rule transformed by writing. A classic example of L strategy is the much debated remark of the autobiographical narrator early on in Nadja. When the narrator encounters Nadj£ she dares to praise the attitude of the workers returning home on the underground after a hard working day. The narrator protests by reproaching them and her: "je plains l'homme d'y etre c o n d a L e , de ne pouvoir en general s'y s o u s t i e " , and he adds: "il faut que les chaines ne nous ecrasent pas, comme elles font de beaucoup de ceux dont vous parlez"! The reality of everyday life is introduced here as a background, but only to be qualified as something unacceptable. Consequently, the transformation of everyday life becomes a necessity, and as long as (social) change has not been realised collectively, the male protagonist of Nadja demonstrates a personal refusal of "cet asservissement qu'on veut me faire valoir" 2 Michael Shermgham, m his seminal book Everyday Ufifrom Sunreahm to the Present (2006)/ has shown how the Surrealist view of everyday life has inspired many later views and practices in literature and theory In this essay I follow the opposite direction and look back at the function of everyday life in SurreaHsm, in order to better understand the originality of Surrealism and to appreciate to what extent its view of the everyday is still of interest today. For Shermgham's book brings only part of the story. Shermgham analyses the Surrealist view of the everyday m two chapters at the beginning of his study ("Surrealism and the Everyday", and "Dissident Surrealism: The Quotidian Sacred and Profane", the latter evoking Boiffard, LeMs, Queneau, Walter Ben,amin and the Breton of the "Magique1

Andre Breton, Nadja (1928), in: Oevvres completes, vol. 1, Pans 1988, 687.

^ 3

Breton, Nadja, 687. Michael Shenngham, Bverydaj Ufe. Theones and Practices from Surreatism to the Present, Oxford 2006.

206

Wolfgang Asholt

circonstatielle"). The mam part of Ms book is dedicated to the four great French figures in the theory of the everyday during the second part of the 20* century: Henri Lefebvre, Roland Bardies, Michel de Certeau and Georges Perec. The two volumes of Henri Lefebvre's Critique de la vie quoMenne 1947 and 1961) insist on the "qualitative improvement in the sphere of everyday life" to realise "the plenitude of human possibility expressed in the notion of Thomme total"'.* The perspective is clearly collective. Later, influenced by the Situatiomsts, Lefebvre also comes to stress the momentary ("moments pnvilegies") which constitutes "breaks and accelerations in the mdividual everyday"^ In Roland Barthes, from Mythologies (1957) to Comment mvre ensemble (1977), the limits between writing and living tend to dissolve: what he calls "ecriture de la vie" becomes a constant crossing between everyday life and writing, where the central question is "whemer any kind of communal living c!m foster rather than smother subjectivity".* But the perspective of Barthes, despite his "vivre ensemble" is a very subjective one: "Chaque sujet a son rythme propre".? This is slightly different in Certeau's Indention du quoUdiel. "Through the engagement with the other, the sub,ect of everyday practices has me capacity to be involved in a process of appropriation i ^appropriation that manifests a particular mode of identity"* But in the second part of Invention du quotidien, written with Luce Giard and Pierre Mayol, Mayol appreciates the everyday as a process of appropriation which is less subversive but more adaptive, going in the direction of Bourdieu's Distinction. For Perec, finally, the everyday is even more connected to writing than for Barthes. His attempts to exhaust everyday life situations and places become pro,ects of writing that interweave memory and momentary experience leading to an immanent connectedness without transcendent meaning, thus demonstrating a new modesty. This all too brief synopsis clearly evinces the fundamental influence of the Surrealist notion of everyday life on later 20^-century French thought. Yet my synopsis also marks an important difference between that Surrealist notion and later ones. What the latter lack, Perec's in especial, is "transcendence". That belief in transcendence waned was probably necessary and inevitable, given the social, cultural and historical experiences that came after the 1930s, not least the experience of the shoah. But this alteration also entailed the loss of a perspective that may still be possible and necessary today. Breton's three "novels" - I hesitate to use the generic 4

Shenngham, Everyday Life, 137.

= 6

Shenngham, Everyday Llfe, 168. Shenngham, Everyday L,fe, 204.

7 B

Shenngham, Everyday L,fe, 205. Shenngham, Everyday L,fe, 232.

Everyday Life in Andre Breton's Trilogy

207

term - Nadja, Us vases commumcants and U amourfou, wntten between 1928 and 1937, forcibly bring that perspective to the fore. Classically, these three texts privilege the act oiFlameren in an urban or metropolitan context. The mam part of N ^ i begins with the sentence: Le 4 octobre dernier [1926], a la fin d'un de ces apres-midi tout a fatt desoeuvres et tres m o m e s , c o m m e 'at le secret d'en passer, je m e trouvais rue Lafayette : apres m'etre arreti quelques minutes devant la vitrine de la libraine de UnJanite et avoir fait l'acquisition du dermer ouvrage de Trotsky, sans but je poursuivais ma route dans la direction deFOpera.'

We find Similar mcipits in Us Vases commumcants ("Le 5 avnl 1931, vers midi, dans un cafe de la place Blanche ou mes amis et mot avons coutume de nous reumr, je venais de conter a Paul Eluard mon reve de la nuit [...], lorsque mon regard rencontra celui d'une ,eune femme, u d'une jeune fille"-), and in UAmourfou: "Cette femme qui venait d'entrer allait bientot se retrouver dans la rue, ou je 1'attendaJ sans me montrer. Dans la r u e . . . " " As Shenngham's book reminds us, Maurice Blanchot originally intended to give his essay "La Parole quotidienne" the title: "L'Homme de la rue". Obviously, the narrator of Breton's shamelessly autobiographical novels is such a man of the street and its crowds. Everyday life at a precise moment in certain popular quarters of Parts is a necessary condition for what happens in Nadja. What is often regarded as a defining property of everyday life, its indeterminacy, is, in this L e , not only a collective quality but also a property of the protagonist. This indeterminacy is accentuated by the "desoeuvre" and "saL buti' in Nadja as well as by the cafe-situation inI Us Vases commumcants or the "waiting-expectation" in UAmour fou. The individual disposition is necessary but this disposition needs a special context and the special quality of this context is its everydayness. When strolling in the popular Paris of the Rue Lafayette on the fourth of October 192 6 ; when sitting in a cafe of the not less popular Place Blanche on the fifth of April 1931 or when waiting not far away on the 29 May 1934, the urban context is that of the popular Pans of those years. The streets we meet in these novels are exclusively situated in that northeastern part of Pans where the great Naturalist novels of Zola, Goncourt or Huysmans are set as w e l l - In Us Vases commumcants, Breton emphasises the attraction of these quarters and their everydayness when he is writing: "Mon emerveillement, je le dis sans crainte de ridicule, mon '

Breton, Nadja, 683.

10

Andre Breton, Les Vases commumcants (1932), in: Oeuvres completes, vol. 2, Paris 1988, 147.

»

Andre Bnton.L'At.ourfiu (1937), in: Oeuvns completes, vol. 2, Pans 1988, 714. This m o m e n t is also dated: " E t je puis bien dire qu'a cette place, le 29 mai 1934 [...]" (713).

12

Breton, Les Vases, 159.

208

Wolfgang Asholt

emerveillement ne connut plus de bornes quand die [the women met on the fifth of April] daigna m W e r a l'accompagner ,usqu'a une charcutene voisine ou elle voulait faire l'emplette de cormchons— A popular butcher's shop with popular food like "cormchons" creates an atmosphere impossible in the elegant quarters (beaux quarters) of the town. But if Breton makes allusions to the favourite quarters of the Naturalists, it is also to highlight the differences between his and their work. First of all, and m opposition to Zola, documenting himself in those parts of the town, he is genuinely present and engaged in the urban context of these districts. Yet secondly, and more importantly, he needs that context above all to transform it. Breton's protagonists wander those quarters anticipating an everyday event that, despite its everydayness, will radically change the context of everyday life. This event is a kind of illumination and Breton speaks with a certain prudence when he also calls it a revelation: "le caractere nettement Zelatom qui les distinguee au premier c h e f " The introduction of this traditional metaphysical notion even compels him to cite Hegel as an authority: "L'esprit reste en eveil [...] qu'autant qu'il reste [...] quelque chose de mysterieux qui n'a pas encore L revele" ^ A revelation cannot be planned, Breton asserts. As the figure of the flaneur indicates, what is needed is a certain disposition. This disposition is a personal attitude but it requires the context of popular urban everyday life to make a revelation occur. This un-metaphysical revelation is closely linked with the ob,ective hazard ("hasard objectif") which enables the unique moment of the encounter. In all three novels the protagonist encounters a woman. Not only does that encounter always 4 e place in an everyday context, the new relationship - if it has a certain duration - also continues to be situated in everyday life, even if that life is completely transformed for the protagonist. The best example of such a transformation of the urban space and everyday life can be found in Nadja. On the day after their encounter Nad,a and the narrator meet in a cafe on the Rue Lafayette. Here, Nad,a fascinatingly starts to speak in a Surrealist manner, lending quite a different character to the everyday context and suggesting that a Surrealist everyday life is possible- The following day, Nad,a's hallucinations transform the town with its boulevards into the lie de la Cite. The space of the city thus becomes an area for a momentarily lived

«

Breton, Les Vases, 158.

"

Breton, UAmourfiu,

15 16

Breton, UAmourfiu, 712. The citation is from Hegels Esthetics. "C'est meme ennerement de cette facon que je vis". Breton, Nadja, 690.

712.

Everyday Life in Andre Breton's Trilogy

209

Surrealism, proving that a complete change is possible, at least for a short while. Given the ambiguous character of this Surrealist everyday life," Breton almost as a rule proceeds in the same context to a self-cntiasm of a lived Surrealism, questioning its capacity to enact a real and lasting transformation. But at least for a moment, Nad,a, who represents for Breton "Emancipation humame a tons egards, selon les mojens dont chacun disposT," has lived this experience - even if Guy Debord's assessment of the avantgarde m general is apt here as well: "Plus son exigence est grandiose, plus sa veritable realisation est au-dela de lm. Cet art est forcfment d W garde et fl n'est pas. Son avant-garde est sa disparition"." In Us Vases commumcants, the protagonist experiences a transformation of the urban space followed by self-critique. For a whole week, the protagonist haunts the quarter around the Place de la Chapelle. In the process, his experience of everyday life in this popular and poor district, as well an encounter ("rencontre") that is finally cancelled, sharpen his social insight and even change his appreciation of labour (mentioned above). As a result, he develops a completely unexpected appraisal of ordinary everyday life. Seeing the couples of working people abusing themselves on Sunday along the rivet Marne, he remarks "La vie s'y retrouvarc en moyenne. Elle s'etalarc massive, petitement productive, mais du moms tndtsJe. [...] C'est tout de meme pour ces gens qu'il y a des fraises dans les b o i s W Though this everyday life, at once "charmant" and "affreux", begs for a Surrealist transformation, the protagonist nonetheless envies the couples he observes: "Bien sur, il etak trop tard pour tenter de m'adapter a leur sort, mais comment ne pas admettre qu'ils etaient favorises, ,usqu'a un certain pomt?"- The co-presence of two types of everyday life one popular and the other Surrealist in Us Vases commumcants, leads Breton to a long contemplation of his own situation and the perspectives of Surrealism m general. Seemg others while leaving behind Surrealist views gives rise to Mother view of the world: "Le besom de comprendre un peu le monde, le souci de se d i f f e r e n t des autres hommes, Fespoir d'aider a la resolution d'une chose non resolue, tout ce facteur agrcant a la fois et decevant s'etarc abstenu une fois pour toutes d'entrer en ligne de compte— This selfquestioning is connected to the problem of the Surrealist public: "Un "

Wolfgang Asholt, ", in: Pl«ne Ma^-,33, 2001, 145-73.

!B

Breton, Nadja, 741.

« 20

Guy Debord, La soaeU du spectacle, Paris 1967, 185. Breton, Les Vases, 162.

^

Breton, Les Vases, 162.

22

Breton, Les Vases, 162.

210

Wolfgang Asholt

public, pour qui l'on parie et dont on aurait tout a apprendre pour contin u e a parler, qui n'ecoute p a s ; un autre public, indifferent ou facheux"Breton's ideal audience are the people he has seen on the rivet Marne, living automatically without questioning themselves in their everyday situation. The impression Breton gains from this dominical and estival scene represents a denial of the Surrealist vision: "je considers cette activke que ,'avais pu avoir avant de me trouver ainsi aneanti. Cela valait-il meme la peine d'y avoir louche ? " - As a result, Breton proceeds to critique the activities of the Surrealist group, which at this point has already begun experiencing the crisis provoked by the "Aragon case": "je n'avais pas le sentiment qu'il en put resulter pour mo,, non plus d'ailleurs pour que pour aucun d'entre nous, la satisfaction vitale que nous cherchons dans le fait de nous expnmer".^ If the aim of Surrealism is a "vital satisfaction", it cannot only be a literary or aesthetic one, but has to find its realisation in other forms of everyday life. The Marne scene reveals the Surrealists' critical appreciation of their own targets. But this self-criticism does not invalidate those targets. It only demonstrates their conscienceness of how difficult it is to "(re)introduce art into life". Breton draws conclusions in the final installment of the trilogy. Its title, UAmourfou, is telling in this respect. The everyday life of others is almost entirely absent in this book, both in the theoretical introductory part - which ends with the often cited sentence, illustrated by the still more famous photography of Man Ray: "La beaute convulsive sera erotique-voilee, explosante-fixe, magique-circonstantielle ou ne sera pas" * - and in the narration of one of the capital encounters in the protagonist's life. What counts is the personal everyday, lived as a permanent disposition for the encounter of love in the sense of a "coup de foudre", caused by ob,ective chance and characterised by indeterminacy. This time, the magnificent and enchanted walk through Pans from the north to the south takes place at night, which tends to exclude popular everyday life altogether; the quarter of Les Halles is quickly left ("Allons! C'est seulemerft dans les contes qu'il est impossible au doute de s'msinuer"-). What follows is the long moment of the miraculous night of the sunflower, illustrated by a famous photo of Brassai'sGiven this development of everyday life in these three texts of Breton, it is not very surprising that everyday language does not carry too much 23

Breton, Les Vases, 163.

24 *

Breton, Les Vases, 162. Breton, Les Vases, 165.

26

Breton, L'Amourfou,

•n

Breton, L'Amourfou,

687. 716.

2B

Breton, L'Amourfou,

731.

Everyday Life in Andre Breton's Trilogy

211

importance in this context. Nad,a is fascinating for the narrator/author because she knows to play two registers, that of Surrealist language and that of everyday language in relation to a Surrealist transformation of reality, as m the scene of lived Surrealism on the lie de la Cite. But at any moment there are few traces of the popular Parisian language, not to speak of argot. The young woman Breton follows in the Gare du Nord district m Us Vases commumcants does have the right to speak: Breton 'la laisse parler"- but it is the narrator who reports her discourse. In the same way, the working-class couples of the river Marne do not have the privilege to speak their own language: everything is referred to by the narrator. UAmourfou, the product of a walk through nightly Paris, requires no direct speech at all. The only citation stems from one of the narrator's poems: "Tournesol" from Claire de terre (1923). This linguistic situation, granting privileges only to the poet-narrator, is typical of Breton's treatment of everyday language. Todayf historians of French literature often speak about theintroduction and forms of "everyday" language in the novel of the 1920s and 1930s, that is to say during the golden age of Surrealism. Frequently, writers like Aragon, Desnos or Soupault are mentioned by these historians, but only in relation to the period after their break with the Surrealist movement. The secular tendency Nelly Wolf alludes to in the title of her impressive study, U Peuple dansle rowan francs de Zola a Celtne™ or what, more recentiy, Jerome Me 1 2 0 2 has calledI L'Age du roman parlant^ is established, as the two authors studied by Nelly Wolf illustrate, by quite another tradition and evolution than that to which the avant-garde refers. Even so, Celine and the Surrealists share a thing or two when it comes to the treatment of "low" everyday language ("langage parle") in their work. While Celine was often praised for his innovative natural style, for writing as one s p o k e - he always stressed the constructedness and internal rhythm of his literary lang u a g e - Opposing the autonomy of art and wishing to unite art and life,

29

Breton, Les Vases, 161.

30

N e l l y W o l f , Le Peuple dans le roman francs

3!

J e r o m e M e 1 2 o 2 , L'Age

du romanparlant

de Zola a Cekne, P a r i s 1 9 9 0 . (1919-1939).

Emmns,

entires,

Bngutstes etpedagogues

en

debat,VmZ200l. 32

See Wolfgang Asholt, U t 2 Maas, Knstina Rabanus and Frauke Tonjes, "Ecrire au vif: retrouver "la Vive voix" a travers l'ecnt. Anmerkungen 2 u r oraten und literaten Sprache be, Celine", in: Komamstische ZettsMfifurUteraturgeschuhte, 1/2, 2010, 137-59.

33

" O n a tout dit quand on a proclame que j'a moi aussi [...] ecrit des livres en langage parle. [...] II s'agit de tout autre chose = d'un langage rythme interne". (Lou.s-Ferdmanc1 Celine, Lettres a Albert ParaK: 1947-1957, GalKmard 2009 209.) M.chael Shenngham, who evokes Celine only once in his book on everyday life, comes to the same conclusion: "But like Celine [...] Queneau subverts the roman p o p u l a r model through a host of devices" (Sheringham, Everyday Ufe, 122).

212

Wolfgang Asholt

the Surrealists took a different route, but in their work too the question is not so much to what degree we can discover something like "everyday language". For with quite different techniques than Celine, Breton too overcame everyday language by way of a new poetic language. As is done with everyday life, common language is transformed into a novel language, that is, automatic writing. It is typical that only Nad,a, when speaking automatically, has the privilege of direct speech. Everyday language and everyday life tiius perform an important function m Breton's works - and one might add, m Breton's life In the prologue of Nadja, Breton writes: P o u r mot, je c o n t i n u e s a habtter m a m a t s o n de verre, ou T o n p e u t votr a t o u t e h e u r e qui vtent m e rendre vtstte, ou t o u t ce qui est s u s p e n d u aux plafonds et aux m u r s tient c o m m e par e n c h a n t e m e n t , ou je r e p o s e la nuit sur u n lit de verre aux draps de verre, ou qui je suis m ' a p p a r a i t r a t 6 t ou tard grave au dtamant.34

Here, Breton describes his desire to live in an everyday context at every moment. In this context the everyday does not function in a high/low opposition; quite the opposite, it overcomes such hierarchies. Importantly, automatic writing and even more so the act of automatic speaking performed by a protgomst such as Nad,a, at one point really existed. They are not fictions. The problem, of course, was that the public for whom (at least theoretically) the new Surrealist language was intended, did not listen. Breton was well aware of this. At the end of the first manifesto, he concluded: "C'est vivre et cesser de vtvre qui sont des solutions imaginary. L'existence est ailleuts"" and in the conclusion of the second manifesto, six years later, he was even more sceptic: "II s'agit, non d'en rester la, mats de nepouvotrfam moms que de tendredesesperimeM a cette &mte"* The limit referred to here is that of the alleged impossibility of the Surrealist ideal. Yet Surrealism's literary works, based on real autobiographic experience as m these three texts, show the possibility of an existence elsewhere, h e r e Where does this leave the pro,ect of Surrealism and, more generally, the pro,ect of the avant-garde? Shermgham's study exemplifies that Surrealistavant-gardists like Breton, despite their scepticism or pessimism,

34 35 *

Breton, Nadja, 651. Andre Breton, Oeuvres completes, vol. 1, Pans 1988, 346. Breton, Oeuvres completes, vol. 1,828.

37

These prose texts discussed here are also an illustration of what we have recently called in a German debate the knowledge for living of literature. See: Wolfgang Asholt & O t t m a r Ette (eds), Uteratumssenschaft alsUbenswtssenschaft. Programme - Projekte - Perspektiven, Tubingen 2010. An english version of the programmatic article by O t t m a r Ette is published as "Literature as Knowledge for Living, Literary Studies as Science for living", in: PMLA, CXXV, 2010,4,977-93.

Everyday Life in Andre Breton's Trilogy

213

defended the possibility and the necessity of a transformation or revolution of everyday life and language. One might criticise the loss of this Utopian impulse of the avant-g^rde at present! not least because it may be crucial to a radical critique of society today. Henri Lefebvre still clung to the historical avant-gardes's ideals, with his conception of the everyday plenitude of human possibility expressed in the notion of "l'homme total" and later pointing out of the necessity of cultural action to change everyday life ^mediately. These same ideals no longer characterise (me later) Roland Barthes. In Comment mvre ensembk it is less the collective aspect of everyday life that interest him, than the sub,ective one where the limits between writing and living should be dissolved. As Shermgham argues, Barthes' Utopia?harbour fantasies of control while the everyday may resist such fantasies. For Certeau, the reappropriation of everyday life is tied to "detournement" and subversion, but his mam interest is the subnet's self(-appropriation). When Shermgham writes that Perec's view of everyday life has "provided endurmg inspiration for innumerable later explorers of the everyday"- he characterises him as an important aesthetic and social precursor but the absence of a transgressive, collective project is also evident. At the end of his book, Shermgham concludes: "The quotidian almost invariably ceases to be itself the moment we pay heed to it [...] but [...] it succeeds in resisting the sway of the spectacular and the eventf u l " - By contrast, the Surrealists and above all Breton successfully created another (non-Heideggerian) type of everyday life: a quotidian that opened a way to those events that might change the world and make life worth living To what avail? Has the avant-garde failed? Nearly a century later, it is hard to deny that the great hope of living another life through art, if it has not completely disappeared, has seriously weakened. Bu? the growing conformity of everyday life might provoke a new actuality of the Surrealist Utopia. At the same time, in at least one sense, Surrealist everyday life is a fact today. By trying to get from the inside to the outside of our social and cultural system/the Surrealists may have failed but they were successful with regard to crossmg the borders between art and non-art. As Nrklas Luhmann claims at the end of his Kunst der Gesellschaft (1995), as far as the limits between art and non-art go, "the avant-garde has created the problem and has given a form to it" ("Die Avantgarde hatte nur das Problem gestellt und in Form gebracht"-). By integrating non-art, that is to say, everyday life's pieces or everyday life itself into the system of art, Surreal-

3B

Shermgham, Everyday Life, 291.

^

Shermgham, Everyday Ufe, 397.

*

Niklas Luhmann, Die Kuist der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt 1995, 506.

214

Wolfgang Asholt

ism has consequences not only for art itself but also for everyday life. Today it is unclear whether the everyday is only a function within ever more complicated relations inside the system of art and literature, or whether art and literature also (require to) have an influence on everyday life. Be that as it may, the Surrealist avant-garde has an afterlife, and sometimes, as Dernda once observed in another context, spectres manage to § continue haunting us for a long time after their supposed death.

Entre trnme et possession: recits surrealistes et fictions populates Ivanne Rtalland (Umversite Pans IV - IUT de Mame-la-Vallee) Si les rapports entre l'ecrkure surreaHste et les narrations populates ont de,a ete abordes sous le mode de l'emprunt, de la parodief du collage, il nous semble que l'on n'a pas encore assez pns au seneux le plaisir de lecture et d'ecrkure engendrant ces transfers. Les acquis recents de la narratologie, mettant l'accent sur les ressorts passionnels de la narration et sa portee ethique, invitent en effet a etudier dans les recks surrealistes Impropriation de procedes narratifs creant surprise, suspense - plaisir et desk, redonnant au reck sa puissance passionnelle erodee. On est la verkablement face a une operation de magie surreaHste ou le mana serait detenu par cet imagpiaire narratif populaire, assimile de facon tout a rait logique par Breton aux mythes^ ces recks fondateurs dormant sens et valeur a la vie des adeptes. Le risque serait alors que le reck surreaHste soit possede par la narration populaire au point de ne plus s'en distinguer, le desir devenant fusion : la distance avec laquelle les recks surrealistes reprennent les fictions populates serait autant la marque d'une esthetique avlnt-gardiste qu'un geste de con,uration. Celm-ci est a la fois la marque d'un choix esthetique et existentiel: la passion que portent les recks populates propose aux surrealistes une facon de vivre et une facon d'ecnre, nouement que revele notamment le role du point de vue dans la gestion de cette distance narrative. Notre hypothese est ainsi que la problematisation de cette distance avec la fiction populaire est un trait 1

Cet interet de Breton pour le mythe se developpe particulierement durant l'exil amencain. E n temoignent le mythe des Grands T r a n s p a r e n t des Prolamines a un tro,steme mamfeste (1942) etAnane 17 (1944). II ne s'agit pas slmplement d ' u t i l L r les pouvoirs des mythes, L de creer des mythes nouveaux des personnages tels que Superman para 1S sent a Breton capables de renouveler les mythes et ils sont mis en relation avec des figures mythiques plus traditionnelles dans le catalogue de ^exposition F,rst Papers ofSurreahm (1942). Voir a ce sujet le texte publie par Breton dans ce catalogue, « D e la suntivance de certains mythes et de quelques autres mythes en croissance ou en formation » (fEuvns comptetes, Marguerite Bonnet (ed.), Pans 1999, 127-142) ainsi que Fabrice Flahute 2 , Nouveau monde et nouveau mythe. Mutations dusurreaksme, de l'eX,lamencam a l'« Ecart absolu » (1941-1965), Dijon 2007, 70 sq.

216

IvanneRialland

distinguant le reck surreaHste de fiction^ des diverses formes d'exptrimentation du reck qui marquent les annees 1920, l'investissement passionnel des scenarios populates le faisant entrer notamment en dialogue avec la lkterature du « nouveau mal du siecle », a l'interieur meme de l W r e de surrealistes comme Soupault ou Crevel. Cette hypothese nous parait confirmee par l'etude des recks surrealistes tardifs dont la stereotypic rend identifiable a rebours les traits herkes. C'est done avant tout sur une question de distance narrative que nous nous pencherons id, en montrant comment, de la citation a la fusion, la narration surreaHste se construk dans un rapport ferine avec les lkteratures populaires qui l'ancre dans un meme espace celm du romance. La fascination des surrealistes pour les genres populaires romanesques, theatraux ou cinematographies est bien connue ; sensible dans leurs ecrks personnels ou critique sfelle apparak de meme dans leurs recks, tel Soupault ecrivant une fanfictwn avant la lettre en aputant un episode de son cru a la serie Nick Carter/ ou par la mise a mort de son h&os il se debarrasse d'une obsession. Desnos et Crevel convoquent tous deux dans leurs fictions un personnage de femme fatale, que leur nom Lomse Lame et Yolande - ne decolle qu'a peine du stereotype, chaque fois exhibe, Yolande se presentant meme ainsi: «Je sms Yolande, la belle Yolande, femme fatale»/ Aragon, lm, dans un elm d'ceil a ce qu'on appellerak au,ourd'hui le fandom, place une allusion a Lady Bellharn, la makresse de Fantomas, en mcorporant a son texte repression qui la caractense dans le roman-feuilleton : « elle s'appelait Arabelle ou Marie, e'etak surement une prmcesse degmsee. je lui trouvais un port de reme »* II y a bien sur dans ces references une part de jeu que pointe le texte d'Aragon : « il y avait au programme un costume collant noir comme ceux qu'on vok au cinema, et des revolvers confortables, et des cordes a nceuds qm pendent dans la nuit».« De meme Volpe et sa bande, dans Us Dentins Nutts de Paris (1928) de Soupault, inventent pour temfier la femme du marin une scene sortie tout droit d'un mjsfere urbam, sous le regard fascine du narrateur. Mais si a l'mteneur meme de la fiction ces emprunts aux fictions populaires sont parfois des mascarades ,ouees par les personnages, lis sont integres a la narration principale par leurs consequences sur faction, qui estompent le decrochage produk par 1'imkation apres l'avoir exhibe : la peur de la femme du marin lors de cette scene n'est pas femte et la pousse a denoncer son amant. Dans Anicet ou le"Panoramales 2

N o u s laissons done ici de cote des rec.ts tels que Nadja ou

3 4

V o l r Philippe Soupault, La Mort de Nick Carter (1926), Pans 1983. Rene Crevel, Btes-vousfous ? (1929), Pans 1997, 43.

L M - > ,

5

Louis Aragon, Anuet ou le panorama, roman (1921), Pans 1972, 194.

6

Aragon, Anuet, 179.

Recks s u i t e s et fictions populates

217

emprunts subissent une naturalisation variable. Pol, avatar de Chariot, teste pnsonmer du scenario comique que programme le personnage : «Amcet vit Pol revemr avec un escabeau, un marteau, un clou et une corde. 'II va se pendre', pensa-t-fl, et fl s'eloigna en riant a l'idee de la scene burlesque qui alia* se passer, quand la corde se casserarc et que Pol tecomnencerait sa tentative lamentable a nouveau couronnee d'insucces ».' L'emprunt genere un umvers de fiction heteronome que S1gnale l'impossibflite pour Pol de mourn dans la fiction principale. Au contoure, le detective Nick Carter se meut dans le meme espace de fiction que les autres personnages, pouvant ainsi arreter Amcet a la page 239. Ce mecamsme de fusion partielle des umvers narratifs est mis en scene sous les yeux du lecteur par les degmsements des personnages, tel Omme qui, endossant le costume de Fantomas, en adopte aussitoHe caractere et les actions : « L'entreprise meritarc ce costume et 1'expHque. Me voici sorti de ma peau et revetu du physique de l'emploi».« Le discours meme du personnage implique a ce stade le maintien d'une distance qui signale Fmcomplludede la fusion. Au contraire, dans un roman tardif comme 1M Chante commence par un batser (1980) de Jose Pierre, la fusion, au-dela de la couverture, paralt ne plus permettre de distinguer le roman surrealiste de son modele. L'illustration de couverture indique l'emprunt en en annoncant un detournement ludique : la femme a forte poitrme, tres denudee, tenant un revolver qui figure sur la couverture des SAS, la serie de Gerard de VilHers, apparait la sous les traits de la Venus de Botticelli, le corps barre d'un revolved La quatrieme de couverture annonce egalement la distance parodique, le resume, ecrit dans le ton du genre, extant double par une presentation fantaisiste de l'auteur : « L'auteu? sait d'autant mieux de quoi fl retourne que, sous le transparent pseudonyme de John Shakespeare, fl a longtemps appartenu aux services secrets monegasques et qu'fl a connu son heure de gloire en demantelant les reseaux de Hvraison d'armes du Vatican aux guerflleros anarcho-papistes du Lichtenstem ».- Toutefois, a la lecture, le redt de Jose Pierre ne se different guere du cocktail a succes de Gerard de VilHers, compose de complots international, de sexe et de torture. Seuls indices marquant un decollement: l'humour potache de l'onomastique" et les references psychanalytiques msistantes, auxquelles les epigraphes de Lautreamont, Paulhan et Dubuffet conferent ^

A r a g o „ „ 4 » « / , 189.

B ' 10

A r a g o n , ^ ^ 166. Ce collage est de Nicole. Jose P . e ^ e , La ChanU commence par un batser, Pans 1980.

«

Quelques exemples : Merdenstock, Knochien, Briochev, Giscouille d'Airain.

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IvanneRialland

importance d'une de. Celles-ct invitent a lire le texte de Pierre comme une allegone de l'identke d'Eros et de Thanatos. La difference avec SAS n'est amsi pas tant a chercher dans le reck lut-meme, que dans la lecture qm dok en etre fake : Ugh and low, la distinction est id d'usage. Le roman de Jose Pierre confeme done que le rapport du reck surrealiste aux narrations populates n'est pas tant une question locale, ou il s'agirak d'enumerer des fragments colles ou recycles, qu'une question de distance narrative, qui est a la fois celle du narrateur vis-a-vis du scenario ou du personnage emprunte et celle du lecteur vis-a-vis du reck produk. Les seuils du reck de Jose Pierre inciter* a une lecture distance, qui est programmee par le reck avant-gardiste. En meme temps, la rarete des marques de la distance a l'mteneur du reck font p r ^ e r une lecture identificatoire, favonsee par les recks populaires a i n t o n e . La fin du texte mvke a une combmaison des deux, le contenu manifesto renvoyant a Interpretation freudienne de son contenu latent: II se trouve qu'a l'age de seize ans j'ai fait u n e analyse et f e n ax c o n s e r v e u n g r a n d interet p o u r F r e u d et ses idees. V o u s s a v e , sans d o u t e que l'une de ses dermeres theories e x t r e m e m e n t controversee m e m e p a r m i ses disciples, c o n c e r n e ^ o p p o s i t i o n de l'instinct de vie et de l'instinct de m o r t , o p p o s i t i o n fondamentale selon Freud. O r j'ai le sentiment que c h e Z vous, M o n A n g ^ cette o p p o s i t i o n p e n t etre saisie e n quelque sorte a Fetat b r u t ! Car le spectacle de la m o r t violente, que ce soit celle q m est d o n n e e p a r v o u s ou non, entraine de votre p a r t u n e reaction i m m e d i a t e et d'aflleurs p o r t e u s e de vie par definition : l'erection ! [ . . \ v o u s bandeK contre la mort V

II ne s'agit pas de sublimer les instincts par la fiction. Au contrarre, le but semble etre d'activer le destr par l'identification fictionnelle: si la quatneme de couverture et les iithroponymes marquent une distance ludtque vis-a-vis de l'mtngue empruntee aux romans d'esptonnage, l'exces erottque n'est pas de l'ordre de la parodte et la sene d'eptg^aphes avertit de la portee extstentielle de la narration. A cote des elements colles ou detournes des narrations populaires on peut ainsi reperer des scenarios populaires mimes: la notion de mtme montre le statut variable et ambivalent de ces historres au sem de la fiction surrealiste. II s'agit d'en capter les pouvotrs passtonnels pour les transmettre a la narration et au lecteur, mats non sans mefiance, parce qu'elles sont en meme temps evasion et fuke hors du reel. On oscrlle entre theatre jouUt theatre vecu, pour reprendre l'opposkton defime par Lerns lors de sa description des rites de possession ethioptens- cet apparentement

^ 13

P i e ™ , La Chante, 236. Michel Leiris, La Possession et ses aspects theatraux cheK les EtMopens de Gondar (1989) in Michel L^,mmrdel'Afnaue, Pans 1996.

Recks s u i t e s et fictions populates

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pointant le risque de la fusion et de l'absorption du reck surrealtste dans le domaine des narrations populates, sans dtsttnguo. Cette relation mimtque ambivalente est ties nette dans 1M Berte ou I'amour I de Desnos et Btes-vous fous ? de Crevel: l'alternance du dtscours et du reck y inscrit la distance variable de l'auteur vis-a-vis de la fiction, et permet Sexploitation de la valeur existentielle du recours aux scenarios haletants des recks populates. Chaque fots, l'entree dans la fiction est progressive et elle est generee par une defloration melancoHque de l'auteur: «Talons merveilleux contre lesquels ,'egratignais mes pieds, talons! sur quelle route sonne 2 -vous et vous r e v e r s e jamais?*" s'exclame Desnos; bientot apres les feuilles tombees, comparees a des gants, font surgir l'image de Louise Lame et de Corsarre Sanglot. Btes-vous fous? est des l'abord un reck, dont le heros est «l'homme », que sa melancolie entraine chez une voyante. Elle lui predit toutes sortes d'aventures rocambolesques, riches en quiproquos, en surprises, en etres et en evenements merveilleux. Ces aventures forment le programme narratif du roman, resume en tete de chaque chapkre, a la manure du roman populate. C'est egalement la voyante qui baptise l'homme en declarant: « et e'est pourquoi Monsieur a du vague a l'ame ».* Quelques pages plus tard, et jusqu'i la fin du reck, l'homme, entrant de plam pied dans la fiction mventee par la voyante, devient M. Vagualame. Fiction dans la fiction, l'histoire de Vagualame est une a c t u a t i o n des predictions de la voyante, actualisation qui procede d'une fusion de niveaux narratifs d'abord distingues - e'est-a-dire d'une metalepse : Onenracontesurelle. Ses belles manieres?duchique. je vous la fesserais, moi, cette mijauree, qui prend des airs de reine pour descends de son tr6ne. EUe va faire des fads a la Patata Ecoutons. D'abord de^ compliments sur les jumeaux. Ces deux jeunesses dans un lit... ah... ah... Mais Yolande est la sournoiserie, la mechancete incarnee. Elle insinue : - lis ont Fair de bien s'aimer, peutetre meme un peu trop, ne trouve Z -vous pas, Mimi, chere, vos Scandinaves ? Mimi Strangle Yolande interroge : - Ne parlent-ils done point une seule langue a part le Suedois ? lis sont bien silencieux"

Les fabulations de la voyante Mme Rosalba (« D'abord un martage avec une rousse. Vous aurez ete presente a la fiancee, a l'etranger »17) se transforment en un commentaire a la premiere personne sur 5ne scene " 15

Robert D e s n o s , La Bberte ou l^our!, Crevel, Btes-vous fous ?, 21.

"

Crevel, Btes-vous fous ?, 25.

"

Crevel, Btes-vous fous ?, 20.

20.

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IvanneRialland

dont l'effet de presence est accentue par le present de narration et le recours au dtscours direct qui efface les traces de la narratnce. La rencontre de Vagualame et de Yolande qui se prodmt juste apres la consultation parait de la sorte acter cette fusion des mveaux narratifs ,usque-la fluctuante : la prediction de Mme Rosalba, une fbis effacee ses modalites premieres d'enonctatton, se poursmt au meme niveau narratif que l'htstoire de l'homme qui ouvratt le roman. Le decrochage enonctattf devtent des lors une pertpetie. La sortie de la fiction est symetnquement provoquee par le retabltssement du feuilletage narratif, Vagualame recouvrant le visage de l'homme, et l'homme celui de Rene Crevel Tun'asnenadtre? A l O I s , 6 t e t o n masque. Ttens tu m e a s s e m b l e s c o m m e un fee. Et, A te plait le n o m qui te destgnatt, avantla m e des Paupteres-Rouges V* T u d t s ? . Rene Crevel? Mats tu es mot. j e s m s tot. O n est le meme. D o n e de Vagualame, e'est-a-dtte de Rene Crevel, je ne paderat point a la trotsteme petsonne, n o l plus que je ne lut padetat a la s e c o n d l y

La metalepse avait ainsi proiete un temps l'auteur dans un monde ftcttonnel, a la faveur du regain d'une capactte de croyance ancree dans l'enfance : «Mats comment des yeux seratent-tls eblouts, qut se rappellent encore le palats des mirages des ,eudis puertls, quand un simple papier vert, de ses decoupures reflechtes, creatt une inextricable fbret ? J» La nostalgte mdtque que la croyance n'est pas totale; le rapport de Vagualame, qui s'mterpelle id lut-meme, a ses aventures romanesques n'est pas de l'ordre de la possession, mats du mtme - Vagualame sortant d'atlleurs regulterement de son role pour latsser transparattre l'homme « qut a du vague a l'ame ». Le recours aux fictions passtonnantes se revele une nouvelle solution pour echapper au degout de vtvre, Btes-vous fous ? s'mscrtvant a la suite du roman Mon corps et lot, ou le narrateur s'essayatt, en vatn, a "l'aventure"- d'etre seul a p i s avoir eprouve l'echec de l'oublt de sot en se fondant dans la foule. Mats a nouveau, fl ne s'agtt que de "narcisstsme a l'mfrnt rabache"- : si passtonnante sott-elle, la fiction ne peut proposer un veritable ailleurs23 selon Crevel. Si elle n'est finalement !B

C'est ainsi que l'homme baptise la me au sortir de c h e 2 la voyante (Crevel, Etes-voasfoas ?, 34).

»

Crevel, Btes-vous fous ?, 112.

20

Crevel, Btes-vous fous ?, 107-108.

^ 22 23

Rene Crevel, Mon corps et mot (1925), Toulouse 2008, 9. C r e v e l , Btes-vous fous I 1 0 7 . « E t que m'importe un ailleurs que je ne saurais i m a g n e r asse 2 different de cet u, », Crevel, Btes-vous fous {ill.

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qu'une evasion sterile, l'aventure a permts pour le moms, tant qu'elle a dure, de matntentr l'energte vttale et le destr, qut s'tncarnent narrativement par la mobtltte du personnage et la succession raptde des evenements. Cette tntrtcatton entre le romanesque pasS1onnant et le deStr est exhtbee dans 1M Berte ou I'amourl, par la substitution de scenarios de recks populates a celut de la fellatton de Corsaire Sanglot par Louise Lame : Louise Lame etreignait etroitement son bel amant. Son ceil guettait sur le visage l'effet de la conjonction de sa langue avec la chair. C e s t la un rite mysterieux, le plus beau peut-etre Quand la respiration de Corsaire Sanglot se fit haletante, Louise Lame devint plus resplendissante que le male. [...] Et la pensee de Corsaire Sanglot suivatt one piste au cceur d'une foret vierge. A arriva dans une ville de chercheurs d'or.24

La montee du desrr est une poussee de fiction. La ausst, dans les trouees du recti s'eleve la platnte - Lioureuse, cette fois - de l'auteur^ dont le nom du Corsage Sanglot garde la trace. Mats Desnos a la difference de Crevel refuse la chute finale de la tension narrative, latssant le rectt suspendu: «Puts quelques requtns reparurent qui foncerent sur les barques. Cest alors que le Cors^rre Sanglot... » - La fiction tncarne id la Hberte a laquelle l i o u r tmpltque le renoncement: il est dans cette perspective stgntftcattf que la fin se confonde avec un cltfjhanger, cette exasperation du suspense, procede caractertsttque de la fiction populatre, notainment feutlletonesque. L'explottation dans le roman du suspense, suscttant l'tmpattence du lecteur, accentue la sensation de vttesse produtte par la succession raptde des evenements, creant un contraste fort entre le lyrtsme amoureux et le mouvement de la narration que le point d'orgue final ltbere du texte pour le confier a l'tmagtnation. Ce Hen du romanesque et de l'energte vttale se retrouve apres la seconde guerre mondtale dans les romans de Gracq, parttculterement U Rtvage desSjrtes (1951), ou dans U Cornet acousttque (1953-63 ?) de Leonora Carrington : dans les deux cas, le romanesque est un ferment de ,eunesse, qui reveille la ville endormte d'Orsenna ou rend le gout de vtvre a Marton, la narratrtce du Cornet acousttque agee de 99 ans. Au retratt de Marton hors du monde que symboltse sa surdSe succede une attention passtonnee, que le roman, dans une surenchere echevelee de romanesque, ne decott ,amats. Montant sur un tott afin d'examtner de plus pres le cadavre de Maud, une autre penstonnatre de sa matson de retratte, Marton s'apercott par exemple 24

D e s n o s , LaBerUoul'amour!,

^

« J o l e douloureuse de la pass.on revelee par ta rencontre. Je souffie ma 1S ma souffrance m'est chere et si j'ai quelque estime pour moi, c'est pour t'avo.r heurtee dans ma course a l'aveugle vers des horizons mobiles.», D e s n o s , La Bberteou I'amour.', 114

28.

26

D e s n o s , La BerUou I'amourl, 118.

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IvanneRialland

que cette dermere est un homme, nouveau coup de theatre smvant de pres un autre qmproquo, cehu-la tragique : « LA PAUVRE MAUD AVAIT ETE ASSASSINEE PAR ERREUR, ASSASSINEE A LA PLACE D E GEORGINA ! » - Le redoublement du participe, le point d'exclamation et surtout l'usage du souHgnement t y p o g r a p h y par des caprcales reprennent lef ficelles les plus g r o s s e s de la Htterature popular^ mais en concentrant leurs effets ,usqu'au dehre final: «Voici comment la Deesse reconqurc sa Sacree Coupe, avec l'aide d'une armee constitute d'abeilles, de loups, de six vieffles femmes, d'un facteur, d'un Chinois, d'une Arche a propulsion atomique, et d'une femme garou ».Le recours aux recits populates contnbue de la sorte, a l'mteneur de la fiction, a l'entrepnse surreaHste de repassionnement de la vie, en restaurant la capacrce de croyance mise a mal par l'attitude realiste que denonce Breton dans le Mamfiste. II est cependant problematise enttedeux-guerres : sa fonction est che 2 Crevel ou Desnos exhibee, et il est souvent mis a distance, notamment par le discours du narrateur, mais plus generalement par le mamtien du sentiment de limitation, de l ' e m p r i t du mime - qui empeche la fusion. Bien souvent, le romanesque reste un h o m o n ou une tentation dans les recks des surreaHstes. Les Dermeres Nmts de Pans de Soupault sont un hapax dans sa production romanesque, ou l'emprunt aux fictions populates apparait a bien des egards le propre de Breton (a£as Volpe) et sa bande, et est denonce comme un mysteneux frelate. Soupault apparait plutot comme le romancier melancoHque du « nouveau mal du siecle », pour reprendre l'expression forgee par Arland en 1924 dans La Nouvelle Ivue francse : dans ses fictions, le romanesque reste generalement a la lisiere. II est incarne par une figure qui fascine le narrateur, tel Edgar Manning dans U Negre (192^, aux nombreux voyages, aux nombreuses identites, veritable heros de film norr. Ce personnage opaque, emgmatique aimante la fiction, mais n'y actualise pas les scenarios palpitants dont il semble etre le foyer. Si Aragon denonce la Htterature de Soupault comme une Htterature d'evasion- il semble au contraire avoir trouve une solution aux risques de la narration populaire, divertissement autant qu'mtensification de fexistence, en n'en gardant que des traces, des indices, comme la carte postale du Canada qu'envoie jean X a Philippe Soupault dans U Bon ApStre (1923), amorce d'un recit de pionnier que le roman ne developpe pas :

•n

Leonora C a m n g t o n , Le Comet aco«stiVe, traduit de l'angla.s par Parisot, Pans 1983, 141.

2B »

C a m n g t o n , Le Cornet antique, 203. « [...] M. Philippe Soupault, qui fait depuis un nombre croissant d'annees de la litterature avec le v e r b e / ^ , », Louis Aragon, Tratte du style (1928), Pans 1980, 80.

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U n jour je recus du Canada o n e carte postale. C e t a i t o n e p h o t o g r a p h t e de m o n arm j e a n II avait engratsse, p o r t a i t o n e b a r b e et des culottes courtes. Q u L d je recus cette carte je pensats aux p r o m e s s e s d ' u n de n o s arms, Jacques V a c h e , q u t lut ava^t chotst l ' o p i u m 35.

Bod.es, Ennronments, and Myths,

258

Agatajakubowska

tabHshed by weavers who were active before the war, located in the home of its leader, Maria Laszkiewicz. Its mission was "To search for new technical/studio concepts in order to achieve desired effects and new forms of artistic expression" i« Abakanowicz found herself among artists who were beginning to see weaving as increasingly autonomous a^d were gradually distancing themselves from the textile industry" Along with several of these artists, Abakanowicz took part in the Lausanne Biennale, starting with the inaugural exhibition in 1962. The contributions of Polish artists were already drawing attention at the first biennial. The day after the vermssage, Andre Kuenzi wrote in the Gazette de Utusanne: "The Polish submissions are especially interesting [...] The weaves from that country show us artists who are not only technical masters but, above-all, are spilling over with inventiveness, courageously expressing their ideas with grace and delight. These are the works which surprised us the most and forced us to reflect on the fact that certain forms of contemporary art can be expressed very well through the techniques of weaving".^ Abakanowicz was considered especially interesting from the very beginning. After the first biennial, where she showed Composttwn ofWHte Forms, Abakanowicz had her first exhibition abroad in Galerie Dautzenberg m Paris, which would represent her from that point on. Her Desdemona shown at the second biennial was hailed as "the masterpiece of the 2 * Bienmal"" That same year (1965), Abakanowicz was awarded the Grand Prix at the Sao Paulo Art Biennial, which, as stated earlier, solidified her position as an especially interesting figure in the realm of fiber art. That year, a subsequent solo exhibition was organised for her in Poland (the previous, her first, took place in 1960). This exhibition is noteworthy because it demonstrated how strongly Abakanowicz wanted to detach herself from fiber art by that time, even though she was garnering such great successes in the field The show was titled Exhibition of Tapestries by Magdalena Abakan*** but Wlodzimierz Borowski, the authof of a short essay for the small catalogue, used nearly his entire text to assert that, "the 'domain' of tapestry is no longer sufficient in characterising her work and its level". Wlodzimierz Borowski, it is worth mentioning, was then a young critic associated with the circle of Stazewski and Lunkifwicz-

«

Zaio&ia

«

For more of this subject, see Irena H u m l , Wp6lcKesna tkamna pokka {Contemporary PoSsh WeanngX Warsaw 1989. Irena H u m l , WSp6lcKesna tkamna pokka, 30. Promotion of Polish weaving in the West was handled by a Swiss art merchant who was enamoured with it, Pierre Pauli (General Commissioner of the 1" Biennial). H e organised the exhibition "Contemporary Polish Textile Art", which was shown over a two-year period from 1963 in various European counties. H u m l , Wp6lcKesna tkamna pokka, 34.

*

»

[Presses], Archive of the Central Museum of the Textile Industry, L 6 d £

The "Abakans and the feminist revolution"

259

Rogoyska, who would go on to open the Foksal Gallery - one of the first neo avant-garde galleries in the People's Republic of Poland. Another critic from this camp, Hanna Ptaszkowska, wrote a review of the exhibition in which she stated that "the latest weaves by Abakanowicz L.l in many ways break open the boundary which separates applied form from autonomous f o r m " Despite her critical acclaim, Abakanowicz had not yet crossed the divide between fiber art and high art. It was not because she was unwilling. Rather, as we can read in the already mentioned book by Elissa Auther, such a crossover was impossible at the time. At least, it was impossible from Abakanowicz's position in fiber art. It would have been quite different if she had been part of the feminist art movement; if she had really taken part in the feminist revolution. This option was in fact not out of the question, as she had almost literally brushed up against it in Los Angeles m the 1970s. In Los Angeles in 1971, several connected events took place which constituted a sort of culmination point in the revival and revolution of fiber art. The University of California Art Gallery hosted a group exhibition titled DeBerate Entanglements. An exhMtton of Fabnc F L T (curator Bernard Kester), which was accompanied by a several-day-long symposium called Fiber as Medtum. Magdalena Abakanowicz and Sheila Hicks, both of whom took part in the exhibition and symposium, also showed their works at solo exhibitions: Abakanowicz at the Pasadena Art Museum (curator: Eudorah Moore, The Fabnc Forms of Magdalena Abakan***, and Hicks at California State College at Fullerton At that time, California, and especially Los Angeles, was becoming a hotbed of feminist activity in the fields of visual arts and arts education. In 1970, Judy Chicago had established the Feminist Arts Program at Fresno State College, and one year later relocated it to the California Institute of the Arts (CalArte), where she began to work with Miriam Schapiro. In 1971, they, along with their students, started the Womanhouse project - a joint mstallation located in an abandoned house (it was open to the public from 30 January to 28 February 1972). The pro,ect was rightfully lauded by Arlene Raven as having "helped create a ripple effect of feminist sensibility through the next two d e c a d e s - In addition to this high profile event there was a series of other smaller initiatives in Los Angeles which fostered an environment conducive to women's creativity and to interpreting various activities from a feminist perspective. And so it happened with the exhibitions of Magda2° *

H a n n a Ptaszkowska, "Gobeliny Magdaleny Abakanowicz [Magdalena Abakanowicz's Tapestries]", Kxltura, 1965, 15, 9. Arlene Raven, Womanhouse, in: The Po^er of Fernet Art: The Amencan Movement of the 1970s, mstory andlmpact, N o r m a Broude & Mary D . Garrard (eds.), N e w York 1994, 61.

260

Agata Jakubowska

Fig. 29: Faith Wilding in "Crocheted Knvironment (Womb R o o m ) " , " W o m a n h o u s e " project 1972, © Faith Wilding.

The "Abakans and the feminist revolution"

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lena Abakanow1C2's works, both the group exhibition Deliberate Entanglements and the solo show. In her analysis of the exhibition's reception, j o anna Inglot remarked that "a number of viewers and critics were indeed captivated, [...], especially by her evocative sexual imagery, seen as referring to wombs or earth goddesses. [...] the local critics and audiences also viewed these works as an explicit manifestation of women's art and female sexual identity".Faith Wilding, a participant in the Feminist Arts Program, recalled many years later that she had visited the Abakanowicz exhibition several times. She herself was a student of weaving, first learning it at a Paraguayan commune, where she lived for some time, and later studying under Walter Nottingham in Wisconsin. The work she made as part of the Womanhouse project - Crocheted Bnvtronment {Womb Room) - was a type of delicate mesh of yarn strewn around the space in such a way as to form a separate chamber/shelter. She didn't employ any direct visual reference to the Abakans, but the connection becomes apparent when we see a photo of Wilding sitting inside her enclosure and hear her relate that, after having visited[the Abakanowicz exhibition, there "remains a fantastic memory of entering womblike red woven space— Of course, Abakanowicz was aware of the popularity her work enjoyed among feminist artists. She mentioned it on numerous occasions. However, in her statements we find no trace of interest in the work of female artists created and exhibited in Los Angeles. She surely would not have seen Womanhouse as it opened after her departure from the city, but we likewise find no mention of other events or of the feminist flurry having any special meaning to her. Abakanowicz never considered herself part of the feminist movement; she did not sympathise with it, and of her involvement in the WACKI exhibition she says: "It doesn't move me in a negative sense", adding, "I'm glad that, at this exhibition, the Abakan is again separate, ill-fitting. There is a section dealing with the erotic, a very contemporary kind, but it's created usmg a different language. The Abakanf although erotic, could not find its place there. That's enough for me".To better understand why there was no convergence, despite the similarities m undertakings at that time, between her and the feminist artists of 22

I n g l o t , The figurative sculpture ofiUagdalena

23

Faith Wilding cited in: Glenn Adamson, "The fiber game", in: Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, 5, 2007, 2, 154-176 and in: HtghBeam Research, January 29, 2011.

AbakanomcK>

66.

24

"G16d tlumu. Z Magdalene Abakanowicz rozmawial Jakub Jamszewski [The Hunger of the Masses. Jakub Janiszewski talks with Magdalena Abakanowicz]", WjsoL Obcasy. GaKeta WyborcZa,483,2008,30,9.

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Agatajakubowska

those days, it is worthwhile to examine several issues a little more deeply. Firstly, the aim of Womanhouse was to thrust women's everyday household work into the realm of high art. Judy Chicago wrote in her autobiography that "Women had been embedded in house? for centuries and had quilted, sewed, baked, cooked, decorated and nested their creative energies away. [...] Could the same activities women had used in life be transformed into me means of making art?"* Weaving was treated by them as an example of a woman's household task that was never appreciated as an art form. Neither Abakanowicz nor any of the artists from the fiber art realm exhibiting m California looked at their work in that way. They wanted to sever all associations their weaving may have had with decorative arts or craft. Secondly, a characteristic trait of the Feminist Arts Program was to merge artistic activity with feminine experience and the female body, its form and rhythm. Feminist critics perceive it also in Abakanowicz. It is true that she said, "I like working the form with my hands. [...] The movements of my hands correspond to the natural rhythm of my body, to my breath",-but she never associated this with her femininity, perceiving it more in terms of common humanity and treating the references to the body as metaphorical rather than physiological. I suspect that this accounts for one of the reasons she was glad that Abakan Red was not located m the section devoted to the erotic at the WACKI exhibition. In this respect, her aspirations were consistent with the aspirations of the Polish avL-garde scene, with which she maintained contact in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In analysing the outlook of Stazewski, the leading figure withm this circle, Piotr Piotrowski points out that, after the war, he gradually, "neutralized the stance on art as a direct reflection of social and civilisational processes [...] in favour of concentrating on the issues of autonomous rights relating to the development of visual f o r m Thirdly and finally, Abakanowicz's use of space and her positioning withm this space was different from that of other female artists. This be comes understandable if we once more compare her to Wilding. As Glenn Adamson writes, "Wilding refused to adopt the confidence and authority that Abakanowicz's work exuded; she simultaneously delineated the boundaries of the workspace, claiming the 'room of one's own,' and indi-

* 26 •n

Judy Chicago, Through the Flower. My Struggle as a Woman Artist, Garden City N Y 1975, 104. Magdalena Abakanow.cz eked in: R 1C h Mathews, " A Lausanne Notebook: Abakanow 1 C 2 ", » L * 1977, 5, 39. K o t r Piotrowski, ZnacKema modern^mu. W strone UstorU s?tuk, polsMej po 1945 roku {The Meamng of Moderns. Towards PoBsh Art Kstory Post-1945],VozJn 1999, 131. According to Piotrowski, this was not so mueh an escape from the reality of the People's Republic of Poland, but rather a reaction to it.

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Fie:. 30: Mac dalena Abakanowicz "with "Red Abakan", 1969, © Mae^alena Abakanowicz

cated the fragility of those boundaries— For Wilding, as for the other participants m Womanhouse, arrangement of space was connected with creating a "room of one's own" for herself. For Abakanowicz the use of space meant, above all, freeing oneself from the walls (hanging textiles on walls was associated with a decorative function) and creating more sculptural forms. The above comparison, however, also points out something else — the way in which space was occupied. In the case of Wilding;, it was delicate and in cooperation with other women. In the case of Abaka-

2S

Glenn Ad

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nowicz, it was powerful, dominating and individual - "separate, ill-fitting", as she herself describes her Abakan Red at the WACKI exhibition. Abakanowicz did not accept this invitation from feminist artists. Her stance, developed in Poland largely within the avant-garde scene, did not m any way cohere with their approach. While the feminists were trying to shatter the boundary between fiber art and high art, Abakanowicz was "only" trying to cross it. She was one of very few artists in fiber art to have succeeded, but it wasn't because she propelled her weaves into the world of high art, but rather, because her work changed in the 1970s. Shecontinued to use soft materials, but, firstly, she increasingly began to stiffen them, and secondly, she began to head more towards figuration, creating sculptural throngs of headless figures. These gradually began to gam efteem in the world of high art! especially after 1980, when Abakanowicz showed her sculptures at the Venice Biennale. 1982 saw the exhibition of her works at Musee d'art Moderne de la ville de Paris (no longer bearing the title "fabric forms") and at the Museum of Modern Art m Chicago (the exhibition would go on to tour the United States and Canada), which was the first to be accompanied by a large-scale catalogue. With admiration from the high art world coming her way, Abakanowicz gradually began to rewrite her artistic biography in such a way as to dimmish as much as possible any connection die had to fiber art. To analyse this process would be to surpass the scope of this article, yet it is worth noting - for the sake of example - the list of exhibitions and awards found on the artist's mternet site (www.abakanowicz.art.pl) or in her exhibition catalogues. These lists include only the dates and the names of mstitutions while omitting the exhibition titles - surely to avoid repeating the terms "tapestry" and "fabric forms", which often appeared m the tides of her exhibitions over the first 15 years or so. The Abakans themselves took on an ambivalent character with this change. In the late 1980s Abakanowicz wrote: The Abakans brought me fame around the world, but they weigh on me like a sin I can't admit to. Practicing weaving closes doors to the world of art. The world of art suddenly discovered me in 1980 when I showed ALTERATIONS at the Venice Biennale. [...] My new life is unfolding now; it justifies and interprets the ABAKANS, these soft sculptures, giving them the context of stone and bronze. 29

Today, as the Abakans - especially Abakan Red - are becoming increasingly popular, Abakanowicz is not averse to ownmg up to them. However, she is also not inclined to any type of reenactrnent, which is popular

*

Wo)C1ech Krukowski et al. (eds.), Magdalena Abakano^

Warsaw 1995, 28.

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among the female artists who were active and respected in the 1970s." Her dltance to the Abakans remans, as is underscored by the photo next to her biography in the WACKI exhibition catalogue - she is not sitting close to the structure, or engulfed by it (like in one photo from the 1970s)! but is looking at it from off to the side. It is a picture that can be interpreted as an expression of her attitude towards both her involvement in fiber art and in tne feminist revolution.

Translation by Ewa Kamgowska-Giedroyc

30

In 1995 Faith Wilding recreated her Crocheted Ennronment {Womb Room), which had been destroyed along with the building in which Womanhouse took place.

A Glossier Shade of Brown: Irm Knoebel's I W 19 Gregory H. Williams (Boston Umversity) Several decades after artists of the 1960s challenged the postwar re lg n of medium-specificity, a wide-ranging discourse has developed in the past ten years that has brought the question of artistic media back into the critical spo^ght. This return to a serious consideration of media has not meant a wholesale revival of modernist notions of purity and autonomy. Rather, as part of a broader reassessment of the legacy of modernism, art historians and critics have focused on the physical properties of art ob,ects as well as the tangible substances represented withm works of art. The current analysis of media has led to a renewed engagement with materiality, in the history of art as well as science, leading Bruno Latour to pose the question, "Can we get our materialism back, please"?! It would seem that after the turn in the 1980s and 1990s to appropriation, simulation and the virtual, we once again crave an engagement with physical matter, with things that have solid Contours and textured surfaces. The secure distance we have today from the idealism of Greenbergian formalism makes it possible to look back and identify historical moments when messy encounters with physical materials made such idealism appear profoundly out of step with the times. In this essay I explore the relationship between materiality and waste as it appeared m a specific historical configuration in West Germany of the mid-to-late 1960s Imi Knoebel, a student of Joseph Beuys at the Art Academy in Dusseldorf during the tumultuous years of the 1960s, produced his Lum 19 (Room 19) in 1968 (see fig. 31). Developed while Knoebel was a member of the Beuys class, the pro,ect must be understood at least in part as a response to his teacher. Constructed of pre-fabncated sections of fiberboard and wood stretcher frames, Knoebel's sculptural installation speaks to conceptions of stored energy and physical transformation that Beuys propagated at the time. Despite the artists' shared concerns, scholars have often discussed their relationship in terms of Knoebel's reaction of basic principles es-

1

Bn_.no Latour, "Can We Get O u r Materialism Back, Please?", in: Ists98, 2007, 138-42.

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Fig. 31: Imi Knoebel, Raum 19 (Room 19), 1968. Installation at Dia Art Foundation, 548 West 22" d Street, N e w York. October 9, 1 9 8 7 - J u n e 19, 1988. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), N e w York / V G Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Collection Dia Art Foundation, N e w York. Photo: Nic Tenwigsenhorn.

poused by Beuys. Yet one aspect of the comparison has been insufficiently addressed: the extent to which Knoebel replied to Beuys through the specific color and materials that make up Raum 19. Knoebel's use of standard sheets of fiberboard, a common material that evokes both the streamlined production of modern industry and the tinkering of household hobbyists, can be seen as a rejoinder to Beuys's preference for the ancient and organic substances of lead, fat and felt. Knoebel's downplaying of the earthy in favor of the industrial represents more than a split between teacher and student; his gesture is indicative of a changing relationship to the question of medium in 1960s West Germany. The German art historian Petra Richter has documented the relationships between Beuys and his students, including Knoebel.2 It is not necessary to dwell here on their specific interactions beyond establishing the context in which Knoebel first developed Raum 19. Knoebel enrolled in the Beuys class in 1965 after spending his first year at the Dusseldorf 2

Petra Richter, Mit, neben, gegen. Die Schukr von Joseph Beuys, Dusseldorf 2000, 145-59.

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Academy studying commercial art. Th1S dec1S1on to begin with a relatively pragmatic discipline stemmed partly from his studies from 1962 to 1964 at the Werkkunstschule, or school of applied arts, in Darmstadt. Although he and his friend, Rainer Giese, decided to study in Dusseldorf because of Beuys's provocative reputation, they observed the latter from a safe distance for the tirst year After transferring to the class, Knoebel and Giese, known as the two "Imi's" after the names each had taken on as a sign of friendship and solidarity, found the crowded discussions with Beuyfand the other students overwhelming. In a gesture that reveals the complex nature of student-teacher encounters between Beuys and his students, Knoebel and Giese requested that they receive a room of their own in which to work. Though Beuys only had the use of three classrooms, he gave the young artists the keys to room 19, next door to the bigger room §0, in which the ma,onty of Beuys's teaching took place. Working in relative isolation, with the exception of periods in which jorg Immendorf, Blinky Palermo and Kathenna Sieverding pined them, Knoebel and Giese could treat the workspace as a site of material production and experimentation, unlike the more dialogue-centered activities taking place in room 20. Indeed, Knoebel and Giese kept it well organized and clean, another point of contrast with the organized chaos of Beuys's main classroom. They had to relinquish the room in 1969 when the number of students working with Beuys required more space. Knoebel arrived at Dusseldorf with an underdeveloped sense of himself as an artist. Having studied Bauhaus-denved formal principles in Darmstadt, he had initially imagined a career as a designer. Yet Beuys's charisma seems to have been one of the primary motivating factors in Knoebel's decision to work with him. As Knoebel explained in 1995, Beuys "was quite different from the people of his generation. We only knew those who were authoritarian and rigid; he was, despite his age, open, rebellious, truly insubordinate and fresh, questioned things that omers of his generation accepted wordlessly. His art was not essential; it hadn't touched me yet. We hadn't got that far".* Here Knoebel makes clear that the attraction to Beuys was based more on personality and public presence than on the images and ob,ects that the older artist had produced by this point. This is a common refrain in the histories describing Beuys's influence on his students. And yet other comments made by Knoebel point to shared sensibilities with Beuys that draw on similar conceptions of the physical aspects of their chosen materials.

3

Imi Knoebel in conversation with Petra Richter, N o v e m b e r 14, 1995. Quoted in: Richter, "Joseph Beuys: T o be a teacher is my greatest work of art!'", unpublished paper delivered at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, O c t o b e r 4, 2006, 10-11.

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Fig. 32: Imi Knoebel, Raum 19 (Room 19), 1968. As reinstalled by Helen Mirra at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, Beacon, N Y . May 2 0 0 8 - October 2009. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), N e w York / V G Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Collection Dia Art Foundation, N e w York. Photo: Bill Jacobson.

Signaling a complex artistic relationship with the values and goals propagated by his teacher, Knoebel's selection of Hartfaserplatten (as fiberboard, or hardboard, is known in Germany) came about as a practical decision that nevertheless carried overtones of Beuys's promotion of the singular qualities of specific materials. It is worth spending; a moment here looking at statements Knoebel made in a 1993 conversation with j o hannes Stiittgen, the latter known as the most devoted former student and long-term supporter of Beuys. Explaining why he had settled on fiberboard as the material of choice for his early project, Knoebel said, "It was the cheapest material. But it also had to do with the warmth this material gives off'.4 He went on to explain that the material was additionally practical in that he could fit a sheet's standard 60-cm width under one arm

4

Imi Knoebel quoted in "Excerpts from a conversation with Johannes Stuttgen m Dusseldorf on April 2, 1993: Imi Knoebel talks about h o w he became a painter", in: Imi Knoebel. Werke von 1966 Us 2006, Dirk Martin and Carmen Knoebel (eds.), Bielefeld, Germany 2007,57.

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while riding the tram through the city.* Knoebel first exhibited Raum 19 m the hallway of the Academy during an annual open house. It has since been shown in different arrangements that have adapted it to each physical space, including appearances at Galerie Hemer Friedrich in Cologne (1977), Kunstmuseum Wnterthur in Switzerland (1983), Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt (1992) and Haus der Kunst in Munich (1996). The current version is a long-term installation at the Dia Center in Beacon, New York; the Dia Art Foundation purchased the work from Galerie Hemer Friedrich in 1979. In 2008, the American artist Helen Mrrra, with the permission but not the collaboration of Knoebel, rearranged Raum 19 at Beacon, opening up the space to produce a less congested layout (see fig 32). Knoebel has also produced two additional versions of Raum 19, one m 1992 and the other m the early 2000s. Not copies per se, since Knoebel altered and expanded the elements, these later works were constructed by workers using the artist's plans. The emphasis on pragmatic decision-making in Knoebel's work is belied by his numerous references to the "warmth" of the fiberboard's brown surface. Such remarks about the temperature of the material derived from its specific surface color - challenge the claim made by some writers that for Knoebel it represented a ' W c o l o r » . « Knoebel rejected such an idea in conversation with Stuttgen: "Masomte is a very clear color, isn't it? It was never colorless to me".? Most important, he highlighted the mundane or banal aspects of the material, the fact that it was a common thing that had been used for many purposes smce World War II: "Because it was so cheap and everybody used ^especially after the war and in the 1960s. You saw this stuff everywhere and it was treated badly by being thrown out again. It was never respected".* The oppositions at play m Raum 19 are apparent in these seemingly contradictory statements by Knoebel. On the one hand, practical questions such as cost, transportability and availability determine his choice; on the other, he clearly saw in the fiberboard a color and surface quality that earned particular tactile sensations: warmth and a worn look that evoked leather Knoebel partly downplayed fiberboard's origins as an industrially produced building material by responding to its capacity to convey a history of touch. Thus Beuys's penchant for the organic comes through in the younger artist's early adoption of fiberboard Keeping in mind the recent resurgence of interest m the historical specificity of artists' materials, Knoebel's recollec^

Imt Knoebel. Werke, SI.

6

Petra Richter, "Between Beuys and Malevich: Knoebel's Time at the Dusseldorf Art Academy", in: Im Knoebel. Werke L 1966 Us 2006, 26.

7

Imi Knoebel quoted in "Excerpts from a conversation with Johannes Stuttgen", 45.

B

Knoebel quoted in "Excerpts from a conversation", 57.

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tions of his &st major work show that his fascination w l t h materiality was conditioned by an appeal to the associative tactilrty of color. It is perhaps not surprising that past accounts of Room 19 have said only little about the con^nunicative powers of the fiberboard. After all, the color is part of the material itself; Knoebel did not apply it. The smooth, hard edges of the varied sculptural unite in the arrangement give the installation the appearance of pieces in a puzzle, the parts subservLt to the whole; the umformity of the color links the elements and thus serves to reinforce neutrality. One is reminded of Robert Morris's I^Beams of a few years earlier. Morris painted his plywood surfaces gray in order to reduce as far as possible the impact of color on the perceptual experience of the shapes themselves. The umformity of color in RaJ19 is, however, undermined by the shifting details of the fiberboard surfaces, visible as the viewer moves closer to the separate ob,ects. Knoebel's identification of "warmth" in the fiberboard comes about through the makeup of the material itself, which is produced by steam-blasting wood chips into slim fibers that are then pressed into sheets with the application of heat. The color is held within the tightly layered fibers, paradoxically calling up references to the unity of support and color promoted by Clemen? Greenberg. The ability to recognize, upon close inspection, the natural source of the surface color lends the ob,ects a degree of tactility, resisting the possibility that they appear collectively as an image to be viewed from a comfortable distance With their glossy brown surfaces, I want to suggest that Knoebel's panels resonate, however indirectly, with Beuys's invented hue Braunkreu^ a shade of brown that he preferred to think of as a sculptural medium rather than a color. Beuys first began to use Braunk^ in the late 1950s, employing it extensively in works on paper as well as sculptures of the 1960s. Though the components of the material varied, it appears to have consisted of a changing mixture of oil paint, rust-proofing paint, blood and other matter, resulting in a reddish-brown color Beuys never revealed in detail the actual contend of the substance; descriptions in catalogues and on museum websites often mention the inclusion of hare's blood? though Ann Temkin, in an essay that spends more time than most on the various resonances of Braunkreu^ does not list blood as a likely ingredient, perhaps because, as with many aspects of Beuys's work, the description of the paint falls into the category of a self-generating myth-making process.^ The associations of magic and ritual in the inclusion of animal blood correspond with the image Beuys developed as a shaman or healing figure,

'

A n n Temkin, "Joseph Beuys: Life Drawing", in: Thinking Is Form: The Dramngs of Joseph Beuys, A n n Temkin and Bernice Rose, N e w York 1993, 27-71.

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giving the works that incorporate BraunkreuZ a primitivist bent. By the same token, the portion of the substance derived from store-bought paint means that Beuys, too, worked with a combination of the industrial and the natural. For him, though, BraunkreuZ evoked base matter of all kinds, whether soil, feces, chocolate or rust. Above all, it allowed him to inject his work with a general sense of material change, of unstable elements that were capable of transformation. Once it had entered into his material vocabulary, Beuys put BraunkreuZ to frequent use, most often using it in drawings and collages, though also m sculptures, such as the 1962-63 Cruafixton. Here the small brown cross at the top of the crucifix creates, as Temkm has pointed out, a signature for Beuys, similar to his reliance on fat and felt to con,ure the artisf s prese n c e - In addition, it reverts to an exchange between color and naming that recalls Thierry de Duve's thoughts on color in general: "Color has no bemg that it could share with its n i n e , since as soon as it is designated, it is n L e d " " In the case of Beuys, that naming process is inextricably linked with the color's material support. In CrudfLn, "brown cross" is both color and form. When Beuys applies BraunkreuZ to paper, this color/support link is altered and brown can be understood as both substance and image. Three works on paper give a sense of the range of the works on paper employing the earthy color. In Rubber Doll (1959)! an early example of the role of Iraunkreu^ Beuys delineates the form of a woman in a solid-brown layer of paint, the contours of her body legible even with the absence of modeling The agitated, abstract marking, surrounding the figure are done in lampblack, a carbon-based medium derived traditionally from the soot collected from oil lamps. The two dark tones vie for attention as material, with the B r ^ r ^ standing out because of its attachment to the figure. In another work (see fig 33), a cut-paper piece from 1962, the brown paint creates a geometric form that echoes and produces frictions with the folded-paper support. Despite the objerfs twodimensionality, paint and paper are in a dynamic tension that evokes sculptural volume. Finally, the title for Beuys's 1964 drawing, For Brown Bnmronment, suggests a plan or a diagram for realization m a threedimensional space. Two shapes jostie for attention in a confined frame, the smaller form standing out for its strong curves in contrast to the more rectilinear form on the right. Here the BrLkreuZ is evenly applied, giving more weight to suggested form than material substance. At the same time?

10 »

Temkin, "Joseph Beuys: Life Drawing", 42. L W r y de D u v e , "Colour and Its N a m e " , in: Colour, David Batchelor (ed.), L o n d o n and Cambridge, Mass. 2008, 177.

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Fig. 33: Joseph Beuys, Untitled (hraunkreu^)^ Y)&1^ oil (Braunkreuz) on cut, folded, and pasted paper, mounted on paper, 65.5 x 50 cm, irregular. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), N e w York / V G Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Froehlich Collection, Stuttgart.

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Gregory H.Williams

one is reminded of color sample chips, so that agam color and form are brought into a relationship of mutual influence. In spite of clear and important differences in their attitudes toward their specific colors' down-to earth qualities, both Beuys and Knoebel saw m brown a hue that evoked shabbiness, decay and base materiality. This association of color with the notion of devaluation accords with its historically compromised status. In his book Chromophobe David Batchelor writes about how color has been marginalized through the fears it inspires due to its unknowability. He writes that color's "object is...almost nothing, even though it is at the same time a part of almost everything and exists almost everywhere"- The color brown, in particular, is difficult to pin down. A signifier of both natural purity (as in dirt) and excessive hybridity (as m childhood experiments in mixing colors), brown beggars description; it is at once too obvious and too undefined. When comparing the work of Beuys and Knoebel, one of the most important distinction? between them is that, in general, Beuys's Braunk^ is additive rather than inherent, even if he blurs the boundaries between support and color. For Knoebel, the brown color of fiberboard is fused with the material support; to speak of brown as a color is to speak of the physical makeup of me sheets themselves. In order further to explore the artists' shared connection to a heightened emphasis on color and tactility, it is worth turning for a moment to Knoebel's critical reception. His debt to his teacher ha?, since the beginning of his career, been acknowledged. As Richter and other scholars have shown, Beuys was hardly a domineering, controlling master who shaped and dictated the work of his students. On the contrary, Beuys 'left you in peace; that was quite unusual. I first had to find my way and at the same time that kept everything open", as Knoebel described i t " Beuys's teaching style m me mid-1960s was not based on direct instruction with the goal of imparting a particular set of skills. Rather, he placed emphasis on group discussions, his so-called "ring discussions", instituted in 1966 and based on concepts derived partly from the social theories of Rudolf Sterner. This was the penod in which Beuys lectured on his Theory of Sculpture with its emphasis on the transformation of physical states and movement as communication. Knoebel and Giese arrived at the Academy with virtually no training in painting or sculpture, and Beuys did not count passing on the technical c o i L a n d of a medium as one of his pedagogical obligations. Responding to Beuys's tack promotion of a deskffled working process, Knoebel and Giese had to orient themselves within the class.

12

David Batchelor, ChromophoUa, L o n d o n 2000, 22.

13

Imi Knoebel quoted in: Richter, "Joseph Beuys", 11.

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Already at Darmstadt they had become fascinated with the Suprematism of Kasimir Malevich; the German translation of Malev1Ch's The NonObjective World had appeared in 1962 and they studied the book closely. With hindsight, it would appear that Knoebel turned to prefabricated tiberboard in order to avoid the decisions associated with painting: size, scale, color, facture, etc. The readymade aspect of the store-bought panels means, according to the curator Dirk Martin, that the pro,ect is "free of contextual connotations and refers as a final consequence only to itself: it is pure presence"" Such language is remarkably similar to the claims for an anti-musiomstic picture made by Malevich many decades before Knoebel's production of I W 19. On one level, we can accept this rhetoric of presence: Knoebel's installation consists not only of various geometric shapes he assembled from the tiberboard, but also wood picture frames stacked agamst the wall, their empty centers speaking to potential and future use Moreover, perhaps the most singular, fundamental component among the 77 pieces that make up Raum 19 was the small square frame mounted on the wall as seen in a photograph from the Academy hallway m 1968. Knoebel's classmate Johannes Stuttgen has drawn connections between this Ur-frame and Malevich's Black Square, claiming that each ob,ect evokes a new beginning, a zero degree of art making, Sid thereby an irreducible presence. For Stuttgen, Knoebel's square streteher, visible m the first Raum 19 installation, wts the kind of object in which, in spite of its extreme simplicity, we can see "the substance of an entire period of time".* Here we encounter Knoebel as a participant in the postwar neoavant-garde's revival of the historical avant-garde; in his case, the attraction of Malevich can be explained by the Darmstadt training in basic form, as well as in Knoebel's own personal sense of needing to start over m a new institution. In 1987, Donald Kuspit saw in Knoebel's practice what he called a "strange union of opposites" between the influence of Beuys and Malev i c h - With Raum 19 m mind, I would prefer to see Knoebel as beginning at a Beuysian standpoint but ending up in a very different place, juft as he does not firmly occupy the Suprematist position. Both Beuys and Malevich held out hope for avant-garde Utopian aspirations, the one placing emphasis on art's positive earthbound impact on social relations, the other more concerned with painting's ability to transcend its own materiality.

" i= "

Dirk Martin, " O n the exhibition I m i Knoebel - Works from 1966 to 2006' in the WilhelmHack-Museum Ludwigshafen am Rhein", in: Im Knoebel. Werke von 1966 Us 2006, 11. Johannes Stuttgen, Der Kalrahmen des Im Knoebel, 1968/89, B o n n and Cologne 1991, 9 [my translation]. Donald Kuspit, "Imi Knoebel's Triangle", Artfomm, January 1987, 72.

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G r gory H. Wil

Fig. 34: Imi Knoebel, Raum 19 (Room 19), 1968. Installation at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries, Beacon, N e w York. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), N e w York / V G Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Collection Dia Art Foundation, N e w York. Photo: Bill Jacobson.

Thus, Knoebel does not create a union between the projects of his two major influences, but rather he merges formal elements of their practices while moving away from avant-garde and neo-avant-garde conceptions of art's transformative powers. Knoebel's embrace of the space of the depot, of stored objects that radiate potential but seem forever trapped in a state of implied readiness, places his work in line with many artists of his generation (especially Franz Erhard Walther) and the next. For them, art can be down-to-earth without speaking to myth and ritual; it can also form connections with modern industry without imagining a perfect society. Knoebel's Raum 19 is anything but pure presence (see fig. 34). It is grounded in the here and now, and, with its assortment of regular and irregular geometric shapes, Raum 19 promotes a phenomenological experience. Despite its evocation of objects in a state of suspended activity, and depending on the given configuration of the parts, the spectator is compelled to negotiate the space as a bodily encounter. In looking at Beuys through the lens of a student, suddenly Knoebel opens up a view of his mentor's work that is less overdetermined in terms

A Glossier Shade of Brown: Imi Knoebel's Kaum 19

211

of his political aspirations. Regarding Beuys's relationship to the neoavant-gaMe, it is instructive to examine comments made by Peter Burger over a decade after his widely-read 1974 Theory of the Avant-Garde attempted to close the chapter on art's Utopian imperative" In an essay first published m 1987 (a year after Beuys's death) and then expanded and reworked in 1996, Burger fine-tuned his earlier reaction of the neo-avantgarde in order to explain how Beuys had attempted to keep alight the fading embers of the avant-garde. Here Burger argues that Beuys undoubtedly operates m relation to the historical avant-garde- But rather than this taking place from a position of historical ignorance, Beuys is fully aware of the impossibility of his task. He understands that the avant-garde movements of the 1910s and 1920s fell far short of achieving their goals of investing everyday life with an elevated artistic consciousness, never rendering art obsolete as a distinct category of activity. And Beuys knows that he will also fail in this respect. Burger quotes a late speech given by Beuys in 1986 in which the artist speaks of "passing on the torch" of the avant-garde as being the only remaining o p t i o n - In spree of the very clear differences between them, Beuys's awareness of limited options can be seen as a link between the generations; younger artists of me 1960s and 1970s made more openly mamfest what Beuys already recognized but still sought to overcome This image of carrying on a worthy tradition implies some lingering belief in the rniportance of pressing for social chLge through art. Burger found later that his initial depiction of the neo-avantgarde had relied too heavily on an "either/or" split, thus ignoring the idea that perhaps failure itself was deeply embedded within the project of the historical avant-garde. He wrote, '"Perhaps failure is the mode by which the avantgardist secures the Utopian quality of his pro,ect, which would always be something different if it were to be realized"." Burger's later, more nuanced account of postwar avant-garde activity opens up a compelling space for Knoebel to occupy. The notion of an mtergenerational transmission of avant-garde claims for new beginnings connects with Knoebel's turn to fiberboard as the "blank slate" onto which he might pro,ect a future art practice. Yet it is the very historical skuatedness of the materials he chose for Raum 19 that prevent the installation from being read as "pure presence". Indeed, it only limits the interpretive possibilities to place such expectations on his work, whether we " ">

Peter Burger, Theory of the Avant-Garde, Michael Shaw (trans.), Minneapolis 1984. Peter Burger, " D e r Avantgardist nach dem E n d e der Avantgarden: Joseph Beuys", in: Peter B u r ^ r , Das Altern derModerne. SAnften ^r Uldenden KunS, Frankfurt am Main 2001, 154-70.

«

Joseph Beuys quoted in Burger, " D e r Avantgardist", 159, m y translation.

20

Burger, " D e r Avantgardist", 159, my translation.

278

Gregory H.Williams

are thinking of things produced during his student days or afterward. Lookrng Aaum 19 today, Knoebel appears to occupy a place where multiple narratives, practices and histories intersect. Some of these stories stem from the artist's own understanding, both in the 1960s and retrospectively, of his place m the Academy. Yet other lines of thought emerge when we look to materiality and color as culturally specific si|ifiers that extend beyond any notion of sculptural autonomy. With such in approach we see that Knoebel resists what Latour called the "idealist" version of matter, in which matter itself and its reproduction in drawings and plans are seen as one and the same. Latour promotes instead the study of thmgs that reveal themselves only through "thick description" and what he refers to as the "material definition of m a t t e r - I believe it is Beuys's own wavering between represented and materialized matter to which Knoebel responded with Raum19. This is not to say that Knoebel sought to advance and ultimately resolve Beuys's dialectic. Instead, if Beuys placed more weight on the organic side of the nature/industry divide, Knoebel pushes the tension back in the direction of the industrially produced material. He does so, however, not m order to re,ect Beuys's romantic materialism in favor of the seemmg neutrality of pre-fabricated elements, but to downplay the coded refer ences to myth? ritual and magic. Still, the perception of "warmth" in Raum 19 is unmistakable. Like Beuys's Braunkreu^ it evokes waste, decay and frequent use, even though the piece appears to be in a permanent condition of storage. As Alex Potts writes, Beuys was a key figure in the transition to a postmedium condition. For Beuys, Potts claim?, the "vividly felt sense of tactilrcy displaces any immediate apprehension of structural qualities associated with sculpture as an art form".- Knoebel forms the next step m this medium-based transformation; he retained some of Beuys's substance while adding a certain "gloss" that revealed the challenge made by industry to the power of the organic. Like other artists of his generation, Knoebel pointed toward the future of contemporary art, when the potent combination of material and environment m installations would gradually do away with sculptural self-sufficiency.

a ^

Latour, "Can We Get O u r Materialism Back, Please?", 140 ^ i s emphasis). Alex Potts, "Tactility: The Interrogation of Medium in Art of the 1960s", Art History, 27, Apnl 2004, 2, 286.

Commerce

Selling Dada: Ne* York Dada (1921) and Its Dialogue with the European Avant-Garde David Hopkins (University of Glasgow) The question of the relations between "h l g h" and 'low" culture in the visual production of the early 20*-century avant-garde movements has been a lively topic for some time, and historians of me avant-garde will be familiar with the examples that are regularly cited in general histories. In 1991 the Museum of Modern Art, New York, devoted a major show to the topics It is now widely understood that movements such as Cubism, Futunsm and Dada, for instance, borrowed heavily from commercial imagery.* However, it is remarkable how few m-depth analyses of the details of the interactions or their exact implications for wider issues of the cultural and social positioning of the avant-garde formations of the last century have actually been earned out.' It is easy enough to point out examples of visual plundering or borrowing, but the implications of these actions for questions of avant-garde politics, for gendered identity and for the relations of the avant-gaMe to the market place (all of which have become key questions for avant-garde studies in the last couple of decades) are raised less often than one would wish. In this essay it is precisely these questions that I intend to examine, in the context of a very specific moment in the history of Dada. I want, then, to focus on the contents of the modest late Dada journal Ne» York Dada of 1921. As I will show, this 1

See Kirk V a m e d o e & Adam Gopnik (eds.), Htgh &Lo„: Modern Art and Popular Cutlure, exh cat. Museum of M o d e m Art, N e w York 1990 A further book of essays JL also published to accompany the exhibition, see Kirk Vamedoe & Adam Gopnik eds), Modern Art and Popular Culture: Readmgs ,n H,gh and L « , N e w York 1990.

2

See for instance the many examples cited in V a m e d o e & Gopnik, Higi andLo,,

3

There are a n u m b e r of notable exceptions. For instance, for Cubism, see Jeffrey Weiss, The Popular Culture of Modern Art: PuaJ, Duchamp, and Avant-Gardxm, Cambridge M A 1994. In terms of Berlin Dada, the work of the American scholar Sherwin Simmons has been exemplary. See for instance his essay " D a d a and Kitsch: Cultivation of the Trivial", in: V«p» Microbe: fc Studies on Dada, David Hopkins and Michael White (eds.), Evanston ILL, forthcoming.

23-67.

282

David Hopkins

can be seen as an exemplary case of the annexation of a language of advertising and commercial culture to the concerns of the avant-garde. As I have suggested already, numerous examples have been given in the past of Dadfs allusions to advertising and popular culture. Duc h J p ' s many readymade and "assisted readymade" gestures obviously lend themselves to this kind of analysis, since they are themselves rooted precisely in the culture of commerce/ Looking at Dada ,ournals and publications is, however, especially instructive since magazines are often, of course, the bearers of advertising and, by definition, the medium of dissemination. It is evident that the Dada magazines played heavily on their relationship to mass circulation magazines; one obvious example is John Hearttield's cover for the one-off Berlin Dada journal,/«fo*«£ sem etgner Fussball of 1919 which functions as a brilliant parody of popular conservative modes of magazine l a y o u t In Ne» York Dada this concern is continued, but one initially needs to consider the specificities of the Dada movement in New York, and the role its journals had assumed up until the publication of Ne^ York Dada. Strictly speaking, it is debatable whether there was ever anything approaching a coherent Dada formation in New York, and looking at the magazines that were thrown up in this context helps to underline * i s , for none of them make anything of the "Dada" label prior to Ne» York Dada itself As I have written elsewhere, the first proto-Dada publication, The mgefield GaZook of 1915, was largely a vehicle by which Man Ray and a group of his anarchist associates sought to distance themselves from the 'high art" connotations of Alfred StiegHtz's journal 291 fi "The Gazook" was to be followed by a group of magazines (Rong^rong, The BIMman nos land 2, and TNT) the^contents of w l f h tended to be polarised between contributions from a growing group of indigenous American avantgardists and the dominant group of European expatriates, notably Duchamp and Francis Picabiaf to which the young Americans gravitated. Although The Mndman no 1 was to include the notorious image of Duchamp's Fountam and to report on the scandal ensuing from its exhibition, it is important to realise that, in the context of the magazine, the notion of Dada was not explicitly linked even to this object

4

See for instance Molly Nesbit, Tbrir Common Sense, L o n d o n 2000.

5

For a recent account of this magazine, in the context of sports discourse in Berlin, see Andreas Kramer: '"Everyman His O w n Football': Dada Berlin, Sport and Weimar Cultur.", ^-.V^nMurobe.

«

See m y essay " E u r o p e - N e w York: Proto-Dada magazines", in: The Critical and Cultural mtor* of Modern^ Maga^nes, Volume 3: 1880-1940, Peter Brooker, Sascha B m & Christian Weikop(eds.), Oxford forthcoming

283

New York Dada (1921) and Its Diaologue with the European Avant-Garde

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We know, in fact, that Duchamp was not aware of the Dada movement as it was bemg constituted in Zurich until late 1916 or early 1917 and he seems to have been ambivalent about it initially.? Picabia actually travelled to Zurich early in 1919 and would subsequently have told Duchamp more about the movement later in that jel when Duchamp visited Paris and met some of the young poets who were beginning to style themselves as French Dadaists. In a sense, then, Duchamp canTe to lie idea of Dada late, and the last ,ournal produced by himself and Man Ray m New York, Ne» York Dada of April 1921, could be seen as a slightly desperate attempt to produce an American version of the movement, to tie m with the mushrooming international trend. The magazine in fact appeared shortly after the sole self-styled "Dada Evening" had taken place m New York, convened under the auspices of the Soaete Anonyme on 1 April, 1921. Its sudden genesis represents an attempt to give coherence to an American avant-garde interlude which had never been particularly unified. This sense of desperation is borne out by the cover of NeJvork Dada (see fig. 35) which also demonstrates the magazine's relationship with advertising culture. Basically the cover consists of a photograph of Marcel Duchamp's perfume b o t t l e , V / , Ha/eme of 1921, surrounded by the words "new york dada april 1921" printed repeatedly upside down to form a senes of typographic columns. The sheer repetition of the "New York Dada" logo itself subtly suggests the urgency of this last-ditch attempt to produce a Dada movementfand this would correspond to the fact that the label on Duchamp's perfume bottle carries the inscription "NEW YORKPARIS". This indicates that, although the magazine was ostensibly addressed to an American audience, it was simultaneously produced as a nod to Duchamp's French Dadaist connections (as already noted, Duchamp had visited Paris for six months at the end of 1919 and met the highly influential French writers, grouped around the journal Utterature, including Breton, Aragon and Eluard, who would subsequently constitute the do mmant formation within Paris Dada.) The perfume bottle, which had originally contained Rigaud toilet water, had connotations of a deluxe French product, but, as Nancy Ring has noted, there was also a fashion in America during the 1920s for celebrities to endorse cosmetic products via advertising photographs; the photograph of Duchamp's newly-created female alter ego, Rrose Selavy, which graces his fake perfume bottle, therefore ironically turns Duchamp/Rrose into a kind of fashionable celebrity. Ring notes that the title of the "per-

?

For D u c h a m p ' s account of his initial acquaintance with Dada, as a result of receiving a copy of Tzara's La premiere avenure celeste deMr. Antipjnne (Zurich 1916), see Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues mth Marcel Duchamp, trans. Ron Padgett, N e w York 1971, 55.

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fume", Belle Haleine, also plays on the French/American trade-off, wnting that "when translated literally as 'Beautiful Breath' (Belle Haleine), the name is somewhat comical m the manner of American cosmetic companies' uses of French, but it nonetheless carries connotations of an impalpable sweetness".* I shall have more to say shortly about the complex Amencan-French avant-garde politics of The New York Dada magazine, but what is clear is that Ducha!np used the magazine to develop a set of ideas that ironically correlate notions of personal as well as group promotion with modern advertising techniques In this respect, one should turn to page two of the magazine, where there is a lengmy "authorization" for the magazine (under the banner "EYE-COVERART-COVER CORSET-COVER") by none other than Tnstan Tzara, one of the founding members of the Dada movement. Tzara's text is worth examining in some detail as it provides one of the exemplary instances of a Dadaist linkage between avant-garde rhetoric and advertising. (Tzara's "authorization" m itself reminds one of the contemporary cult m America for celebrity endorsements, and Duchamp and Man Ray evidently saw Tzara in this way, soliciting his backing for their Dada product). Tzara had always been fascinated by the verbiage of commerce and this is abundantly apparent here. Dada is presented by him as a kind of commodity which has "penetrated into every hamlet", an assertion followed up by the statement "Dada is the best paying concern of the day".5 Tzara subsequently addresses himself to an imputed female reader/consumer, parodically asserting a difference between the average commodity and Dada: "Madam, be on your guard and realize that a really dada product is a different thing from a glossy label". The advertising salesman in Tzara then goes on to enumerate the qualities of his wares: D a d a offers all k i n d of advantages. D a d a will s o o n b e able to b o a s t of h a v i n g s h o w n p e o p l e t h a t to say " r i g h t " instead of ' l e f t " is neither less n o r t o o logical, that red a n d valise are the same thmg; that 2765 = 34; that " f o o l " is a merit; that " y e s " = «no».«>

Part of the intention behind the piece was indeed to advertise Tzara's new publishing pro,ect of the period, "Dadaglobe", which is said to be "in press" and for which Tzara produces a long list of collaborators. The female reader is once again appealed to in this context and told that this new publication, as well as possessing "an incalculable number of pages",

B ' io

Nancy Ring, N » York Dada and the Cnsts of Masc„6nttj: Man Ray, Franas PUatia and Marcel Duchamp tnthe Untied States, 1913-1921, A n n Arbor 1993, 236. Tnstan T 2 ara, " E Y E - C O V E R A R T C O V E R C O R S E T - C O V E R " , in: N » York Dada, 1921,2. Tzara, " E Y E - C O V E R " , 2.

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W111

boast: "Articles ... of prime necessity, articles indispensable to hygiene and to the heart, toilet articles of an intimate nature"" The gradual slippage here into a "feminine" language of the bodily and the personal is stepped up further, when, finallyfrnf female readers warned: "you need to look no further than to the use of articles prepared without Dada to account for the fact that the skin of your heart is chapped: that the so precious enamel of your intelligence is cracking: also for the presence of tiiose tiny wrinkles still imperceptible but nevertheless disquieting— Tzara's unmistakable allusions here to the advertising of cosmetics and beauty products in fact sit very well with the genesis of the word "Dada", which Raimund Meyer has shown to have had connections with the advertising campaigns of the Dresden firm Bergmann and Co, manufacturers of "Perfurnes and Fine Soaps", who, from 1901, sold their products m an extremely elegant and prominent store near the railway station m Z u r i c h " In his First Dada manifesto, performed at the Dada soiree of 14 July 1916, Hugo Ball in fact alluded directly to one of the most celebrated products of Bergmann and Co, "LiHenmilchseife" (lily milk soap), saymg 'TDada is the Key, Dada is the best LiHenmilchseife m the world" " Meyer sees this as extending beyond a mere ,oke at the expense of a famous product, given that Bergmann and Co used the emblem of crossed hobbyhorses as the trademark for their company; "hobby-horse" would, of course, be cited by Ball, Huelsenbeck and others as the French translation of "Dada" when discussing the origins of Dada." In 1910 a further Bergmann and Co product, a hair-strengthening solution, had been explicitly advertised with the word "Dada" appended to an image of a woman with flowing locks. Even more telling in the present context is that, in an advertisement of 1910 in which "LiHenmilchseife" was first patented under the "Dada" trademark by Bergmann and Co as "LiHemilchseife-Creme Dada", it is described as "indispensable against tired, rough, chapped skin and for alabaster-white, velvet-soft complexions"" Although Meyer seems to feel that only Ball made connections with Bergmann L l Co in 1916, it is surely correct to see Tzara's own reference to "chapped skin" in

» 12

T.ara, "EYE-COVER", 2. Tzara, "EYE-COVER", 2.

13

Raimund Meyer: '"Dada ist Gross, D a d a ist Schon'", in: Dada in Zunch, H a n s Bolliger, Guido Magnaguagno & Raimund Meyer (eds.), exh. cat. Kunsthaus, Zurich 1985, 26. H u g o Ball, as cited by Meyer, '"Dada ist Gross'", 26. See Meyer, '"Dada ist Gross'", 26-7. For a useful discussion of the various accounts by the Dadaists of the origins of the movement's name, see J o h n Elderfield, '"Dada': A Code for Saints", in: Major European Art Movements 1900-1945, Patricia E. Kaplan and Susan Manso (eds.), N e w York 1977, 310-24.

" 15

16 Meyer, '"Dada ist Gross"', 69, note 89 and related illustration.

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the New York Dada text of 1921 as a deliberate nod to the wording used in this formative linkage between Dada and the advertising of cosmetic products. Meyer does, in fact suggest, that earlier references by Tzara to perfume in his Chromque ZuricMse 1915-19 of 1920 may have been made with Bergmann and Co in mmd, and it is interesting therefore that Duchamp should have chosen to reproduce the image of his mock perfume bottle Belle Haleme on the cover of New York Dada as a direct prelude to Tzara's text. It seems very likely that Duchamp was deliberately alluding back to early Dada concerns, and updating them in relation to contemporary American advertising strategies, as discussed earlier. He was thus placing himself and Man Ray in a European Dada lineage just as much as he wa? addressing the likes of his supporters, such as Arensberg or StiegHtz, in New York. It should be appreciated, though, that Duchamp's perfume bottle is significant also for its introduction to the world of Duchamp "en femme" m the figure of Rrose Selavy, an alternative persona he was subsequently to explore more systematically in photographs by Man Ray taken after 1 9 2 2 " What is evident, therefore, is that Duchamp was meditating m some depth on the issue of gendered identity, and that this concern dovetailed at some level with ideas about advertising. In this connection, it is worth considering theoretical accounts regarding the deployment by avant-garde artists of images of women or feminity as signified of mass culture. Referring to examples ranging from Flaubert to Nietzsche, the literary historian and theorist Andreas Huyssen has written at some length about the idea that, as he puts it, "mass culture is somehow associated with woman while real, authentic culture remains the prerogative of m e n — Borrowing from Huyssen's account, and those of other?, Amelia Jones summarises this split between mass culture/woman and high g art/man in terms of: [a] t e n d e n c y to align t h e realm of m a s s tiple objects, w i t h a certain n o t i o n of (me w o m a n as m a r k e t for a n d object c o m m o d i t y is given value t h r o u g h an prostitute L prototypical figure of this

culture, w i t h its frivolous and decorative m u l femininity as associated w i t h the c o m m o d i t y of c o n s u m e r culture). I n turn, the feminised association with the sexual itself - w i t h the intersecting field of v a l u e s "

"

The first series of Rrose Selavy photographs, made for the Belle Halane bottle, date from 1921. For the reused dating of the most famous set of these images, with hands framing the face, which she sees as being made between 1922 and 1924, see D a w n Ades: " D o champ's Masquerades", in: The Portrait in Photography, Graham Clarke (ed.), L o n d o n 1992, 213, note 34.

IB

Andreas Huyssen, After the Great Dmde: Moderns, shire & L o n d o n 1986, 47.

«

Amelia Jones, Postmodern^

Mass Culture and Postmodern^,

Hamp-

and the En-gendenng of Mane,'Duchamp, Cambridge 1994, 162.

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David Hopkins

She thus makes the general point that "the capitalist system became an extended machine fofseducmg women (consumers) by men (producers) and for the simultaneous production of women as visual objects"." However crude this binary theoretical split might seem, it is clear that Duchamp's Belk Haleme gesture might well be understood as a ruse by which D u c h L p , seeing the need to "sell" himself within the avant-garde market-place but conscious of the need to preserve his status as a masculine "high art" producer, ironically adopted the role of woman, the signifier of the seductions of consumption. On this argument, it might be asserted that the advertising allusions in Ne» York Dada amount, in the final analysis, to a shonng-up of the male position (whether that of Duchamp, Man Ray or Tzara^in line with the essentially "men only" or clubbish ethos that functioned as one of the structural determinants behind the formation of the Dada avant-garde in America.- This would be to suggest, of course, that the rapprochement with commercial or advertising culture in the pages of the magazine was far from straightforwardly celebratory or " e m a n a t e d " in the way many accounts of the erosion of the distinction between high and low cultural forms within modernism might have it. It would be to argue, indeed, that, in this instance, the levelling of the high and the low served the needs of a structurally "masculinised" avant-gardism, for which "femininity" was a foil. To test this argument further it is worth looking at yet more allusions to advertising practices in the pages of Ne» York Dada. Page one of the magazine constitutes possibly me closest pastiche of advertising conventions in terms of its overall layout. Next to an enigmatic section of a photograph, two capitalised slogans exhort the readeTto: "CUT OUT DADYNAMIC STUFF" and 'WATCH YOUR STEP". The latter slogan seemingly refers to the aforementioned photograph, which in fact represents Alfred Stieglitz's contribution to the magazine: a doubleexposed image that was apparently the outcome of an accident in the developing process when, in 1919, Stieglitz was working on a series of photographic portraits of Dorothy True, a friend of his partner Georgia OTCeefe- (Accidents such as this were welcomed among the New York Dada community. Duchamp's Ranging magazine of 1917 also made positive use of a printer's error to produce the title of the journal.) Two 20

Jones, Postmodern^. See also Jones's account of D u c h a m p ' s Rrose Selavy in these and related terms in Chapter 5 of this text.

a

See my Dado's Boys: MascuBmty after Duchamp, Cambridge M A 2007, Chapters 1 and 2.

^

For the full set of images, see Sara Greenough, Alfred Stiegl,tK / The Key Set: The Alfred Stiegl,tK Collection ofPhotographs, volume 1, 1886-1922, Washington 2002, catalogue no. 603-07, 364-66

N » York Dada (1921) and Its Diaologue with the European Avant-Garde

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images of True were therefore combined. The first is a ghostly image of her face. This peers out through the second image, a dramatically cropped photograph of the calf of her leg. The lower leg has been thrust forwixl as though to show off the tight-fitting fashionable stiletto shoe into which True has forced her foot. There can be little doubt that this is a direct allusion to advertising conventions, and this is underlined by the placement of the pnce of this issue of W York Dada (25c), which is positioned under the photograph, as though indicating the pnce of the shoe. The corners of the entire double-exposed image are themselves cropped at top left and bottom right and a section of enigmatic text follows the diagonal line of the cut at bottom right, seemingly representing an excerpt, or L i e s of excerpts, from a piece of romantic fiction: "understood that i was hurting his feelings... I understood that she was hurting his feelings..."* All m all, the choice of Stieglitz's photograph (which, in effect, reduces its sub,ect, Dorothy True, to a shoe, and thus to a commodity), and its placement next to an example of 'low brow", "feminine" literature (with its obsessive attention to hurt feelings) strongly suggests that the structural pairing of femininity with the realm of consumption and mass culture ("kitsch" in Greenberg's sense) is indeed at stake here. If we are now looking at the overt exploitation by Duchamp and Man Ray of a severely cropped and fetishized female body, it is also worth turning to possibly the most obviously "Dadaist" image in the magazine, although one which is small in scale compared to Duchamp's striking Belk Haleme cover. This is a "dadaphoto" contributed by Mali Ray which is placed on its side, above Tzara's "authorization" on the second page of the magazine. Once again, New York Dada's overall commitment to a pastiche of advertising conventions is apparent here. For one thing, the photograph is placed next to a small sign exhorting the reader to " I I E E P SMILING"; apparently a slogan widely used in American toothpaste advertisements of the period.- The photograph itself shows a naked woman standing behind a coat stand with the upper part of a cardboard cartoon mannequin, complete with shocked doll-like face, obscuring her head and shoulders. This must surely be seen as a reference to a shop-window mannequin, a reading which is reinforced by the presence of the coat stand; In ob,ect on which, like the mannequin, clothes are customarily draped or hung. The art historian Michael Taylor has seen the photograph as a nod to the photomontages which Duchamp and Man Ray would have

23 24

Author u n k n o w n , N » York Dada, 1921, 1. Taylor, " N e w York D a d a " , in: Dada, Leah Dickerman (ed.), Washington 2006, 293.

Mlchael

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David Hopkins

identified with Berlin or Cologne Dada (although I would argue for a close stylistic affinity with Max Ernst's Cologne photocollages! such as Sante Conversa^one of 1921 rather than the mannequin sculpture by Grosz and Heartfield to which he refers).- In line with this, he suggests that Man Ray may well be producing his own re-working here of m l traumatised, automaton figures of German Dada. He thus writes: Man Ray's compliant shop-window mannequin is not a victim of warfare or political insurrection, but can be understood instead as a casualty of the sales techniques of fashion and magazine advertising campaigns, which demanded perfection and total acquiescence from its models, in order to fell the female body as the embodiment of desire.26

Given the earlier thrust of this discussion, one might question whether any such moralistic ,udgement underpinned the image. It would certainly be hard to mount a similar argument in the case of Duchamp, whose appropriations of femmmity do not appear to amount to a straightforward critique of female ob, edification or commodification, and Man Ray's attitudes to women were very similar. This caveat notwithstanding, Taylor also makes the valuable point that the publication of the Ne» York Dada magazine may well have been intended to coincide with a showing of w o r k m New York from the celebrated Cologne Dada Farr of 1919, which never in fact materialised.- This would account for the Ernstian tenor of Man Ray's photograph, but it also helps to underline once again the guiding rationale of A L York Dada in terms of avant-garde positioning. It becomes abundantly clear that, not only was the nTagazme orientated m its address to Parts but also to Berlin and Cologne. One becomes increasingly aware that Ne» York Dada was, if anything, more "European" than "American". The latter point is emphasised by the relatively subordinate role that indigenous American avant-gardtsts played in the magazine. One of the main contributions by an American was Marsden Hartley's amusing skit on High Society functions, 'Tug Debs Make Society Bow" which purported to be an announcement for Mma Loy's forthcoming coming-out party in which she would "introduce the Marsden Hartleys and the Joseph Stellas to society"- The piece takes up the rest of the magazine's concern with fashion and clothingg accessories and pushes it to P parodtc extremes: P

25 26 •n

Taylor, "New York Dada", 293. Taylor, "New York Dada", 293. Taylor, "New York Dada", 292.

2B

Marsden Hartley, "PUG DEBS MAKE SOCIETY BOW", N » York Dada, 1921, 3.

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M a s t e r M a r s d e n will b e attired in a n e a t b u t n o t gaudy set of tight-fitting gloves a n d will have a V - b a c k in front a n d o n b o t h sides. H e will wear very short skirts g a t h e r e d at t h e waist a n d a nickel's w o r t h of live leather belting. H i s slippers will b e heavily jewelled w i t h brass eyelets, a n d a luxurious pair of d i m ; laces wffl b e w o v e n in and out of the h o o k s . H e m a y or m a y n o t wear socks. H e has always b e e n k n o w n as a daring dresser. 2 9

The American contributors to Ne» York Dada do not appear, however, to be party to the in-jokes shared by Duchamp and Man Ray. Their humour is less dry and more direct than that of Duchamp in particular. This allowance on the part of Duchamp and Man Ray for American-style humour even extends to the incorporation, next to Marsden Hartley's text, of a cartoon by Rube Goldberg, in which a doddery old man prepares to tire a gun down a series of sections of twisted tubing held up by five old men m top hats. The purpose of the exercise, he announces, is to demonstrate that "a bullet doesn't lose any of its speed when it goes around c o r n e r s One senses that the American contributions to Ne» York Dada were considered by its editors to be of marginal importance, and this point can be extended to the appearance, on the last p^ge of the magazine, of two small photographs of Baroness Elsa von Freytag Lonnghoven, the German-born poetf resident in New York, who art histories have recently seen as possibly the most audacious of the "American" contingent of proto-Daxlaists surrounding Duchamp and Man R a y - The Baroness's imputed marginality, in being consigned to the back page, serves to underline some of me points that have been made above about how women (or, by extension, the principle of "femininity") were made to act as a foil for the m-house badinage of the leading Dada actors, Duchamp and Man Ray. In the final analysis, it was the European preoccupations of Duchamp and Man Ray that set the tone for New York Dada's negotiation of high and low cultural forms, as these were expressed via images redolent of women's role in advertising. In effect, as latecomers to the promotion of Dada, Duchamp and Man Ray were reviewing an engagement with commercial culture that had been a feature of the movement from the outset. This is emblematised most succinctly in the relationship between Duchamp's mock perfume bottle and Tzara's authorizing text, which in itself takes us back to the role that the advertisements of Bergmann and Co had played in the establishment of Dada's rhetorical self-creation. What seems 29

Hartley, " P U G D E B S " , 3.

30

Rube Goldberg, Cartoon, N » York Dada, 1921, 3.

3!

See Amelia Jones, Irrational Moderns: A Neurasthenu Htstory , / N » York Dada, Cambridge M A 2004. See also Irene Gammel, Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada and Everyday Modermty, Cambodge M A 2002.

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David Hopkins

most telling about Ne» York Dada in the end, from the point of view of contemporary avant-garde studies, is surely the way it confirms recent theonsations of howf withm the structural parameters of avant-gardism, the male position as cultural producer is shored-up via an implicit correlation be J e e n the figure of woman and the false allure of the massproduced commodity For Duchamp and Man Ray, though, the magazine may mainly have acted as a prelude to their forthcoming entree into the (post-Dad!) Parisian avant-garde. Feeling that "Dada cafnot live in New York", Man Ray left New York for Pans in 1 9 2 1 - Duchamp was to settle permanently in Pans two years later.

32

Man Ray, letter to Tristan T 2 ara, undated but postmarked June 8* 1920, as referenced by Francis Naumann, N » York Dada 1915-23, N e w York 1994, 241, note 46.

Wyndham Lewis and the Inter-War Popular Novel: Potboilers and Gunman Bestsellers Anna Burrells (University of Birmingham) Wyndham Lew* is most famous for three things: his antipathy towards some aspects of mass culture, his antipathy towards the "high" culture of Bloomsbury's elite, and his role in the avant-garde of Vorticism. The thrust of all three preoccupations is the emphasis' and importance that he places on the role of the intellectual artist - an obsession that he shared with Ezra Pound. His vision as set out in Time and Western Man (1927) and The AH ofBemg Ruled (1926) was more one of meritocracy than of aristocracy, though those merits to be valued were in truth those of himself and his fellow avant-gardists. In Time and Western Man he had argued against the "highly-mtellectualized High-Bohemia"! of the 1920s saying that it was composed of amateurs who dealt in "counterfeit" and pastiche rather than genuine art. Lewis's meritocracy of kinds was based on a belief that the avant-garde (and Vorticism in particular) could offer a way of solving the problems of modernity and eschewing the restrictions of Victonanism through the figure of the artist. It was a Utopian dream that died in the crucible of the First World War and that led to an increasingly pessimistic interpretation of modernity for Lewis. Lee Horsley argues that "the noir thriller is one of the most durable popular expressions of the kind of modernist pessimism epitomised in The Waste Land» Yet modernists themselves provide evidence of the threat that the noir thriller, or 1930s hardboiled forms of popular literature played out against their own, often more exclusive, notions of experiment. In this essay I take as an example Wyndham Lewis's novel Snooty Baronet (1932) and consider how Lewis's ideas construct the "popular", the reasons why he thought about the popular in the way he did, and his own use of popular forms m satire. I see the boundary between the formal experiment of the avant-garde and modernism, and the popular forms of the

1

Wyndham Lew.s, Tim, and Western Man (1927), Paul Edwards (ed.), Santa Rosa 1993, 47.

2

Lee Horsley, The No,r Thnller, Basingstoke 2001, 1.

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A„„aBu„ells

period, as a permeable one. Subject to a form of literary osmosis, this boundary was constantly in need of repair and reinforcement. In short, the formal emphasis of the modernist £, as Horsley intimates, used and adapted by the popular. Its exclusivity is threatened In this novel, Lewis can be seen patrolling that boundary, but also, very interestingly, his knowledge of me "popular" forms he satirises hints that this boundary is permeable in both directions and that considerable effort must be made to keep it intact at all. Snooty Baronet is a satire on modes of popular fiction and the publishing industry that promotes them. Snooty and his girlfriend Val are both producers of gossip novels of different kinds, and the novel which we are reading is one that Snooty is busy writing in the world of the text. The novel that Snooty writes can be interpreted as a popular (behaviourist) science text, a war novel, and a gunman best-seller. Ultimately, Lewis's novel is a satire on all of the above. Snooty's publisher, Humph is a grotesque automaton who arranges Snooty's kidnap in Persia as the basis for a popular sensation novel - the story of which is Snooty Baronet In the end, Snooty shoots Humph, turning the tale into the gun-man bestseller it had opened with. I argue that this novel questions and deconstructs popular forms of fiction even as it uses and parodies them. In the case of Snooty Baronet this d e c o n s t r u c t s is a blow against the anti-individualism and anti-mtellectualism that Lewis associates with a publishing industry that has lost faith m the pre-war avant-gardes. In Snooty Baronets are presented with a plot which demonstrates satirically many of the points mat Lewis was concerned to make about the role of the artist and intellectual in the modern world. For him, this modern world was dominated by mass culture and lazy thought. Lewis objected throughout his career to any doctrine which he felt sundered agency from the individual. These ideas are, of course, related to the uniquely modern moment - the concentration of vast numbers of people working m urban centres and the birth of an urban mass culture which is a feature of the penod. Horsley argues that noir and its related genres of pulp, thriller and hardboiled fiction are also uniquely of this moment. But if mey do express a modernist pessimism about an increasingly systematized and uncertain life, positing a tough individual hero who must negotiate the urban centres of Europe and America, they also differ considerably from the products of the writers of The Waste Land (1922), Ulysses (1922) and BLlsT(1914&1915). In terms of everyday life, Lewis believed that mass culture and what we might now refer to as ideology were controlling how people acted and thought m the modern world. He saw art as a corrective to this process: as something which revealed truths. Yet, he felt that everywhere the artist

Wyndham Lewis and the Inter-war Popular Novel

295

Fig. 36: Wyndham Lewis, The Cept, (M 451: 1921) Reproduced from the cover of Lewis's magazine The Tyro, no. 1. © By permission The Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust (a registered charity).

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was being devalued. These ideas in many ways link to Adorno's and Horkheimer's notion of the culture industry. His argument about who should be ruled and how in The Art of Bang Ruled is baied upon responses to the following choice: So everyone, I think, in one degree or another, has this alternative. Either he must be prepared to sink to me level of chronic tutelage and slavery, dependent for all he is to live by on a world of ideas, and its manipulators, about which he knows nothing: or he must get hold as best he can of the abstract prmciples involved in the very 'intellectual' machinery set up to control and change hL?

Many of Lewis's most controversial works were attempts to do just this, to "get hold" of that machinery, try to understand it, smd have influence. Part of this machinery was the printing press. On the opening page of Snooty BaronetLewis posits a distinction between the "gunman" bestseller, the war novel, and by implication, serious works of literature. What exactly, we might ask, does he mean by "gunman bestseller" anyway? dive Bloom argues that at "the end of World War One ... tensions inside the book trade and readers' demands brought younger and more daring writers to the fore; this, for instance, is the era when the women's romance, which dominates much of the publishing industry, came into its own codified and organised into a self-contained world by the 1930s".* It was the 1930s that saw the real boom in popular publications, and it is the key forms of this explosion, the hardboiled thriller, the detective novel and romance or gossip novels which Lewis satirises in Snooty Baronet. The number of books published between 1914 and 1939 doubled from 9,000 titles to 14,000 titles, with sales climbing from 7.2 million in 1928 to 26.8 million in 1939. Printing was also becoming considerably cheaper and better mechanised and this enabled novels to be bought by a wider market. It was, according to Bloom's research, the paperbound novelette that found most success in the '20s and '30s emblematised by the romance for women readers. But, there was also a new form of fiction which replaced the American Pulps that dried up during the war, and spawned a homemade version in Britain which often retained its American setting. These novels were the descendants of the thriller and the spy thriller mat had become pre-eminent after the First World War. The title Snooty Baronet maps closely to the emergent form of the detective novel as written by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers - think Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey, aristocratic detectives whose names sound like that of our protagonist. This is just one of the red herrings that Lewis sets us in a

3

^s,Tt,ne

4

Clive Bloom, Bestsellers: Popular Fution Stnce 1900, Basingstoke 2008, 27.

and Western

Man,*,

Wyndham Lewis and the Inter-war Popular Novel

297

novel where all of the key characters act like Snooty, and become "Snooty" at various points. Horsley has said that "English detective fiction produced m the mter-war period is easily reducible to its cliched components, imitated so often and so badly, ... that the novels become farcical and self-parodymg, with their invariable reliance on ludicrously complex methods of murder and 'the same careful grouping of suspects'".* The notion of genre is key to studies of popular fiction, but is somewhat antithetical to modernist notions of formd innovation and individuality. This ,uxtaposition is at the heart of Lewis's trouble with the mimetic, the counterfeit and the copyist. Lewis sets out to parody some aspects of popular detective fiction as he presents us with a version of character which is entirely automatic. Snooty and his fellow characters are clearly less than human: Val (Snooty's lover) is a "giggling fantoche", engaging in a "manmkin-parade of all her poshest socialTttitudes".* Humph, the publisher, looks like one of Lewis's Tyros: "when I look at Humph's chin I am reminded of strong-box" declares Snooty, suspecting there is a "false bottom" too.? Lewis's tyro (fig. 36) has the deep chin that characterises Humph along with a "Derby hat"; he is in many ways the prototype of a hardboHed hero. Humph and his chin are described in wholly mechanical terms: "If you opened it up (touching a spring, and removing the lower jaw, with its snow-white, well-stocked dentistry and well-upholstered coral gums) you would detect that the spacious cavity did not represent allot the chin ..a sculpted figurehead with a best pouter guardee-bust, protruded forward at attention, at the wooden salute . Humph is absolutely like a big carnival doll".* Humph is, according to Snooty, a 'lousy little automaton . a puppetfV We might read this mechanisation of the publisher as a response to the status of popular fiction as manufactured, the characters being put together from existing paradigms. As Snooty points out: "None would go more woodenly into a reserved compartment of the Orient Express, b e S er of a state-document" than Humph, and "a pre-war penny-a-liner, concocting a crime-yarn for the upkeep of his frowsy brood, would pop Humph in exactly as he stands, a^d have him throttle the thugs in the pay

5

7

Lee Horsley, Twentieth-Century Cnme Fiction, Oxford 2005, 37. Horsley quotes Raymond Chandler, The Slmp!e Art of Murder (1944), N e w York 1998, 10. Wyndham Lewis, Snooty Baronet (1932), Bernard Lafourcade (ed.), Santa Barbara 1984, 47. Lewis's 'fantoche' comes from the ItLn fantoccn, meaning a puppet with concealed strings (OED). Lewis, Snooty Baronet, 59.

B

Lewis, Snooty Baronet, 59.

'

Lewis, Snooty Baronet, 60.

6

298

AnnaBu„ells

of , Andre Salmon, SouveLrs sans fin II, Pans 1956, 232. E n particular on citera la chronique « Cinematographe » [1905], in : (Buvres en prose completes II, 79 ; le conte « Un beau film .[LHeres^ue et Cie], in : (Buvres en prose, Michel Decaudin (ed.), Pans 1977, 198-201 ; les scenarios La Brehatine (en collaboration avec Billy, 1917) et C'est un o,seau qu, nent de France, in : (Buvres en prose, 1045-63 ; le poeme « Avant le cinema » [IIJ a], i n : (Buvres poetiques, 362 ; la conference « L'Esprit nouveau et les poetes », i n : (Buvres en prose complies 11, 985-87 ; I n t e r v i e w sur « Les Tendances nouvelles » [Sit, aoutoctobre 1916], in : (Buvres en prose completes II, 985-87.

314

MariaDario

encore mmeur une pratique culturelle plemement legitime. II confie la chromque a Maunce Raynal qui, dans ses notes r e d i g L d'un ton desmvolte et leger, reconnait l'autonomie du cinema par rapport aux genres Htterarresss et soul lg ne les possibilities inedites de ce nouveau moyen expressif. Plus particuHerement, selon Id, la specific^ de l'esthetique flL q u e reside dans son caractere non reaHste- q u l re,oint les efforts d'mnovation, notamment par la transgression des moyens conventionnels de la representation du reel, en pemture et en poesie Ainsi, le poeme de Max Jacob «Printemps et cmematographe miles» qui fait suite a une chronique de Raynal, reprodmt-il l'effet d'rrrealite du montage cinematographic^ par la juxtaposition d'elements h e t e r o s e s associes par la chafaephonetique.Dans cette perspective, Apollinaire et ses collaborateurs vont meme ,usqu'a s'mteresser aux , dtme novels, amencams, romans populaires de 32 pages se vendant a 10 cents, tels que Buffalo BUI on Ntck Carter™ Dans son article sur «Les Epopees populaires amencames», le ,ournaliste americain Harnson Reeves accorde I ces fascicules mepnses par le public cultive le statut d'expressions Utteraires, voire poetiques, en raison de leur ecnture non r e a l i s t Sur un mode ironique, le texte etablit un rapport d'homologie entre la Htterature mdustnelle et des artistes novateurs tels que Whitman, mal accueilHs en raison de leur ongmalite : «il n'est pas etonnant que [...] qmconque a ecnt Nick Carter ait souffert du mepns qui plus tard retomba sur Walt Whitman [...] ».- Amsi, non seulement les productions populaires sont-elles traitees c o n i i e des ob,ets culturels legitimes mais, qui plus est, elles sont mtegrees dans le systeme de valeurs de l'avant-garde en tant que manifestations de l'« Esprit nouveau » dans les lettres et dans les arts. 35

« N o u s sommes des .rreduct.bles adve r sa l r es de cette m o d e m e manie d'adaptat.on de p.eces ou de romans », Maurice Raynal, « Chromque cinematographique », i n : SP, de-

*

Comme A le fait a propos de Poljdore savetier qui « nous montre la boutique d'un cordonnier ou toutes les chaussures neuves ou a reparer se livraient d'elles-memes a des sarabandes, des colloques, des enlacements et des poses. C'est dans ce sens que le cinema pourrait peut-etre creer quelque chose et n o n dans la reproduction des scenes historiques », Raynal, > apparait-elle aux yeux du petit cercle d'inities constitue par le public et les collaborators des Sods de Pans comme une prise de position expHcite par rapport a l'actualite Htterarre, par laquelle Cendrars denie, en recourant a une formule futuriste, toute valeur a la pretendue modermte de Bamm. La citation de la « ,olie page » ou « le rm des voleurs » mterpelle le directeur du cirque « Barium >> - allusion evidente au celebre Barnum amencam - ne peut que rappeler, dans le renforcement de la degradation caricaturale, le poete: Bamm! presque son homonyme, et ses pretentions a representor la forme unique de la modermte poetique. La clausule finale, « II y a encore de jolis coups a faire/Tous les matins de 9 a 11 », ne celebre pas umquement l'herofeme criminel et antibourgeois de Fantomas, mais constitue aussi une replique poetique a l'inripit de «Lundi Rue Christine» d'Apollmaire/une invitation aux poetes, et surtout aux poetes des Somes de Pans, a poursmvre ensemble cette aventure collective qu'est la poesie moderne. L'esprit d'emulation, qui s'exerce ,usque dans ce petit champ de forces qu'est la revue, trouve ainsi un nouvel en,eu dans le ressort fantomassien, comme 1'expHcrte une lettre d'Apollmaire a Picasso du 14 juillet 1914 : «Max lit toujours Fantomas ainsi que moi et tout le monde mais funeux que Blaise Cendrars ait de,a fait ur! poeme sur Fantomas, fl en prepare un autre destine a rivaliser avec le premier ».» La revanche poetique annoncee par Max Jacob se realise dans la demiere livraison de la r e l e , sous la forme de ce qu'on pourrait appeler un «numero Fantomas ». Le renversement des hierarchies culturelles, morales et sociales represent par Fantomas sous-tend l'ensemble du numero double 26-27, qui est organise 51

Bla.se Cendrars, « Fantomas », SP, juin 1914, 25, 484-87, ensuite repos dans les D « - „ / pemesehst^es (1919).

52

Le poeme s'ouvre justement sur Invocation amb.gue d'un coup a m o n t e r : « La mere de la converge et la converge la.sseront tout passer/si tu es u n h o m m e tu m'accompagneras ce s o l r il suffirak qu'un type maintint la porte cochere/Pendant que l'autre monterak », GuAlaume Apollmaire, « Lund, rue Christine », in : SP, decembre 1913, 19, 27, ensuite repris dans la section « Ondes » des Calkgrammes.

53

Pablo Hcasso & Guillaume Apollinaire, Correspondance, P.erre Ca 12 ergue & Helene Seckel (eds.), Pans 1992, 84.

318

MariaDario

selon la technique du montage cmematographique, creant des effets de rupture par l'alternance de contributions melant formes, genres et langages.^ Amsi, recourant a un procede de suspens emprunte a la presse populaire a sensation, le numero s'ouvre sur une note annoncant « une dictature fantomasstenne aux Somes de Pans,, qui pastiche le ton et les precedes de la serie : U n e dictature aux « Soirees de Pans » (1). Profitant de l'absence des redacteurs (ils sont a Chatillon, p o u r acheter u n e c h i e n n e de garde), je constitue m a dictature. Article unique Les collaborateurs des Soirees de Pans s o n t i n s t a m m e n t pries de n e plus envahir la revue avec leurs visions de F a n t 6 m a s , car elever u n r o m a n policier H a h a u t e u r d'une e p o p e e m o n d i a l e e'est e n c o r e encourager l'autorite a p r e n d r e les libertes les plus impress. Signe: Fanto^s

Cette attitude parodtque est prolongee dans une deuxteme note, sttuee sur la meme page, apres un extra* de la Revue cnttque des Idees et des Uvres concernant le classtcisme de Baudelaire, mtercale enfgutse de collage. Dans cette note, les redacteurs proclament la constitution d'une Societe des Amis de Fantomas (S.A.F^ « qui nous paratt ni moms mysteneuse ni moms digne que le Stendhal-Club ou le Baudelaire-Club »*. L'homologte entre la culture populate et la culture legitime suggeree id, soulignee an?eneurement a propos des series americaines, est Uprise dans la chronique cmematograpmque de Raynal, qui provoque ainsi un effet de surenchere parodtque La version filmtque du cycle y est celebree par un iocipit solennel, d i e d'une epopee mondtale: « O noblesse ! o beaute !... II est de ces su,ets qui vous ecrasent, et dont la ma,este sereme, comme la splendeur mimitable, latssent le spectateur pantelant, les yeux exorbites et les levres muettes r?. L'effet de suspens attemt son paroxysme dans « L'Ecrtt pour la S.A.F » de Max Jacob, qui se presente, par la ,uxtaposition de vers et de prose, comme la mtse en forme poetique de cette attitude. Des references culturelles et morales sont remises en question par le btats de ressorts poetiques banals (rtmes naives, ,eux de mots, maladresses rythmtques, *

Le numero 26-27 de la revue se presente sous la forme d'un collage collecuf d'eeuvres de la contamination des genres, au niveau linguistique (1'article de F.S. Flint sur « Les Imagistes anglais », le poeme de Cendrars « Mee too buggi »), dramatique (« Le Chants de la m i - m o r t » de Savinio»), artistique (Les natures mortes de S g e r , les paysages de Vlaminck, les caricatures abstraites de Zayas), litteraire ^ , calligrammes d ' A p o L a i r t et les poemes synthetiques de Cendrars, les transcriptions de conversation du p e L r e Fauconnet, les poemes du peintre Rouault) et m e m e sportif (le conte de Raynal,

Yve-Alain Bois & Rosalind E. Krauss, Formless: A User's Guide, N e w York 1997. Graeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations, Oxford 2002, 4. Michael T h o m p s o n , Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value, N e w York 1979. Jean Baudnllard, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, Charles Levin (trans.), St. Louis 1981, 49.

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value-purgatory as a market remainder that has outlived its period of competitive exchangeability. In addition to its relation to a number of devalued commodities populating the marketplace, the outmoded is also part of a larger fernfly of commodities and non-commodities that all bear the mark of conspicuous aging. However, again, the outmoded is distinguishable from all of these categories in decisive ways. In many premdustrial societies where scarcity was more common, commodities were not necessarily depreciated when they began to manifest signs of chronological agmg, and so the category of me outmoded was much more negligible culturally. As a simple matter of limited availability, things remained viably exchangeable for longer, trans-generational periods of time. Commodities often had more longevity than their owners. When conspicuously dated things were demoted from their status as competitively exchangeable commodities in the pre- or quasi-mdusmal Occident, they were either reduced almost exclusively to me valueless (or negatively-valued) state of garbage and trash or, alternatively, they were boosted to a highly valued or even priceless s t a t u s - In other words, if they were not consumed to the point of becoming worthless remainders, or given away via ceremonial symbolic exchange or sacrifice, conspicuously dated commodities eventually became remvigorated with value as antiques, archeological or aesthetic curios, edifying ruins, and so on. Thus, conspicuously dated commodities not designated as trash almost always increased in value and therefore had potential to become markers of social prestige or cultural capital for both me upper and ascendant middle classes, as part of what Thorstem Veblen termed in a specifically late 19*-century context, "conspicuous consumption— However, with the advent of industrial capitalism, Western societies experienced a greater influx of new and W ^ / c o m m o d i t i e s at a much faster rate. Th* provided more reasons to devalue commodities because of conspicuous dating and, after the 1930s, the tactics of planned obsolescence. The tenuous conditions of need and desire and the ambiguous pomts at which they intersected changed as a result of what Baudrillard views as the law of "profusion" under capitalism. The ability to discard things simply because of boredom, the desire for change, or the dictates of fashion -luxuries long the privilege of only the extremely wealthy became at first possible for many and eventually unavoidable for m o s t » 20 a

See, George Kubler, The Shape ofTtme: Remarks on the H.story ofTKngs, N e w Haven 1962, 7780. T W t e i n Veblen, The Theory of the Le,sure Class, C. Wright Mills (trans.), N e w Bmnswick 1992. As Baudrillard says, "the effects of fashion only appear in upwardly mobile societies" Baudrillard, For aCntique, 49.

The Surrealist O u t m o d e d as a Radical Third T e r m

331

Ephemerality thus morphed into a common luxury in the early part of the last century/and what Bataille (drawing on Mauss) calls ceremonial "unproductive expenditure" m tnbal societies became an everyday phenomenon m capitalist culture.- As a consequence, the life-expectancy of commodities suffered a massive blow in modernity, and many commodities were deemed senescent long before they would have been m past epochs, even before methods of planned obsolescence were pioneered by industry starting in the late 1930s Having reached a state of total desuetude, outmoded commodities linger far behind the competitive sphere in a semifrozen state like zombies.- Appropriately therefore, in a letter to Benjamin of 1935, Theodor Adorno argues, "The commodity is, on the one hand, an alienated ob,ect in which Sse-value perishes, and on the other, an alien survivor that outlives its own immediacy. We receive the promise of immortality in commodities and not for people— While traditional forms of highly valued anachronistic ob,ects such as antiques continued to permeate post-World War I society as signs of prestige, the outmoded was the only dated commodity unable to break out of its perennially devalued status in modernity. Whereas the antique connoted ancestral heritage and provenance, the outmoded conveyed anonymity and contingency. The outmoded was the pariah of the marketplace; the one old mmg to be avoided at all costs - the de,ecta resulting from the rampant proliferation of desiderata. Therefore, both devalued and revalued anachronistic commodities coexisted in the modern market place like never before. However, recently old things signified a lower social status, and so were largely avoided by affluent classes In U Systeme des objets [The System of Objects] (1968), jean Baudnllard labels such "aged" commodities ''marginal ob ects".- Concurrently, what he describes elsewhere as "a taste for the bygone" P'Ancien] - or older things communicating social messages of authenticity, legitimacy, pedigree; heredity and nobility - still effectively pro,ected the public image of a higher, "inherited" social status.- Baudnllard brands this last trend, as part

22 23

24 23 26

Georges Bataille, "The N o t i o n of E x p e n d s " , in: Georges Bataille, Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939, Allan Stoekl (trans.), Minneapolis 1985, 116-29. Baudnllard argues that a major sign of prestige in m o d e r n consumer societies is not so m u c h the discard of commodities, but rather their total destruction. Tean Baudnllard, The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, Chris Turner (trans.), L o n d o n 1998, 47. Also see, Antoine Picon, "Anxious Landscapes: From the Ruin to Rust", Karen Bates (trans.), in: Grey Room, 2 0 0 0 , 1 , 6 4 - 8 3 . Letter of August 2, 1935. Ernst Bloch et al., Aesthetics and Politics, Ronald Taylor (ed.), L o n d o n 19777113-114. Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, James Benedict (trans.), L o n d o n 2005, 77. Baudrillard, For a Critique, 43-44.

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Abigail Susik

of the overall popular drive for class mobility, "cultural baroque".- Within the timeframe of industrial modernity, this version of the cultural taste for the 'look' of the past has been pursued by many different social groups in search of increased power, such as the German and Italian Fascists! for instance- For Baudrillard, such anachronistic ob,ects reflect a cultural desire for the mythology of the authenticBaudrillard also locates a trend in "marginal sectors" of society (which he specifies as "intellectual or artistic") of a counter-taste for the bygone, amounting to a refusal of shameful "economic status" and class affiliation- However, as close as this might sound to the operations of the Surrealist outmoded, Baudrillard limits his analysis of this phenomenon to the desire for specifically pre-mdustnal rustic or peasant objects, which in and of themselves pose an unspoken critique of modernity in their hearkening back to agricultural societies. This species of cultural valuation, which following Susan Stewart could be termed a rustic "antiquarianism", is therefore cleanly distinct from the operations of the industrially derived and often serially produced o u t m o d e d As capitalism morphed over the course of the 20* century, several new gradations of the prestige connotations of conspicuously dated items likewise arose, creating what Andreas Huyssen names in a more contemporary context extraordinarily profitable "memory markets— Whereas in me past antiques were traditionally valued for their high level of artisanal craftsmanship, generally of a pre-industnal kind, mass-produced ob,ects also possessed me potential to become antiques as early as the post-World War I period, eventually resulting in categories known today as retro, camp, vintage, collectible kitsch, souvenirs, memorabilia and knock-offsLike the traditional antique, these "retrochic" categories, as Raphael Samuel calls them, are distinct from the outmoded m that they are valued

•n

2B

* 30 3! 32

33

Baudrillard notes that the only classes who remain n u m b to the desire for the "cultural baroque" are peasant and worker classes, who desire either the "functional-modern-senal object" or do not desire upward mobility at all. Baudrillard, For a Critique, 44. See for instance, Georges Bataille, "The Psychological Structure of Fascism" (1933), in: Bataille, Visions of Excess, 137-60. Also see, David Lowenthal, The Past, a Foreign Country, Cambridge, Mass. 1985. Baudrillard, The System of Objects, 78-81. Baudrillard, For a Critique, 44. Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Mature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, D u r h a m 1993, 140-43 Andreas Huyssen, "Present Pasts: Media, Politics, Amnesia", in: Andreas Huyssen, Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the PoStics of Memory, Stanford 2003, 11-29. Also see, Andreas Huyssen, Tmlight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia, N e w York 1995. As Susan Sontag states, " . . . so many of the objects prized by Camp taste are old-fashioned, out-of-date, demodf. Susan Sontag, "Notes on -Camp"', in: Against Interpretation, and Other Essays, N e w York 1967,285.

The Surrealist O u t m o d e d as a Radical Third T e r m

Fig. 39: Anonymous. Portrait of A.ndre Breton at a Carnival Postcard photograph. 1923. 14 x 9 cm (5 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.).

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Abigail Susik

rather than devalued for th e i r anachronistic appearance, albeit generally not on as sumptuary a scale as the antiqueA d d i t i o n a l m its relation to industrial senaHsm, the outmoded superficially resembles the defiant or ironic "anti-fashion" Samuel discusses m the context of "retrochic"^ Ka,a Silverman isolates the "radical and transformative" potential of retro fashion, the origins of which she locates m hippie subculture. In her definition, retro fashion is radical because it puts ironic "quotation marks" around the dated style it resurrects.* However, such a comparison between "retrochic" and the outmoded (or for that matter, camp and kitsch) can only be made tenuously. This is so because the Surrealist outmoded was formed in direct opposition to 'fashion' as such - indeed, the outmoded was arguably conceived as an explicit critique of the fashion system and the constant Modernist demand for novelty. Moreover, even in its more popularized expressions during the 1940s, the descendant expressions of the Surrealist outmoded did not approach the popularity of a widespread counter-culture as retrochic did m the past half-century The Surrealist outmoded was never widely 'chic' even ironically so - for instance, as a "deviant form of revivalism", as Elizabeth Guffey has recently written of the retro phenomenon- Like the category of the outmoded, camp and kitsch - as "culture rettvuvt - often turn toward the past in their appropriation of pre-consumed aggregate. However, these later categories are more squarely situated in the postmodern realm of the culture industry- As Rosalind Krauss opines, unlike camp and kitsch, the Benjaminian notion of the outmoded is not about, "reinvesting the derelict with.. .exchange value".» Outmoded ob,ects, she says, are rather "powerfully symbolic of imagining an 'outside' of the commodity system^ an outside of exchange".-

Critical Applications of the Surrealist O u t m o d e d as a Third Term The outmoded commodity resists designation as trash, even while it lacks the fortune of becoming revalued as a ranfied item and competitive commodity. Thus it is neither remarkable as transgressive waste, exotic artifact, 34 35 *

37 3B 3? «

Raphael Samuel, Theatres ofMemory, L o n d o n 1994, 83-117. Stewart, O* Longing, 140-44. Ka,a Silverman; "Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse", in: Ka,a Silverman, Studies in Entertainment Critical Approaches to Mass Culture, Tama Modleski (ed.), Bloommgton 1986, 150-51. Elizabeth E. Guffey, Retro: The Culture ofKevival, L o n d o n 2006, 13. Andrew Ross, No Ispect: Intellectuals ^Popular Culture, N e w York 1989, 153. Rosalind E. Krauss, ''Nostalgie de la Boue", in : October, 1991, 56, 119. Krauss, "Nostalgiede la Boue", 118-19.

The Surrealist O u t m o d e d as a Radical Third T e r m

335

nor an exceptionally valuable possession or fetish. Rather, the outmoded is common, forgettable, boring humble, easily obtainable, and impersonal. It is deja vu, tropvu, and plagued by what George Kubler identifies as "aesthetic fatigue" 4! It 1S relatively modern, anonymously and industrially made, and usually replaceable - and thus far removed from auratic investment m the Beqamiman sense.« The outmoded is likewise generally innocuous enough - neither too familiar nor too alienated - to shield it from any uncanny patina in the Freudian sense. Further, it is functional and so does not even necessarily have the absurdist distinction of being useless, although its use-value is usually forgettable in significance due to its relative technological obsolescence* Indeed, the outmoded is both a tned veteran and helpless victim of the politics of the marketplace. It remams after commerce has moved on to newer and better things, and watts, often m vain, for a time when it will experience a shift in value The outmoded is thus equivalent to what Baudnllard refers to as the "unmarked term" in culture, which contrasts with the oppositional or binaristic marked terms of 'progressive' and 'regressive' m modernity (which he characterizes as an avant-garde dimension vs. an aristocratic one).- As opposed to avant-garde futurity and the aristocratic "transcendent past", Baudnllard ascribes the unmarked "third" term a unique temporality. It lives m an "immediate past, an indefinite past which is fundamentally a sort of belated present - a limbo into which yesterday's models have just fallen".* For him, the unmarked term is related directly to the condition of senality in modern capitalism. Senality mainly affects the middle class, which consumes affordable products resulting from mass production and lacks the luxury of discarding these products as often as higher classes. Thus the middle class is locked into an ambiguous, monotonous universe of Simulacral blandness, almost culturally lower than trash m terms of symbolic currency. Baudnllard writes: Serial time here is always the time of the wave before, so to speak. A s far as their furniture is concerned, m o s t people live in a time which is not theirs, a time o f generality, of insignificance, the time o f that which is not modern but not yet antique (and, n o doubt, will never be antique): the equivalent in time of suburban impersonality in space. By comparison with the m o d e l the series does n o t stand merely for a loss of umqueness of style, o f nuances, and o f authenticity: it stands also for the loss o f the real dimension of time - for it belongs to a kind of empty sector o f everyday life, a

« « « « «

Kubler, The Shape of T.me, 81-82. See related commentary in, Frednc Jameson, Ma^sm and Form; Twentieth-century Dialectical Theones ofUterature, Princeton 1972, 103-04. Thus the outmoded is likewise distinguishable from the trend Baudnllard calls the "surrealist object" See, Baudnllard, For a Cntique, 192-94. Baudnllard, The System of Objects, 163. Baudnllard, The System of Objects, 164.

336

Ab, p-ail Susik negative realm automatically filled u p w i t h senescent m o d e l s . . . T h a t is w h e r e their true unreality hes.46

This kind of infinite proliferation coupled with the seeming immortality of the recently outmoded commodity renders it stmulacral Sid ghostly. It is interesting to note that where Baudnllard's word for the outmoded is "unreality", Frednc Jameson's phrase is "absolute contingency": T h e isolated items t h e n o n e b y one are absolute contingency: each is the very f o r m of unjustifiability itself, w h i c h is to say, of meamnglessness; n o t h i n g p r o d u c t i v e can c o m e of any of t h e m , n o t even a p r o p e r l y metaphysical experience, so trivial are they o n e b y o n e and ready for the generational bonfire L w h i c h we dispose of the trinket; a n d furnishings of the newly d e p a r t e d ^

The essential homelessness and penury of the outmoded, its veritable musMBy, renders it all the more radical as the 'lowest' exemplum of culture that therefore must be destroyed entirely. Given this thoroughly ignominious identity, why would the commodity category of the outooded be so interesting for the Surrealists? What was the gist of its symbolic exchange-value, to employ Baudnllard's term? Undeniably, such a query requires a drastic broadening out from a view such as the one espoused by Henri Lefebvre in 1947, that "Surrealism rendered triviality unbearable" in its metaphysical critique of everyday life.- This is a task that has already taken place to a significant degree in Surrealist studies over the past three decades. Instead of viewing Surrealism as a modern transcendentalism, this movement must be seen as approaching the passe, middle-brow and everyday with the full force of its critical armament. In Surrealist production, the category of the outmoded is activated as a critical foil for the fatalistic overdrive of production in a capitalist economy. In general, therefore, the Surrealist outmoded can be read as a decisive critique of several of the defining characteristics of Modernism as they could be witnessed in this P a r i s h setting. These areas of critique include a progressist outlook; uninhibited and optimistic mass production and consumerism; a focus on accelerated productivity and constantly re,uvenated novelty; deliberate market obsolescence; the tendency toward anonymity, homogeneity and senality; and the iconoclastic desire to demolish or excise the unwanted remainders of the past in favor of a cultural tabula rasa. At the same time, the Surrealist outooded also served as a « « «

Baudrillard, The System of Objects, 164. Jameson, The Seeds of Time, 160-61. Henri Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life [Vols., 1, 3], J o h n Moore (trans.), L o n d o n 2005, 29. In a note written years later, Lefebvre tempers this critical comment somewhat, saying that "surrealism needs to be taken seriously"

The SurreaKst O u t m o d e d as a Rad.cal T h l r d T e r m

337

disparagement of several reactionary narratives that were adopted by various nght-wmg factions m France after World War I, such as the nationalist 4pel a I'ordre with its c l a s s i n g and aggrandizing of French history, or the nostalgic movement toward a rustic aiftiquarianism m the search for reclaimed aumenticity and provenance. In contrast to progressive and productive Modernism, or reactionary nationalism, the Surrealist outmoded, with its focus on the most humble forms of popular culture, espoused an inclusive, pluralistic, migratory, random, anecdotal and residual reading of the stratified urban habitat. Suddenly, the faded cultural refuse from their parents' and grandparents' generation became of significant and paradoxical interest to this cuttingedge faction of the European avant-garde. Following the examples of poetic French predecessors such as Charles Baudelaire! Arthur Rilnbaud, Guillaume Apollmaire, and others, the Surrealists depicted Parisian modernity as a deep cumulative reservoir of temporally dispersed cultural associations that could be dynamically adapted to new ideological purposes and thus renewed cultural life as things. Outmoded signs were s L d t a n e ously familiar and strange, latent and manifest, significant and insignificant - and still accessible despite the permanent seismic rift in French society and European history caused by World War I. In Surrealist hands, therefore, the outmoded becomes a multivalent and paradoxically durable polemical aesthetic tool with unique transmedium applications. By privileging the "unmarked, third term in the commodity sphere - the outmoded - Surrealism performs an effective critique of both the liberal and conservative brands of progressmsm and regressmsm that abounded in various forms in the post World War I European context. Reacting the hegemony of the "new" vs. "old" binary, the outmoded carves out its own extinctive ideological position amongst the various avant-gardes with their contentious temporal and historical platforms.

„The Hidden Network of the Avant-Garde": der farbige Werbefdm als erne .entraleuroparsche Erfmdung? Marten Orosz (Museum der Schonen Kunste, Budapest) StehstDuemenFihnwozeigen, WoderFlachenFaAensptel" TanZenhinundhergar4le[...] Dann h a t e r - s o set b e l e h r t EmenabsolutenWertl

Zwar hatten namhafte Kunsder der klasstschen Avantgarde, vor allem Walter Ruttmann, berercs seit Mitte der 1920er jahre mtt handkolonerten Filmen expenmentiert, ,edoch stellten erst die eine Dekade spater entwtckelten Farbfllmverfahren, vor allem das Gasparcolor-Verfahren, erne Techmk 2 ur Verfugung, die brerce Verwendung fand.^ Dtese Arbeit will emen Bercrag letsten mr Geschichte der kmetechmschen Entwicklung der Zwischenkriegszerc, in der sich die ersten Diskurse mit der Farbautonorme absptelten.^ Der for damalige Verhaltmsse verbluffende Emsatz des Kolonts, der sich auch in der Dramaturgte der Filme mederschlug, gmg auf eme kenntnisreiche Reflexion der Ausdrucksmrctel zuruck, die m emem fruchtbaren Dialog zwischen konsumonentierter Massenkultur und experimenteller BMsprache fuhrte. Die Kunsder der zweiten Generation der Filmavantgarde schlossen sich zu emem im Verborgenen agierenden mitteleuropai?chen Netzwerk zusammen, das eme mternationde ..corporate 1

Gedicht aus d e m Knchsfilmblatt Mai 1921, Zitiert nach: Victor Schamoni, „Die Anfange des absoluten Films in Deutschland", in: Der Deutsche Wm, 1, 1937, 11, 246.

^

William Merit*, „Toward a Visual Music" (Manuskript in Daktylographie), 3-5 (Fales Library and Special Collections, N e w York University, J o h n Canemaker papers, box 35, folder 306).

3

Uber die kunsthistorischen u n d kunstwissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen 2 u m T h e m a der Farbphanomene im Spielfilm: Martin R o m a n Deppner, „ Z u r Farbdramaturgie Douglas Sirks Kunstrezeption L Spielfilm zwischen F a r b a u L o m i e u n d Farbdeutung", in: Who's Afrmd of. Zum Stand der Farbforschung, Anne H o o r m a n n & Karl Schawelka (Hffi.), Weimar 1998,302-34.

D e r farbige Werbefilm als erne 2 entraleuropaische Erfindung

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Mentity" schuf. Durch die Darstellung zercgleicher Entwicklungen soil der Versuch unternommen werden, die Herausbildung emer allgememgultigen Ikonographie dieser Farbfilmpiomere zu rekonstnueren, denen mit ihrer Bildproduktion em wichtiger Schntt in der Umgestaltung der modernen „Dienstverhaltnisse" gelang:4 „Hier, im Bereich der Werbung, der Kulturmdustne, des Designs und der Medien, haben unsere an alter Dienstkunst entwickelten Methoden ihre Chance", beschneb es Martin Warnke. Unter welchen zeitgeschichtHchen Bedingungen aber wurde diese Chance wahrgenommen? I. Der nach dem Ende der Wemwer Republrk schwmdende Freiraum der Avantgarde in Deutschland - und bald darauf im gesamten Mitteleuropa veren^e sich nach der Ausstellung „Entartete L n s t " 1937 auf einen Nischenbereich der nationalsoziaHstischen Kulturpolitik: den Werbefilm.^ Oskar Kschmger, em Protagonist der Filmavantgarde und Piomer der visuellen Musik, der seme absoluten Tonfilme meist als Studte betitelte/ arbekete seit 1923 mit dem unganschen Kompomsten Alexander Laszlo z u s a m n W Laszlo, der sich ebenfalls mit dem abstrakten Film beschaftigte» wurde durch die Erfmdung semes FarbHchtklaviers emer breken Offentlichkeit bekannt, dessen Lichtpro,ektion, ahnHch wie Fischingers Arbeken, das „AbbM des Weltrhymmus und die Urvorgange" reprasentierte.* Wenige Monate nach der Emnchtung des Mmistenums fcr Volksaufklarung und Propaganda 1933 war Kschmger der erste, dessen Voll-

4 ^ 6

7

B

'

Martin Warnke, „Beschreibung von Dienstverhaltnissen", in: Frankfurter Allgemnne

Zatung,

15.7. 1998, 6. P a s f o l g e n d e Z i t a t !&/.)• Ralf Forster, Ufa und Nordmark. Zvei Ftrmengeschuhten und der deutsche Werbefilm 1919-1945, Trier 2005, 188. Kschmger benut 2 te fir die Untermalung seiner Filme klassische Symphomen, die nicht immer vollkommen 2 u m Inhalt b 2 w. 2 u r Thematik des Films passten. Be 2 ugnehmend auf seine abstrakten Sequen.en in Walt Disneys Fantasia (1940), beschwerte sich Bela Bart6k, dass diese „so viele gekriimmten Linien b e n u t . t , obwohl Bachs Musik 'rechteckig' ist" (Peter Bart6k, Apam, Budapest 2004, 182). J5rg Jewanski, „Eine neue Kunstform - Die Farblichtmusik Alexander Las 2 16s", in: FarbeFuhluustk, Sjnaesthesu und Farbluhtmustk, J o r g Jewanski & Natalia Sidler (Hgg.), Bern 2006,211-65. Wahrend seiner K l a v i e r a u f f i W n g e n pro,i 2 ierte er oft ungegenstandliche Filme der deutschen Avantgarde im Hintergrund auf eine Leinwand, von denen er mindestens 2 wei Filme selber erschaffen hatte (Pacific 231 im Jahre 1927 und Magyar Tnangulum 2 e h n Jahre spater). Sie konnen als die Vorlaufer der heutigen Video-Clips angesehen werden. Frit. B o h m e , „ D e r T a n 2 der Linien", in: Deutsche Attgemane Ze,tung, 1930, 16. August.

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spektrum-Farbfilm in den deutschen Kinos gezeigt werden konnte.- Die neuartigen techmschen MogHchkercen eroffneten Laszlo neue Perspektiven, mit denen er seme auf Synasthesie basierende Erfmdung weiterzudenken hoffte. In emem Brief vom 14. jum 1935 schrieb er an Fischinger: M e m e derzeitigen Verpffichtungen in der u n g a n s c h e n F i l m i n d u s t n e e d a u b e n mix es m c h t , m e m e F a A K c h t a u s i k - T a t i g k e k e n in der v o n m i t g e w u n s c h t e n Weise w e i t e I Z u entwickeln. j e d o c h b m ich seit l a n g e m der M e t n u n g , dass der W e g m c h t m i t Hilfe ein e s mdividueUen I n s t m m e n t e s v e r t i r k h c h t wtrd, s o n d e r n viel eher fiber d e n Farbfilm ffihrt."

Bereits zu Begmn der Filmgeschichte wurden vrragierte (chemtsch gefarbte) Filmrollen verwendet, d t aber an knalHg bemalte Gipsskulpturen erinnerten oder kreschigen, im Nachhmem mit Farbe versehenen, SchwarzWetB-Radterungen Ihnelten. Unter den in den 30er jahren entwickelten Farbnlm-Technologien, die in der Lage waren, „eigene Symbolkrafte und Symbolwerte" zu verrmtteln « w a r der Dretfarben-Gasparcolor-Prozess die allererste und am wercesten verbrettete Methode, die die Herstellung von Farbkopten automatisierte und der „Freiheit des kunstlertschen Schaffens" neue Impulse vedieh." Dank Aufnahmen dreter Farbauszuge auf Schwarz-WetB-Film, die durch Komplementarfflter (Blaugrun, Purpur, Gelb) beltchtet wurden, war Gasparcolor unter den damals vorhandenen Farbverfahren dasjenige, welches das Kolont in bestmogltcher und intenstvster Wetse „mit absoluter Femhett und EmpfindHchkeit" als „Naturfarbe" wtedergeben k o n n t e " Die „neue und ungeahnte" werbepsychologtsche Wrrkung des Gasparcolor-Verfahrens wurde umgehend erkannt; es wurde bewtesen,^ - dank seiner techmschen Vollendung - „unexpected

1°

William Merits, Optical Poetry. The Ufe and Work o/Oskar Fischinger, Bloomington - Indianapolis 2004, 48.

»

D e r Originalbrief befindet sich im Las 2 16-Nachlass des American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Vereningte Staaten. Zu einem ahnlichen Resultat kam der Bericht des 4. Farbe-Ton-Kongress in H a m b u r g im Jahre 1936, der mit dem Untertitel „Spit 2 enleistungen des deutschen und auslandischen Filmes" veroffentlicht ™ r d e . (mm, ,,Farbe-TonF o r s c h u n g u n d Film", in: Da-Film (Berlin), 1936, 26. September).

n

"

Karlhein* Ressing, „Farbfilm bringt keine Revolution", in: Fik-Kurier, 25, 1943, 139, 4. November. W. Fiedler & Dr. Paul Knoche, „ D e r gefarbte Film verschwindet - der Farbfilm ist da! F i n e Losung des Problems der Farben-Kinematographie", in: Deutsche allgemane Ze,tung, 1933, 8. Juh Caspar prasentierte sein Verfahren am 25. 10. 1933 auf der 118. S i t i n g der Deutschen Kinotechnischen Gesellschaft. Das Verfahren schildert ein in der Sammlung des Bundesarchiv-Filmarchivs in Berlin uberlieferter Dokumentarfilm, Mit Kamen, und Zachenstift (1933). S. A. Ehrler, „Aus der Werkstatt des Werbefilms", Die deutsche Werhung, 28, 1935, 7, 218.

15

R., „Lebendigste Werbung", in: Ucht-Btld-Buhne, 27, 1934, 258, 5. November.

13

D e r farb.ge Werbefilm als erne 2 entraleuropa 1 S che Erfmdung

341

results can be obtamed— So lasst s1Ch nachvolMehen, dass der Emsatz der plakativen Farben b e i m Publrkum em derartiges Entzucken ausloste W1e die „re 12 enden, spannenden, schlagkraftigen, fa bezaubernden GeMde" im ersten volHg abstrakten Trickwerbefilm rmt mrer Jdingenden F o r m " " D i e m i t d t s e r Technology hergestellten Werbefilrne wurden nicht nur als „volksbMend" prMrkatisiert," es wurde auch emgestanden, dass „mehr Graz ie , mehr Kultur, mehr Intelligent mehr Filrnkunst [...] woandersmchtHchtzufinden-seL In der Berliner Tauent21enstraBe (Wktenbergplatz) befand S1ch die deutsche Gasparcolor-Gesellschaft, „emes der lebendigsten und fruchtbarsten" Farbfilm-Unternehmen - das 1933 von dem aus Ungarn stammenden Ingemeur und Pharmazeuten Dr. Bela Caspar gegrundet worden war. Caspar hatte an seiner Erfindung zehn lahre lang gearbeitet.21 Als Garant fur die FarbquaHtat erschien in? Vorspann der Gasparcolor-FHrne

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy erwahnte in emem semer Essays den unganschen Erfinder und sem Verfahren, welches semer Memung nach J e u e Perspektiven eroffnete"* und engagierte S1ch dafur, die GasparcolorFHme am Bauhaus in Dessau bekannt zu machen* Der Berliner Assistent von Moholy-Nagy, Gyorgy Kepes, der sparer m Chicago im Iicht- und Farblehrgang, am New Bauhaus lehrte, expenmenrierte 1934 intensiv in

"

Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, Colour Gnematographj, L o n d o n 1951, 28.

"

Hans Rene, „ T o n e n d e Werbung", in: Ufa-Femlleton, 4, 1931, 29, 4.

"> «

Dr. A. Fiedler, „ D l e deutschen Werbefilme 1934-1935", in: Deutsche Werbung, 28, 1935, 14, 1439. H e r m a n n Gress.eker, „ V o m Vorprogramm 2 u r Filrnkunst", in: Der deutsche Film, 1, 1936, 1,

2°

351. Paul Fechter, Menschen auf manen Wegen, Gtitersloh 1955, 216 (Im Kapitel „Alexe,ew und

21

22 23 24

sem Film" ist 2 war von Agfacolor d i e R e d e , tatsaehlich handelt es sich aber urn erne Verweehslungmit G a ^ A r ) Caspar ™ r d e 1898 in Orav.cabanya (heute: Oravita, Rumanien) geboren. Im Jahr 1932 meldete er in Luxemburg sem erstes Patent fir das Verfahren an, mit dem den Rohfilm in den damaligen Kopieranstalten innerhalb einer V.ertelstunde farb.g entw.ckeln konnte. „Gasparcolor-Verfahren", in: Fib-Kurier, 19, 1937, 177, 2. August; Betriebsehronik der Geyer-Werke A G , Benin, Jahr 1 9 3 2 / 3 3 , Band FF5 [Filmfabrik 5], 9 9 / 0 5 , Berlin, Suftung Deutsche Kinemathek, Schnftsgut- und NachlaBarch'v (S.gnatur: 4.3 - 9 9 / 0 5 , 2.0), 25-27. G t i n t e r A g d e , Fkmmernde Versprechen. Geschuhte des deutschen Werbefilms im Ktno se,t 1897, Benin 1998, 87. Moholy-Nagy Las 2 16 „Notes s u p p l e m e n t a l sur les demiers acheminements du film sonore et colore", in: Telehor, Frantisek Kalivoda (Hrsg.), Brno 1936, 20. Mont2,O^WP^,44.

342

Marten O r o s 2

GAS PAR-

mm Sajfan-Skografi*

Fig-. 40. Gasparcolor-Firmenloop lm Vorschpann ernes Werbeftlms

Caspars Laboratorium mit dem Farbmaterial.25 Auch wirkte Kepes an der Herstellung von Moholy-Nagys beriihmtem Avantgardefilm Em Eichtspiel schwat\ weissgrau (1930-32) und einem spateren, fur Jenaer Glas hergestellten, Moholy-Nagy-Film mit, der heute als verschollen gilt.26 Fiir die tricktechmschen Effekte der letztgenannten Arbeit war der Gustav KHmtSchiiler Wolfgang Kaskeline verantwortlich,27 der ab 1931 gemeinsam mit George Pal die Trickfilmabteflung der UFA (Umversum Kim Aktiengesellschaft) leitete,28 und dort den „ersten bewegten Sachtrick in drei Farben" schuf.29 Er unterhielt in den darauffolgenden Jahren rege Geschaftsbeziehungen zur Gasparcolor und produzierte den GroBteil seiner Werbefilme mit diesem Verfahren. Obwohl fiir allseitigen technischen Fortschritt offen, war Kaskeline der zahlreichen von ihm erdachten visuellen Ideen moglicherweise bereits iiberdriissig. Er stellte namlich kurz nach der Ein25

Robert F. Browns Interview mit Gyorgy Kepes, 7. Marz und 30. August 1972, 11. Januar 1973, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., Archives of American Art, Oral History Archives, Kepes Papers, Daktylographie, 8.

26

Die Beteiligung von Kepes an Moholy-Nagys Filmentwurf Keflektiertes Bifd, der E n d e 1931 fur die T O B I S konzipiert wurde, ist nicht nachweisbar. Siehe dazu: Klaus Lippert, „Bauhaus et cinematographic", in: Travelling 56-57. Le cinema independant et d'avant-garde a la fin du mmt, Freddy Bauche (Hrsg.), Lausanne 1980, Vol. 2, 49. 27

Brief von Sybil Moholy-Nagy fur Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., Archives of American Art, Moholy-Nagy Pape rs, October 14, 1934, Reel 951, 0152-0154. 28 29

Als Gyorgy Marczmcs ak 1908 in Cegled (Ungarn) geboren. Die deutsche Werbung 28, 1935, 14, 1439.

D e r farb.ge Werbefilm als erne zentraleuropa.sche Erfindung

343

stellung von Moholy-Nagy in emem seiner Texte den Lesern die poetische Frage: ;,Ersch6pft slch n t h t ernes Tages der muntere Quell e m f i r e i c h e r Phantasie?"Wie aber hat diese faszmierende moderne Farbfilmtechmk - von ihrer emdeutigen medienhistonschen Relevanz abgesehen - in der Mrcte der 1930er neue Impulse fcr den Umgang mit offentHchen Kunstformen in der massenmedialen Bildkultur geben konnen? Anders gefragt: Wurde der Farbe erne neue Funktion in der popularen Kunst der Moderne zuteil?

II. Dank emer Populansierung grotesker Inhalte, die Mitte des 19. jahrhunderts erne Kunstgeschichte fur die „Asthetik des HassHchen" begrundete, smd vide Kunstler, die vorher als Botschafter ernes „versunkenen Kulturguts" angesehen wurden, allmahHch aufgewertet w o r d e n - In ihren phantastischen, oft pseudo-mythologischen Themen und grotesken KonSpositionen ist erne drrekte ikonographische Ruckkopplung mit der ckrnals entstandenen Werbekunst nachwtisbar- Als 1887 Rudolf Cronau Das Buch der Reklame verfasste, empfiehl er den Gewerbegraphikern das Studium der Gemalde Arnold Bocklms, da sie „durch sich selbst wirken— Bocklms Kentauren und seme verschiedenen Mischwesen wurden tatsachHch im Gebiet der Reklame aufgegnffen und ubernahmen etwas spater die Hauptrolle in den ersten Zeichnentnckfilmen (Wmsor McCay, Victor Bergdahl oder James Bodrero; cf. Fig. 41). Hohepunkt der suggestiven Symbiose der halbmenschlichen-halbtierischen Marchenwelt w aber unbestntten Walt Disneys Animationsfilm Fantasia (1940): In der Szene zu Beethovens Pastorale treten solche Mischwesen in Gestalten der antiken Mythologie auf. Fantasia war als Konzert mtendiert, in dem die Musik und die darnfcim Emklang stehenden Bewegungen em simultanes Zusammenspiel bildeten. Von gleichrangiger Bedeutung war die farbige Darstellung, sodass Disney Oskar Kschmger damit beauftragte, die Sequenzen nach Bachs Musik (Toccata und Fuge in d-Moll) mit Hilfe emer abstrakten optischen Partitur zu gestalten. Die Choreographie der anderen Szenen (z. B Tscharkowskis Nussknacker-Sutte) entwarf der Ungar Jules Engel (Engel Gyula), der in Disneys nachstem Film Bambi als Kolorist beauftragt wur-

30

D ^ f t *

3!

Pamela Kort, „Grotesk: erne andere Moderne", in: Groteskl 130 ]ahre Kurt Pamela Kort (Hrcg.), Munchen 2003, 10-23.

1 ^ ^ , 2 6 , 1933, 22, 703.

32 33

Henrietta Vath-Hinz, Odol Keklame-^nst um 1900, GieBen 1985. Rudolf Cronau, Das Buch der Keklame [Funfte AbteUung], Ulm 1887, 26.

der FreMett,

344

Marten O r o s 2

LUSTIGE BLATTER

Fig. 41 (links). Karikatur von Arnold Bocklins Gemalde Im Spielder We Hen (Lustige Blatter, 1903). Fie;. 42. Charles Blanc-Gatti, Chromophobe, 1939.

de.34 Seine stilistischen Wurzeln verbanden Fantasia mit der europaischen Filmavantgarde, vor allem mrc deren Farb-Musik-Expenmenten. Der Schweizer Maler Charles Blanc-Gatti, der m semen Arbeiten nach den Konkordanzen 2 w l schen MuS1k und Malerei suchte, wollte schon 1935 einen Film mit Disney produzieren.35 Er hatte in Lausanne ein eigenes Farbfilm-Atelier gegriindet, das dem Zweck dienen sollte, Filme in der Art der „decors lumineux dynamiques" herzustellen- 1939 wurde Gattis abstraktes Filmstuck ChLophome in der Schwerz uraufgefuhrt (cf. Fig. 42). Gattis Arbeiten waren Disney bekannt. Ihre romantische Tendenz lasst sie als Vorbild fur Fantasia erscheinen, dessen Gestaltung sich starker an Gatti anlehnte als an Fischingers rein geometrisches Formenspiel, das dann tatsachlich verwendet wurde.

34

Un.vers.ty of California, Los Angeles, Oral History Collection, Department of Special Collections, University Library, Jules Engel Interviews 1975-1978, SRLF_UCLAYRLSC: LAGE-1217980, VI 1.

35 36

Robin Allan, Waft Disney and Europe, Bloomington, Indianapolis 1999, 110. Philippe Junod, „Blanc, Charles Jules Ernest (gen. B-Gatti, Charles)", in: Saur A.llgemeines Kunstkr-Eexikon, Vol. 11. Miinchen —Leipzig 1995, 376-77.

D e r farbige Werbefilm als eine zentraleuropaische Erfindung

345

Fig. 43 (links). Wilma de Quiche (als Vilma Kiss geboren), Le messager de la lumiere (Der Bote des Lichts), 1938. © Fig 44. Wilma de Quiche, Phe'nomenes electrizes (Elektrischen Erscheinungen), 1937.

in. In der Fruhgeschichte des fran26s1Schen Animations films hatte der Emsatz der asthetisch reizvollen Farben und eindrucksvoller zeichentechnischer Mittel eine eigentiimliche Verwandtschaft zur Karikatur. Die experimentierfreudige Malerin Wilma de Quiche (1893 als Kiss Vilma in Szeged, Ungarn geboren), begegnete dem Gasparcolor-Verfahren 1936 im Atelier Les Gemeaux in Paris und produzierte gememsam mit Paul Grimault die ersten farbigen Werbefilme in Frankreich.37 Ihre LeinwandFiguren stellen eine Verkorperung der Karikaturen im Stil „Europe Centrale" dar,38 wenn auch in einer sanftmutigen Auspragung. An die Stelle von Bocklins abgriindigem Fmschkonig ist nun Quiches fromme „Gonfle" getreten. Im einzigen bekannten Reklamefilm von Quiche tauchten weitere Lebenswesen dieser Art auf. Die Hauptdarstellerin des Werbefilms Le messager de la lumiere (Der Botschafter des Lichts, 1938) war die beiahrte, in einer anthropomorphischen Gestalt auftretende Sonne, die durch das 37

Jean-Baptiste Garnero, „Wilma de Quiche", in: Du praxinoscope an cellulo. Un demi-siecle de cinema d'animation en France. 1892-1948, Jacques Kermabon & Jean-Baptiste Garnero (Hgg.), Pans 2007, 257.

38

Paul Grimault, Traits de memoire, Pans 1991, 104.

346

Marten O r o s 2

Verspeisen emer Mazda-Gluhbirne auf wundersame Weise ver,ungt wurde (cf. Fig. 43). Das Lrcht blieb auch spater im Mittelpunkt von Quiches Interesse. Als sie 1937 von CPDE (Compagme pansienne d'electridte) im Rahmen der Weltausstellung in Pans, der groBte Versammlung der Nationen unter der Aureole des L h t s als Massenmedmm, mit der Herstellung ernes SurreaHstisch-fantastisches Trickfilms zur Veranschaulichung der Wohltaten der elektnschen Beleuchtung beauftragt wurde, kontaktierte sie Caspars Frrma, um den Film Phenomena ekctnqufs'in Gasparcolor aufnehmen zu konnen. Qmche onentierte sich an dem kolossalen Fresko Raoul Dufys m der Halle des Palais de la Lurmere, griff jedoch zu anderen Mitteln, mdem sie em absurdes Versteckspiel der entgegengesetzten elektnschen Ladungen „MonS1eur Plus" und ^Madame MinSs" mszemeren wollte (cf. Fig. 44). Qmches Vorhaben schercerte ,edoch an Caspars franzosischem Vertreter Alexandre Fabn, der Imre Ha,du (emem Landsmann und Schuler der Kunstlerm) schon em AUeinrecht fur die Anwendung des Verfahrens erteflt hatte - Qmche, die in Paul Gnmaults Ermnerungen als erne reizende, zugleich aber hartnackige und selbstbewusste Frau beschrieben wurde, setzte dennoch die Anwendung emer ansprechenden techmschen Novitat durch: Zum emen schloss Gnmault emen Vertrag mit der Londoner Vertretung der US-amenkamschen Farbfilmgesellsdiaft Technicolor, um das Verfahren fur Qmches Film anwenden zu konnen. Zum anderen konnte der Streifen rnlt Hilfe der Hypergonar Lmse des Professors Henri Chretien und dessen Vorlaufer-Verfahren zum spater in den USA patentierten Cinemascope mit zwei Pro,ektoren auf die riesengroBe Fassade des Pavilions geworfen werden. Wahrend des Krieges arbeitete Qmche bis zu ihrem Tod 1943 im Atelier von Antome Payen in Pans. Ihre letzte Arbeit, der Cn-Cn, Ludo et I'orage wurde dort durch Rene Risacher vollendet, der zuvor ebenfalls seme Werbefilme in Gasparcolor hergestellt und Qmches Aufnahmetechmk vervollkommnet h a t t e - Bei diesem Marchenfflm, der die Abenteuer ernes Geschwisterpaares schilderte, wurde aber statt Caspars Verfahren der Agfacolor-Mehrschichtenfilm verwendet, der von der deutschen Besatzung Frankreichs als „Reichsfarbfilm-propagiert wurde.«

V «

Mitteilung von Serge K o m m a n n . (Brief v o m 27. 11. 2010 an den Autor). Serge K o m m a n n , „Rene Risacher", in: Kermabon & Garnero, Du pra^noscope, 322; R i c h e r hat seme Aufnahmetechmk unter der N u m m e r 902.068 im Frfihjahr 1944 patentiert.

«

S.ehe hierzu: Gert Koshofer, Color. Die Farben des Fitns, Berlin 1988, 87. ff. Fur weitere Hmwe.se 2 u r Entw.cklung des Farbfilms m Deutschland danke ich D.rk Alt, Doktorand am ffistorischen Seminar der L e l b n 1 2 Universitat Hannover.

D e r farbige Werbefilm als eine zentraleuropaische Erfindung

347

warn modellfilme

o.m.b.h. pal * v l t + k e berl'n W.bo nOrnbef^ecrtr.Krt +elefon:b4 bavana 6obi

XTODfO

Fig 45 (links). Anzeige des Trickhlmateliers George Pal und Paul Wittke in Berlin, 1932. Fig. 46 Jrlra Bub/inek (Das Spell der Seifenblasen) von Irena Rosnerova-Leschnerova und Karel Dodal, 1936.

IV. Wilma de Quiche war iiber die Niederlande und Deutschland nach Paris gelangt« S r e hatte (unter dem Name W m a de Kish) bis 1931 mit dem Theatermaler Curt Ratzel im Rahmen des Tonfilm-Seminars in der Reimann-Schule Bedin Trickfilm untemchtet« 1932 grundete ihr Landsmann George Pal gemeinsam mit dem Kaufmann Paul Wittke in Berlin ein eigenes Unternehmen, um mit dem von ihm patentierten Pal-DollVerfahren „gan 2 neuartige[r] Puppen-TnckfdmeM" herzustellen (Fig. 45).- In den vier Atehers, die das Bediner Numberghaus beherbergte, wurde die Zeichenfigur „Herr Kollege", (vom Typus des „uberpedantischen und spieBerischen Beamten") erfunden, die er mit Hilfe neuer technische Errungenschaften in Farbe auf die Leinwand schicken wiinschte.45 42

Lo Duca, Fe dessin anime. Histoire, esthetique, technique. Paris 1948, 70.

43

Berlin, Bundesarchiv, Abteilung R, Barch R K K : Ratzel, Curt Pq 33-35; aus dem TrickfilmAtelier. D e r Schule Reimann. Lehrer: W. v. Kish und K Ratzel, m: Form und Farbe, 17, 1932,10-11, 162.

44

»igy hesziil a hangos trukkfilm az europai Mikirol, Habakukrol,,, in: S^inhd^i e'kt, 20, 1932, 4, 42-43; Die Rek/ame. Zeitschrifi des Deutschen Reklame-Verbandes E. V., Sonderheft: Film und Funk, 25, 1932, 15, 2. September, VII; Ktnotechmsche Rundschau des F,lm-KuJr, 30. April 1932, zitiert in: Agde, Flimmemde Versprechen, 88.; Im Licht-Bild-Buhne, 16.4. 1932., N r 89. Witke (sic!) wurde als „em junger Zeichner" beschneben. „Deutsche Kurzfilm-Aktivitat!", in: Licht-Bild-Buhne, 25, 1932, 100, 29. April.

45

348

Marten O r o s 2

P S hatte in Bedin auch zahlreiche Reklamefilme angefertigt (z. B. fur den Scherl-Verlag). Bei emem fruhen Auftrag, dem Filnlumernacht (1932, fur Oberst Tabak), verwendete er erstmals Sachtnckaufnahmen, die er spater in semen „Puppetoon"-Filmen perfektiomeren sollte. Wie in emer Theaterrevue warden die Schulter an Schulter in Remen marschierenden Zigaretten Bfld fur Bfld als Stopp-Tnck aufgenommen. Der Kim, an welchem er funf Monate mit sechs Assistenten arbeitete, gmg verloren- Emen dl rekten Bezug findet man ,edoch in Oskar Fischmgers „GasparcolorFflmballett" Murattt gmft em, der 1934 als die erste, ..absolute" TabakwerbungbekanntwurdeV Der Zercraum von Mitte bis Ende der 1930er, der Epoche des Gasparcolor-Verfahrens gilt, fallt zeithch zusammen mit den Anfangen emer aussichtsreichen ReHamekunst, die „nur in Farbe, und zwar in farkgen Riiumen denken konnte" « Die Agentur ToHrag (Ton- und Lichtbildreklame Ag.) - damals erne der offensten und progressivsten Reklamefflmherstellermnen - vertrat den Standpunkt, dass die Farbe erne von zehn filmischen Eigenschaften darstellte, die die lebendigste Werbewrrkung erzielten.- Oskar Fischinger (zu dieser Zeit emer der Angestellten der ToHrag) war praktisch der erste Kunstler, der „die Eigengesetzlichkeit der Farbe L Film verstanden hatte und von dem Rausch der Farben ergnffen war"5o Aufgrund der zuruckHegenden Schwarz-WeiB-Epoche, in der das Fehlen ernes allgememgultigen Codesystems begrundet war, funktiomerte

«

Eine verwaschene Kopie, in der nur Ein.elbilder erhalten sind, kam kurslich Zufallsfund in der Deutschen Kinemafhek Berlin 2 u m Vorschein.

als

«

Auskunft von H u g o O t t o Schul.e im Jahr 1984 an Rolf Giesen. Mitteilung von H e r r Giesen.

«

Emil Guckes, Der Tonfilm ak Werbemttel in Deutschland, Dissertation, Umversitat I n n s b m c k 1937, 60. Nach Inkrafttreten der ersten antisemitischen Geset 2 e verlegte Bela Caspar seinen W o h n s i t . nach Belgien. D o r t arbeitete er bis 1940 in seinem Laboratorium, das im Zuge der deutschen Okkupation 2 erstort ™ r d e . Bei der Flucht in die USA konnte er seine Patentre.epte auf Mikrofilm mit sich fuhren. („Gasparcolor Paper", in: Mimcam, 7, 1944 October, 55.) Die Gasparcolor Naturwahre Farbenfilm G.m.b.H. in Berlin arbeitete als „selbstandiges U n t e r n e h m e n " und „nach Li 2 en 2 en auf G m n d seiner Patente" unter dem N a m e n Deutsche Gasparcolor-Gesellschaft w e i t e , ("Klarheit urn Gasparcolor", in: F * Kirier, 17, 1935, 253, 2 November) I m Jahre 1938, als die neuentwickelten PantachromVerfahren die Vorrangstellung der K r m a immer m e h r minderten, vereinigte sich das Unternehmen mit der Stoecker-Film A G . („Zusammenarbeit Stoecker-Gasparcolo, Farbige Spiel- und Kulturfilme im Programm", in: Fih-Kurier, 20, 1938, 33, 14. Februar) D e r Firmenname ™ r d e schon bald wieder in E p o c h e Color-Film A G geandert und unter der F u h m n g von Jurgen Clausen, der Bruder des Schauspielers, Claus Clausen, und dem Spielleiter Ulnch Kayser ™ r d e das Verfahren weiter optimiert. (Bundesarchiv Berlin, Abteilung R, R K / J 0 0 5 4 Reichsfachschaft Film, 1811, Bild 2108).

49

Insemt in der Zeitschrift Die Deutsche Werbune, 27, 1934, 18. (Die andere neun sind: Linie, Form, Wort, Rhythmus, Handlung, Wit 2 , Mulik, Realistik, Phantasie).

»

Guckes, Der Tonfilm, 60.

D e r farb.ge Werbefilm als erne zentraleuropa.sche Erfindung

349

die AuswahL bzw. Emstellung der Farben damals oft empirisch und anhand bekannter Kunstwerke Walter Ruttmann, der an der Munchner Akaderme Malerei studierte, versah die Emulsionen seiner Filme schon Anfang 1920er mit vier verschiedenen Farbvarktionen* Zwischen dem Kunstler und der Produktionsgesellschaft konnte em gememsamer Nenner oftmals nur schwer gefunden werden. Als Alexander Alexeieff semen W e r b e f i l m / ^ (1939) schuf, griff er fur die Emstellung der gewunschten Farbnuancen auf Paul Gaugums LandschaftsbMer zuruck, die er als „very blueish"bezichnete.^ Am 8. Dezember 1935 fand im Berliner Nollendorfpalast erne GalaAuffuhrung statt, die von der Gasparcolor-Gesellschaft veranstaltet wurde. Nachdem im November 1934 im Capitol und im Marmorhaus erstmals emem engeren Zuschauerkreis die Fischmger-Filme vorgefuhrt wurd e n * wurden jetzt 14 Werbeftlme nach dem Farbverfahren abgespielt. Die m ihrem Wortlaut auf die NS-Propaganda abgestimmten Pressebenchte uber das Ereignis betonten, dass „das Gasparcolor Verfahren [...] von Deutschen erfunden und ausgearbeitet" sei, ,Deutsche sich standig urn die Verbesserung des Verfahrens bemuhten, aber seme Auswrrkung em vollig mternationdes Gesicht zeige"^ E m e erhalten gebliebene Ernla dungskarte gibt nicht nur Aufschluss uber die vorgefuhrten Filme, sondern auch uber erne Abstimmung, in der die Zuschauer die Filme auswahlen konnten, die ihnen am besten gefallen hatten. Laut Ergebnis kamen zweifellos zwei PhiHps-Puppenwerbefilme, AethersHp (Das Atherschiff, 1934) und De Tooveratlas £ e r Zauberatlas, 1935) am besten an. Beide Arbeiten, die mit ihren Kopien „allen Teilen der Welt", „m 17 verschiedenen Sprachfassungen in aller Herren Lander" gezeigt w a r d e n * waren von George Pal produziert worden* und stellten erne spannende wie auch souverane Gradwanderung zwischen der strengen FunktionaHtat der hollandischen De Stflj-Architekut und der spielerischen Femhek der unganschenVolkskunstdar. Im Zuge des Erfolgs von Pals AethersHp benchtete im jahr 1935 die Z r i t e d i r i f t L anematographte fran^se, dass die Firma Gasparcolor in Pans 51

Anne H o o r m a n n , LUbtspUk. Z«r Medunrefl^on Munchen 2003, 187.

^

S l ehe

53

R., „Lebend l g ste Werbung. Film, T o n , Farbe be. Tolirag und Gasparcolor", in: Licbt-BildBuhne, 5. N o v e m b e r 1934, Nr. 258.

54

B - p , „Trick und N a t u r im Farbenfilm", in: Fibt-Kurier, 17, 1935, 287, 9. D e 2 e m b e r .

55

Werben und Verkaufen 1, 1935, 12, 4 7 4 , George Pal an Paul Kohner, 15. Jul, 1936, 2. (Sammlung Kohner, NachlaBarch.v der StiftungDeutsche K n e m a t h e k , Benin). N e u e farb l g e Gasparcolor Ton-Filme. Sondervorfuhrung im Nollendorf-Palast. Faltblatt. (In der Pnvatsammlung von Ole Schepp, Holland).

56

der Avantgarde in der Wnmarer

RepMk,

Alexeieffs Brief v o m 30. N o v e m b e r 1938 an Imre Caspar. I m Alexeieffs NachlaB der C N C , Bo 1 S d'Arcy, Frankre 1C h. Schenkung von Svetlana Alexe.eff Rockwell.

350

Marten O r e s .

die Emchtung emer Kopieranstalt planted Da viele Akteure der franzosischen FHmavantgarde, darunter Berthold Bartosch, jean Pamleve, Rene Bertrand oder der Erfinder der Pmscreen-Animation, Alexander Alexeieff, das Verfahren anwandten, war die Nachfrage groB und die Erwartungen berechtigt. Alexeieff, der mit semer zweken Frau Claire Parker deutsche und brkische Auftrage ausfuhrte, richtete sogar 1933, bzw 1936 sem Atelier im Hauptskz der Gasparcolor-Firma in Benin em, wo er msgesamt funf Filme realisierte.^ Diese Werbefilme gaben „m der Bewegthek [ihrer] schwmgenden Abstraktionslaufe erne Ahnung von den MSgHchkeken kunstlenscher Wirkung auch im Film".» Seme Rundfunk-Werbung Opta empfangt (1936) fur die lundfunkgerate Loewe, die von der Filmzensur das sehene Pradrkat „kunstlerisch wertvoll" erhielt, erweckte die „toten" Instruments m Rahmen ernes atemberaubenden Konzertes ohne Musiker 2 um Leben.«o Im jahre 1935 grundete Alexeieff mit semer erste und zweite Frau, Alexandra Grmevsky und Claire Parker, sowie mit dem aus Ungarn stammenden Etienne Raik (Istvan Ra,k), am Avenue jean Moulin em Atelier fur die Herstellung farbiger Werbetncknlme, die sofort das Interesse auslandischer Fachzekschnften erweckten" Die erste Ihrer Arbeit war em mk Manonettenfiguren ausgestatteter plastischer Wem-Werbefilm, IM belk an hots dormant (Das Dornroschen, 1936)- Urn die Fahigkeken des Mediums mk emem dokumentanschen Ansatz im Gebiet der Hochkunst zu verbmden, drehte Alexeieffs Frau Claire Parker im gleichen jahr unter Mkwirkung von Alexander Fabn, dem Leker des franz6sichen Unternehmens Art et Couleur, emen merkwurdigen Gasparcolor-Film uber die Rubens-Ausstellung (Rubens et son temps) im Musee de l'Orangerie." Hierbei wurde der Versuch unternommen! die bunten Farbstufungen der Rubens-Gemalde, vor allem das Bordeauxrot und das herbstHche Gelb * 5B

Precede ' G a s p a r c e W , in: La cnematograpHefran^se, 17, 1935, 860, 27. April, 3. Giannalberte Be„da 2 2 1 , Alexeieff. Unerase d'un Mattre, Annecy-Pans 2001, 308.

*

Fechter, Menschen auf manen Wegen, 217-218.; R a i t grundete 1947 sem eigenes Atelier Les Gneastesasso.es und wurde „der Vater" des fran.esTschen Werbefilms der Nachkriegs 2 e l t. (Bernard Malapert de Ba 2 entin, „Le film pubHc.ta.re face a sen avenir. Le film d'ammatien entret.cn avec Etienne Rait", in: La publilte en question, Rennes 1964, 41-46).

»

I m N e v e m b e r 1936 berichtete Alexeieff im Rahmen eines Vertragabends in der LessingHechschule Berlin uber die Prebleme der Herstellung des Films. E r wtirdigte die Meglichkeiten des Verfahrens und dessen herausragende asthetische Qualitat, die er als „la beaute de Einstellungen in Beleuchtung" be.eichnete. (Alexeieffs Bnefwechsel mit Jtirgen Clausen, 16. und 28. N e v e m b e r 1936. Alexeieffs NachlaB im Archiv der C N C , Beis d'Arcy, Frankreich. Schenkung v e n Svetlana Alexeieff Reckwell).

«

Brief v e n S. Henry Kahn, Kerrespendent der Zeitschrift Photography in L e n d e n an Alexeieff, 31. Januar 1936. (Im Alexeieffs NachlaB).

*

Pascal Viment, „Alexandre Alexeieff", in: K e r m a b e n & Garnere (Hgg.), D«PraXlnosCoPe cellulo, 229. Benda22i„4/,x«£218.

«

a„

D e r farbige Werbefilm als erne 2 entraleuropaische Erfindung

351

des flamischen Malers lebensnah zu wiederzugeben - in dem Bewusstsem, dass trotz des Ad,ektivs „Naturwahre" im Firmennamen der Gesellschaft „die Farben im Film immer anders und unnaturHcher bei der Wiedergabe realerDingewrrken—

V. Bela Caspar grundete schHeBHch die Schwesterfema semes Unternehmens mcht m Paris! sondern in London, und 2 war am James Square bei Thames Ditton, wo die Zweigstelle (mit eigener Kopieranstalf) von semem Bruder Imre Caspar verwaltet wurde. FLer war auch Adrian Cornwell-Clyne (eig. Bernhard Hein)« angestellt, der sowohl das Verfahren bei semen spateren Naturfilmen erfolgreich anwandte, als auch wichtige theoretische Arbeiten uber das Thema der visuellen Musik schrieb." In GroBbritanmen wrrkte auch em weiterer passiomerter Benutzer des Gasparcolor-Verfahrens, der australische Film-Kunstler Len Lye. In Zusammenarbeit mit Humphrey jennmgs als „colour director" stellte er 1936 fur den Shell-Olkonzern den Puppentrickwerbefilm The Birth of a Robot her, erne „Phantasie", der in der zeitgleichen Kritiken „wie em Gedicht" angepriesen w u r d e - Es war erne sehr komplexe und aufwendige Arbeit, deren Musik nicht nur die Bewegungen der Figuren, sondern auch die Farbgebung der emzelnen Szenen Lfeutete. Wie berercs unter Verweis auf Bocklm erwahnt, erlangte die Remterpretation klassischer Themen und Kompositionen in den Bezugen der popularen Massenkultur zur Hochkunst in der Dramaturgic mancher Werbefflme erne konsequente Bedeutung. Es handelte sich urn emen solchen ikonologischen Prozess, den Erwm Panofsky „pseudomorphosis" genannt h a t - Lyes Werbung (wie zwei Jahre spater die von Quiche) stellte den Zwiespalt der Tradition der antiken Kultur und der Geburt der Modermtat dar - die Modermtat reprasentiert von emem weibhchen Roboter, der aus einer Meermuschel (gleich BotticelHs Venus) auf die Erde «

Guckes, Der Tonfth,

^

Dieser Bernhard Klein ist nicht mit jenem Namensvetter idennsch, der als begabter Buhn e n b i l d n e r u n d 1919 Mifbegriinder der N o v e m b e r g m p p e bereits 1930 „ein entscheidendes Interesse am ge 2 eichneten Film" fasste und wahrend des Zweiten Weltknegs fir die Deutsche Zeichenfilm G m b H arbeitete. (Bernhard Klein an Herr Rosen, undanerter Brief im Bundesarchiv Berlin, Abteilung R, R K , Signatur J0029, Akte 792, Bild 0782-0785) Siehe da 2 u noch: Bundesarchiv Berlin, R / 2 3 0 1 / 7 0 2 0 , Anlage 5, 46).

66

Adrian Cornwell-Clyne, Colour Musu. The Art of Light, L o n d o n 1926.

67

C. H. D a n d , „Colour Film, Lubrication by Shell", in: Art and Industry, 2 1 , 1936, JulyDecember, 93. Erwin Panofsky, „Father Time", in: Studies in honology, Erwin Panofsky (Hrsg.), N e w York 1939,70.

6B

63.

352

Marten O r o s z

Fig. 47. Len Lye, The Birth of a Robot, 1936

geboren wurde: eine indirekte Puppenfassung von Brigitte Helm aus Metropolis. Die archaische, vergangene Epoche (im Zwischentitel: „when the world was turned by hand") versinnbildlichte durch die Allegorie der Zeit (Padre Tempo) ein bartiger, alter Gott, dargestellt mit den Attributen Sense und Sanduhr, den die melanchohsche Musik von Venus, des ShellRoboters, einschlafen lasst. Der Gottvater erschien im Film als Gestalt der kosmischen Zeit (Trionfo del Tempo), als Kronos, der Vertreter der Vergangenherc und des Todes, der gegenuber „the modern lubrication" die alte, iiberwundene Methode der Einolung symbolisierte (cf. Fig. 47). Len Lye realisierte noch im gleichen Jahr den abstrakten Film Rainbom Dance fur das General Post Office, das als Collage von handbemalten Elementen, volhg non-ob,ektiv, ohne F lg ur und als Komposrtion von Farbe, Form und Musik konzipiert war.69 Auch Paul Bianchi produzierte in England Sachtrickanimationen nach dem Verfahren. Die Firma Cadbury gab bei ihm den Werbetrickfilm Fun on the Farm in Auftrag, welcher vierhunderttausend Kinobesucher bezauberte. Seine Arbeit fur die

69

Ingrid Westbrock, Ein Beitrag %ur Untmckhtngsgeschichte des Genres vom Stummfilm %um frtihen Ton- t^ndFarbfilm, Hildesheim — Zurich — N e w York 1983, 84-86.

D e r farbige Werbefilm als erne zentraleuropaische Erfindung

353

Zigarettemarke Craven, The Red Box Fantasy war em vergleichbarer Erfolg: er Hef Anfang 1935 sechs Wochen im Kinc>™

VI. Zwar unterhielt die Frrma Gasparcolor 2 w e i Niederlassungen in Europa, die Verbreitung der spezifischen BMsprache, die s1Ch emerseits aus den optischen Assoziationen der Filmfarbe und andererseits aus der bewussten Benutzung der kompositionstechnischen Mrctel der Filmavantgarde ergaben, war in erster L i e emem Austausch 2 w l schen den Kunstlern geschuldet, die das Verfahren anwandten. Nun stellt S1ch die Frage, warum in der zweiten Halite der 1930er jahre erne beachthche Anzahl auslandischer Werbefilme in die Archive verschiedener europaischer Nationen gelangten und warum dl ese Rime oftmals nicht in dem Auftrags- bzw Bestimmungsland, sondern im Ausland produ 21 ert und anschHeBend importiertwurden. Nach dem neuesten Forschungsstand gab es emen in Budapest geborenen Mann, der eng mit der Gasparcolor m Verbmdung stand. Er soil em „falscher unganscher E m i g r a n t gewesen sem, em gewisser Dezso Grosz. Er spielte erne bedeutende RoUe bei der Verbreitung des FarbfilmVerfahrens mnerhalb der europaischen Avantgarde - Dezso Grosz (oder spater Desider Gross) war zwischen 1924 und 1933 bei der Paul Heidemann Produktion GmbH angestellt, arbeitete eng mit der UFA und der Reichsfilmkammer zusammen und knupfte wichtige Kontakte zur Fiknindustne, so dass er spater fur die Auslandsgeschafte der GasparcolorGesellschaft zustandig war. Im September 1933 verlegte er semen Site nach P r a g - wo er em eigenes Filmunternehmen grundete und von Prag aus em ganz Europa abdeckendes Werbefilm-Netzwerk etabherte - Er ™ "

„Big Audiences for Gasparcolor", in: World Kim Nem, Ausschnitt ernes undafierten Arfikels im NachlaB von Mike Hankin, GroBbritannien. Bundesarchiv Berlin, Abteilung R, Reichskommissar fir Uberwachung der offentlichen O r d n u n g und Nachnchtensammelstelle im Reichsministerium des Inneren, Lagebeochte

(1920-1929), Meldungen (1929-1933), Sign, R 134/60, 29. 72

Prag, N a r o d n i archiv, PR 1941-1951, karton 26158, box G 9 9 5 / 8 , Gross D e a d e r , Budapest, Orszagos Magyar Leveltar, K96, PaBwesen 1934-1935, Band 384., N u m m e r 20845.,

73

Seme Wertsachen (Kameras und Edelsteine) hat er be, Frau Silvia Rotsehild in Berlin hinterlassen (Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep. 025, 22 W G A 2 0 6 / 62).

«

E n Brief v o m 16.5. 1941 benennt neun Firmen bzw. Personen von Buenos Aires bis Tokio, die mit dem Vertrieb von Fischingers Gasparcolor-Filmen beauftragt wurden (Kschinger-Nachlass, Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main, Brief 201719). Die von rein perspektiVisch-plastischen Elementen verkorperten geometnschen Strukturen der Oskar Fischinger-Filme wurden im Ausland schnell aufgegoffen. So wurde z. B. eine Kopie von

Gr6sz Dezso, 3766/08.

354

Marten O r o s 2

bereiste samdiche Lander, um Kontakte mit den dort wirkenden Avantgardekunsdern zu knupfen und Filmkopien an Werbeunternehmen zu verkaufen. In Prag stand er in Beziehung mit dem fur das I.R.E. Filmstudio tatigen Kunsderpaar^ Irena RoLrova-Leschnerova und Karel Dodal. Die beiden schufen mit dem Gasparcolor-Farbverfahren mehrere auBergewohnHche, abstrakte Werbetnckfflme. Emer ihrer erfolgreichsten, der Film Hra BubSnek (Das Spiel der Seifenblasen, 1936), der, vergleichbar mit Werner Kruses Faber-Castell Werbung Bktfsnftstudte (1934) oder Oskar Fischmgers ToHrag-Werbefflm Kretse (1933) mit emer reizvollen Orchestnerung von farbigen Kreisen und Lrmen die Seifenmarke Sapoma anpnes (cf. Fig. 46). Diese Arbercen, deren Aussage mit spezifischen Mrcteln durch das Malerische gesteigert wurde, erhoben die Farbe zu emem wichtigen Symbolwert, der auf dem Gebiet der Produktverpackung wirksam wurde. In den tschechischen Filmen erfullte das Tnangel formige Logo mit orangefarbenem Umriss die gleiche Bedeutung wie das Emblem der MurattiTabaksorte in den deutschen Filmen: die von emer Diagonale abgegrenzten Farbenfelder in leuchtendem Rot und Blau auf den Zigarettenschachteln. Zwd Farben - mk diesem Titel versah Wolfgang Kaskelme 1933 seinen abstrakten Muratti-Tnckfilm, der sich auf dien Elemente der konstruktivistischen Kunst bzw. auf den Orphismus stutzte und aus emer auBergewohnlich rasanten optischen Symphome mit sich verschiebenden diagonalen Flachen, wirbelnden Rmgen oder atomisierten, pulsierend tanzenden Sternen bestand. Ihre (Werbe-)Botschaft kam aber nur ganz am Ende (m Form ernes Schlusstitels) zum Ausdruck. Erne mteressante Feststellung besteht darm, dass alle hier behandelten Werbenlme entsprechend der von ihnen erzahlten Geschichten emen passenden, aber unverfanglichen Titel aufweisen. Diese Kurzfflme, die, um die Spannung bis zum Ende zu steigern, das Markenprodukt nicht vorschnell vemeten, traten mk dem Anspruch auf, dgpnstiindige Kunstwerke zu sem. Damit wurde aber nicht nur ihr Wert demonstnert und der Emanzipationsanspruch des Genres ausgedruckt; die Titel hatten auch aus vertnebsstrategischen Grunden erne Bedeutung. Anschemend war dies der Ansatz des Werbefilmproduzenten Dezso Grosz. Jeder « # war emer der ersten bekannten Titel die Grosz m semem Reklamefilmstudio in Prag anfertigte - Mit dem

75 *

Imposition in Blau nach R l g a geschickt, u m ihm zwischen den letnschen Vorspannfilmen emen Plate zu sichem (Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Mam, NachlaB Oskar Kschmger, Korrespondenzen .w.schen Oskar Kschmger und Gasparcolor, Gasparcolor an O s kar Kschmger am 16. D e z e m b e r 1935, Brief 201692). Eva Stmskova, „Irena & Karel Dodal. Prukopmci ceskeho ammovaneho filmu", m: Ilumtnace, 63, 2006, 3, 99-144. Prufstellekarte, Nr. 1300 des „Minis t e rstvo vmtra v Praze", Prag, den 27. Oktober 1933 (Schnftgutarchiv des Nanonalfilmarchivs, Prag). Hier smd msgesamt sechs Titel bekannt, i e durch G r 6 s 2 angeferngt ™ r d e n .

D e r farbige Werbefilm als erne zentraleuropaische Erfindung

355

Film, der das GEC Warenhaus bewirbt, wurde George Pal beauftragt, der mit Grosz im Sommer 1933 aus Berlin nach Tschechien kam. In Prag schloss S1ch Pal der Reklamefilmabteilung des A-B Barrandov (Akaovt Filmove Trovarny) an, wo er rmt seiner selbst montierten StoptnckKamera mehrere aus anthropomorphischen Gegenstanden gezeichnete Wetbefflme drehte, in erster Lime fur den SchichtMargarmelonzern in Auss l g (z. B. ViteZ I Der Sieger, 1933)- Urn die Vorschnften der tschechischen Industnekammer zu umgehen, musste er in emem Panser Hotel21 mmer em Atelier (das „PalstudL") emnchten. Die Zulassung der dort hergestellten Filme wurde dadurch erleichtert, dass sie als Importprodukte galten - Unter diesen Umstanden wurde etwa der Gasparcolor-Werbefflm Pohddka o melanchohkem krdti (Em Marchen von emem melancholischen Konig, 1934) fur die „herrlichen" Kralovna Margarm hergestellt. Diese Arbeken erweckten das Interesse des Philips-Konzerns m Eindhoven, der Pal, wie bereits em paar jahre zuvor Hans Richter, nach Holland abwarb ™ Dies war 2 war em schwerer Verlust fur Dezso Grosz, doch auch ohne Pal gelang es mm schnell, auf eigenen Bemen zu stehen. Die Emstellung des beruhmten deutschen TnckLchners Hans Kscherkoesen versetzte ihn m die Lage, Auftragen von verschiedenen damschen (Dansk Reclame Bureau), schwedischen (Firma Andersen) und schweizenschen Unternehmen nachzukommen- In Holland wurde sem tschechisches Unternehmen unter anderem von der Verkade Schokoladenfabnk und vom Amstel Gashersteller beauftragt, die Filme wurden durch den Actief Film m Amsterdam verbreitet- Als ihn em norwegischer Zigarettenbetneb, die Tidemann Tabakfabnk, mit der Idee der Herstellung farbiger Werbefilme

"

George Pal an Paul Kohner, 15. Jul, 1936, 2. (NachlaBarchiv der Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin); Prag, Narodni' archiv, SUA PR 1931-1940, Sig M 7 3 4 / 2 4

™

Ga.1 Morgan Hickman, The Films of George Pal. South Bmnswick - N e w York - L o n d o n 1977,19.

™

Priifstellekartei Nr. 1067. des „Ministerstvo vnitra v Pra 2 e", Prag, den 17. O k t o b e r 1934 (Schoftgutarchiv des Nationalfilmarchivs, Prag). Spater arbeitete H a n s Fischerkoesen auch fir die Firma Philips und teilweise auf den tschechischen M a r k (Giinter Agde, „ H a n s Fischerkoesen", in: GneGraph, L g 46, D29).

BO

Emil Guckes, Der Tonfilm als Werbemtttel in Deutschland, Dissertation, Umversitat Innsbruck 1937,156. Die Verbindung von D e 2 s 5 G r 6 s 2 mit der I R C O (Internationale Cinema Reclame Onderneming) Filmbiiro in H a a g ist zwischen 1933 und 1935 nachweisbar. Uber die Filme von D e 2 s 5 Grosz, siehe: Nationaal Archief, D e n Haag, B24501, Filmkeunngdossiers 19331936: B 2306, B 2307, B 2325, B 2326, B 2334, C 42, C 251, C 967, C 966, C 1582, C 1583, C 1663, C 1694, C 1801, C 1921. Fur die Vermarktung der Gasparcolor-Filme in Amsterdam war die Firma Rex-Film zustandig: Jan G. van D a m , Over reclamefilms, in: Official Orgaan van hetGenootschap voorKeclame 6, 1937, 10, 197.

*

356

Marten O r o s 2

konfrontierte - e n g a g e Grosz em osterreiclnsches Tnckfllmatelier in der Wiener NeubaugLe (Bruno Wozak und Karl T h o m a s ) - In Wien entstanden mehrere norwegische Arbercen, z. B. Tider Krever im jahr 1936. Bis 2 ur Auflosung ihrer Frrma 1941 gestalteten die osterreichischen „Gasparcoloristen" aber mcht nur Reklamefilme, sondern auch eigenstandige,aufwandige Kurzfilme, wie die Opernparodie Carmen (1937 38), die mk dem Anspmch der international Vermarktung als Serie gedacht und mk dem popularen Ubertitel Cray Parody versehen wurde.-Das Prager Domrzil von Grosz stand aber im deutschen „Protektorat" in Tschechien unter kemem guten Stern. Allen personhchen Ambitionen zum Trotz war seme Lage nach dem Munchener Abkommen unhaltbar geworden. Wegen seiner Herkunft (und anschemend wegen Steuerangelegenheiten) wurde er standig belastigt und im August 1938 schHeBHch aus Tschechien ausgewiesen. Im Fruhlmg 1939 ermgnerte er mit seiner Familie nach Amenka und lieB sich m Sao Paolo nieder, wo er sich der Rex Film in Vera Cruz anschloss und als Filmproduzent wercerarbercete-

VII. „Der Kunde fallt Ihnen in den SchoB, wenn er Ihren farbigen Werbetnckfilm erbHckt. In Ungarn gibt es so etwas nur bei uns" - so heiBt es in einem Inserat der AteHer Colonton (gebildet durch Zusammensetzung des engHschen Wortes „Farbe" und modern deutschen „ T o n " ) - Das Trickfilmstudio wurde 1932 in Budapest durch janos Halasz, Felix Kassowitz und Gyula Macskassy, drei Studenten aus Alexander Bortnyiks Werkstattschule Muhely (dem sogenannten „Klemen Bauhaus") ins Leben ge-

B2

Die K o r r e s p o n d e n . der Tiedemann Tabaksfabnk mit D e 2 s 5 G r 6 s 2 . 1935-1936, Oslo, Riksarkivet, PA-0331 J.L., D b a , Box 291. und 3 0 1 , Mehr iiber die Verbmdung von Bela Caspar m l t Norwegen, siehe: Gunnar Strom, „Desidier Gross and Gasparcolor European Producers: Norwegian Products and Animated C o m m e r c e s from the 1930s", in: Animation journal, 6, 1988! 2, 2 8 - 4 1 , Gunnar Strom, „Desidier Gross and Gasparcolor in a N o r wegian Perspective, Part 2 " , in: Ammation journal, 8, 2000, 2, 44-55.

B3

T h o m a s Renoldner & Lisi Frisehengruber, Ammationsfilm in Osterreuh. Tal 1. 1900-1970, BegkMeft ^rWmsAau, Wien 2001, 27; „ E l n Lowensprung = 24 Kunstwerke", in: Wiener Bihne 14, 1938, 475.

B4

Thomas Renoldner, „Animation in Osterreich - 1832 bis heute, Die Kunst des Ein.elbilds", in: Animation in Osterreuh - 1832 Us heute, Christian Dewald & Sabine Groschup & Mara Mattuschka & Thomas Renoldner (Hgg.), Wien 2010, 88.

B5

Schriftliche Mitteilung von Fernando Fortes. (Da 2 u siehe noch: Benedito Junqueira Duarte, Cofadores de imagenl Nas tnlhas do Cinema BrasMro. Cronuas da memona. Vol. II., Sao Paulo 1982,60-75.)

B6

Im Blatt Neveto vasar der Budapester Internationalen Messe veroffentlicht.

D e r farbige Werbefilm als eine zentraleuropaische Erfindung

Fig. 48. Gasparcolor-Werbetrickfilm, Radio

357

rophe^eit, 1937

rufen.87 Bortnyik, der friiher in Weimar, im Schatten des Bauhauses arbeitete, wurde in erster Linie als Maler geschatzt, obwohl er vor allem als Werbegrafiker tatig war. Von seinen Filmen, die ungarische Volksmarchen behandelten, smd nur Fragmente vorhanden. 88 Obwohl es im Muhely kemen Untemcht fcr Film gab, besuchte nach den Ermnerungen von Janos Halasz auch Laszlo Moholy-Nagy mehrmals die Schule und hat mit seinen Filmen die Studenten angeregt.89 Gegen einen Erlass der Lehrgebuhren leistete Halasz bei Bortnyiks Tnckfilmexpenmenten Fhlfestellung 90 Der damals 17-jahrige erlernte die Grundlagen der Animation im Hunnia Filmstudio in Budapest von George Pal, als der seine Laufbahn 87

BB

Vivien Halas & Paul Wells, Hahs

„Brief von Moholy v o m 16. Dezember 1935 an Walter Groprus", in: Haus, Las^/o UoholjN^,79.

«

Johanna Drucker, Theon^ng Moderns. Visual Art and the Critical Tradition, N e w York 1994, 122. Vgl. auch die A u s f i W n g e n der Verfasseon 2 u m Direct Film in: Jute, Cinema brut, 155-61

400

Gabnelejutz

Denn dass Moholy-Nagys Re/Produktionskonzept „nach volliger Aufhebung der matenellen Arbeit, des muhseligen Tiervorbrmgens' der Wirkungen [strebt], und den Vorgang der 'Gestaltung' in die getsttge Disposition der 'Vomchtung' [verlegt]"-, w i e e twa Andreas Haus behauptet! triffi nur fur ,ene Seite semes Modells zu, die vom Fotogramm und dessen automatischer Genese ihren Ausgang mmmt. Von emer automatischen Vemchtung der Arbeit kann im Fall der Rt^chnft allerdmgs kemesfalls die Rede sem,?teht sie doch fur erne Form von Handwerklichkeit, die erhebHchen Arbercsaufwand und korperHchen Emsatz verlangt. Damit relativiert sich auch die These, Moholy-Nagy sei em Kunstler gewesen, dessen Interesse ganzHch emer ,/Remigung' der Darstellungsmltel"- gegolten hatte, verbunden mit emer Autrichtung auf EntmdividuaHsierung und BntkorpeMung. Mehr noch als etwa beim Malen oder Zeichnen ist die Technik des Rkzens auf bestimmte physische Intensitaten angewiesen, da schon die germgste Veranderung des Drucks der Finger, der Spannung der Hand oder der Manipulation des Rrczwerkzeugs Emfluss auf das Er gebms mmmt. Dies gilt umso mehr, wenn es sich urn das Anfertigen wmziger grafischer Zeichen m den Rillen emer Grammophonplatte oder auf der schmalen Tonrandspur ernes 35mm-Films handelt. Erne emsertige Betonung des 'Geistigen'm Moholy-Nagys Medientheone verkennt, dass sem Konzept „produktiver Gestaltung" zwei konkumerende Tendenzen der Ingebrauchnahme moderner Reproduktionsmedien in den Blick mmmt Wahrend bei ,ener Lmie, die an das fotogrammatische Modell anknupft, das Sub,ekt m der Tat ledigHch durch erne Idee mit semem Ob,ekt verbunden ist mteragiert bei derjemgen, die von der Ritzschnft ausgeht, der Kunstler mit semem Material? indem er Spuren korperhcher Arbeit m semem Produkt hmterlasst. Obwohl sich prmzipiell ,edes apparatelose Verfahren der Bfld- und Tonerzeugung auf Moholy-Nagys Medientheorie zuruckfuhren lasst, mochte ich - i n Anlehnung an die oben genannte Differenzierung - den Rahmen etwas enger stecken und zwei exemplansche Formen des „produktiven" Umgangs mk den Medien der massenhaften Reproduktion hervorheben: die l w / - „ p r o d u k t r v e " Gestaltung emerseits, Techmken der automatischen bzw autogenerattven „Produktivi?at" andererseits. Wenn im Folgenden Moholy-Nagys Text von 1922 mit spateren Arbeiten der FilmavSitgarde und Medienkunst in Verbmdung gebracht wird, so geht es freilich mcht urn Fragen der Rezeption bzw. ernes eventuellen 'Emflusses', sondern urn das Aufzeigen emer gememsamen kunstlenschen SensihflMt Diese zumeist unbewussten „Echos", die Moholy-Nagys Pladoyer fur erne

»

Haus, LasZk Moholy-Nagy, 24. [Hervorhebung G.J.]

a

V g l . H a u s , LasZk Moholy-Nagy, 26.

Echos von Lasl6 Moholy-Nagys Medientheone

401

genum techmsche Produktivrcat der modernen Reproduktionsmedien hervomef, belegen, dass Moholy-Nagys KonzeptuaHsierung von Produktion und Reproduktion nicht nur an aktuelle Perspektiven der Film- und Kunstgeschichtsschreibung anschlussfahig ist, sondern S1ch auch im Hmblick auf neuere und neueste Medienpraktiken als nach w l e vor „produktiv"erweist.

Manuelle und autogenerative Verfahren der Ton-und B M e r . e u g n u n g in Him- und Medienkunst Die Erzeugung von Tonen durch Dtrektverfahten, W1e sie Moholy-Nagy fur Grammophon und Wachsplatte - em „Nadeltonsystem" - vorgeschlagen hatte, sollte im Bereich des Tonfflms memals fur Nadeltonfflme realist* werden. Bei diesem Verfahren stand immer die kommerzielle Nutzung im Vordergrund. Und in der Tat darf em Nadeltonfflm, Alan Croslands The JaZZ Smger, der am 6. Oktober 1927 in New York City uraufgefuhrt wurde, fur sich beanspruchen, den offiziellen Begmn der Tonfilmlra emgelautet zu haben. Im Unterschicd zu dem heute ubhchen Lichttonsystem, bei dem sich die Tonspur in Form enkodierter Lichtmuster tatsachhch auf dem Filmstreifen befmdet {sound-on-fdm), zeichnet die Nadeltontechmk den Ton zwar synchron auf, speichert diesen aber separat auf groBen Schallplatten {Jnd-on-dtsc). Bei der Wiedergabe wird der Gleichlauf durch mechamsche oder elektnsche Synchronisation zwischen Plattenteller und Pro,ektor erzielt, nicht immer zur vollen Zufnedenheit von Produzenten und Rezipienten. Das Nadeltonsystem wurde bald zugunsten des praktischeren, kostengunstigeren und vor allem zuverlassigeren Lichttonsystems aufgegeben, bei dem nur noch em Medium notwendig war: die Ton und Bild bereits in synchromsierter Form enthaltende Filmkopie- Der Grund, warum man im Bereich des Films memals mit „produktrver" Tonerzeugung auf der Basis des Nadeltonsystem expenmentierte, Hegt zum emen m der Kurzlebigkeit dieses Verfahrens; zurn anderen ist die Geschichte des Nadeltons von emer nicht enden wollenden Sorge urn die labile Synchromzitat von BM und Ton gekennzeichnet. Das Streben gait daher in erster Lime emer Perfektiomerung des Systems in Richtung Ugh tech, wozu die praapparative Methode des Kratztons mit ihrem L tech-Apped in Widerspruch stand. Erst mit dem Lichttonfilm, der die Bild-Ton-Relation stabi-

22

Vgl. Gabnele Jute, „ N o t Married. Bild-Ton-BeZiehungen in der Klmavantgarde", in: See This Sound. Versprechungen von BM und Ton, Cosima Rainer, Stella Rollig, Dieter Daniels und Manuela A m m e r P r s g s . ) , Koln 2009, 68-75; 68.

402

Gabnelejut.

lisierte, stand em Medium zur Verfugung, das Tonexpenmente im Sinne von Moholy-Nagys „produktrver a k u L c h e r Fmerung" geradezu herausforderte. Das erste Lrchttonsystem - das so genannte Tn-Ergon-Verfahren wurde im Deutschland der ausgehenden 1910er jahre entwickelt- Technisch ausgereift war es bereits 1921, konnte sich aber wegen des mangelnden Interesses der Ufa (Umversum Film AG), die zu Begmn der 1920er jahre den GroBteil der deutschen Kinofilme p r o d u c e , mcht durchsetzen. Es nutzt emen optischen Aufnahmeprozess und wird daher auch als „optischer Ton" beze^hnet. Das Lichtton system beruhte auf dem Prmzip der Umwandlung von „Schallwellen uber em Mikrophon und erne lichtempfmdliche Selenzelle in Lichtmuster. Das Ergebms wurde in Form von wmzigen grafischen Zeichen auf emem klemen Tonstreifen photochemisch erfaBt, der parallel zu den Zelluloid-Filmbildern lief '.* Da der Ursprung des Lichttons visuelle Zeichen smd, Hegt der Gedanke nahe, diese Zeichen dtrekt, das heiBt ohne Aufnahme, auf dem Tonstreifen anzubrmgen und auf diese Weise ,ede beliebige Form horbar zu machen. Bei seinem emzigen Versuch, den Lichtton in „produktiver" Weise zur Anwendung zu brmgen, dem bereits erwahnten Kurzfilm Tonendes ABC (1933), war auch Moholy-Nagy an der Frage der Entsprechung von grafechem Zeichen und Ton mteressiert: „Ich kann dem Profil spielen", fagte er zu emem Freund, indem er die Umnsse des Gesichts m sein Notizbuch skrzzierte: „Ich bin gespannt, wie deme Nase klmgen wird"* Was Moholy-Nagy zwar prazise, aber mit kaum zu uberbietender Spemgkeit als „produktive akustische Kxierung" bezeichnete, wird heute i t e r dem Begriff der synthetischen Tonerzeugung verhandelt. Obwohl diese „T6ne aus dem Nichts" bereits rund zehn jahre zuvor durch Moholy-Nagy ihre theoretische Begrundung erfahren hatten, warden Expenmente mit synthetischem Ton erstmals urn 1930 unternommen, msbesondere m der Sow,etunion, GroBbntanmen, Frankreich und Deutschland. So unterschiedHch die Verfahren auch w a r e n - ihr Pnnzip bleibt immer gleich: In emem techmschen Medium wird der Ton ohne externe Schallquelle und unter Umgehung der Aufnahmeapparatur durch visuelle

23

Die drei deutschen Techniker Hans Vogt, Joseph Engl und Joseph Masolle hatten sich 1918 2 u der Arbeitsgemeinschaft T n - E r g o n (Tn-Ergon = Werk der Drel) zusammengeschlossen.

24 *

Levin, „ T 6 „ e aus dem Nichts"', 314. Vgl. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, LasKlo Moholy-Nagy, un Totakxpenment, M a l n 2 1972, 67.

26

Entweder wurden Zeichnungen von grafischen Mustern angeferngt, abfotografiert und mittels K o n t a k f k o p i e r v e r f a h L auf die Tonspur ubertragen! wie dies etwa bei Oskar Kschingers Tonenden Ornamenten (seit 1932) der Fall war, oder die Muster wurden direkt auf die T o n s p u r ge.eichnet.

Echos von Lasl6 Moholy-Nagys Med.entheone

403

I n f o r m a t i o n erzeugt, pomtiert ausgedruckt: Em W generiert den Ton. Die folgenden B ei s pi ele belegen, dass zu unterschiedHchen Zeiten und in unterschiedHchen artistischen Milieus erne gememsame SensiMitat am Werk war, die als „Echo" von Moholy-Nagys Medientheone zu mterpretieren ist Das Sprmgen 2 w l schen teils weit ausemanderHegenden geschichtHchen Zusammenhangen dient dabei dem Zweck, unerwartete und bisher ubersehene histonsche Verbmdungslimen fid zu legen. Die Entdeckung des manuell erzeugten, meist gezeichneten oder gemalten, mitunter auch gekratzten Tons verdankt sich, wenn man dem franzosischen Kompomsten Arthur Hoeree Glauben schenkt, emem Zufall. Bei der Arbeit an semen Klangmontagen fand Hoeree heraus, dass sich die Aufnahme veranderte, wenn man der optisch erfassten Filmtonspur mit Tmte gratische Zeichen hmzufugte. Der franzosische Komponist war sich der Bedeutung dieser Ertindung, die er als „zaponage" (Retusche) bezeichnete, durchaus bewusst: „I mvented sounds with the pamt brush— i n d e n s p aten 1930er jahren expenmentierten neben anderen auch der Neuseelander jack ElHtt und der Kanadier Norman McLaren mit handgezeichnetem Ton Die ersten beiden Filme, die McLaren in dieser Technik herstellte, sind Dots und U>oPs (beide 1940). In semem Kurztilm Pen Pomt Periston (1951) wird das Verfahren des hand-drawn sound erklart. McLaren nutzte die MbgMchkeiten des optischen Tonaufzeichnungssystems, mdem er mk Pinsel und Tmte senelle gratische Muster auf die Tonrandspur des Filmstreifens auftrug. Die GroBe der Figuren entschied uber die Lautstarke, ihre Form uber die Tonqualrcat und der Abstand zwischen ihnen uber die Tonhohe. So erzeugten beispielsweise groBe runde Formen mit breitem Abstand emen lauten, weichen und tiefen Ton. In Osterreich fand diese Form der Tonerzeugung erstmals gegen Ende der 1950er jahre Emgang ins Vokabular der FHrnavantgarde. In 1/57 Versuch mtt synthettschem Ton (1957) und in 3/60 Baume im Herbst (1960) kratzte Kurt Kren den Ton mit Tmte direkt auf das Zelluloid, was in semer Wirkung an die LarmmusikderFutunstenermnert.Nicht mmder mteressant ist es, ,ene Entwicklungslime zu verfolgen, die an Moholy-Nagys Uberlegungen zur „produktiven" Gestaltung rnktels Schallplatte und Plattenspieler L c h H e B t In diesem Kontext verdient msbesondere die Broken Mustc des Prager Kunstlers Milan Knizak Erwahnung, der sich auf dem Feld der Record Works betMgte.

V

Vgl. Richari S. James, „ A v a „ t - G a r d e Sound-on-Klm Techniques and T h e l r Relationsh.p to Electro-Acoustic Mus.c", in: The Mutual Quarterly, 22 (1986), 74-89; 83.

2B

Vgl. J u t 2 , „ N o t M a m e d " , 73-74.

404

Gabnelejutz

Motor fur Knizaks Expenmente war der Mangel an Schallplatten im Prag der 1960er jahre. Davon gelangweilt, die wemgen Aufnahmen, die er bestf, unverandert immer wieder zu horen, begann er 1965 Schallplatten zu zerkratzen, zu zerschneiden und neu zu verMeben und spater sogar zu ubermalen, zu vergipsen oder zu verschmoren. Indem er d L e dergestalt manipulierten Tontr^ger „wieder und wieder abspielte (was die Nadel und oft audi den Plattenspieler ruimerte), ergab sich eine vollig neue Musik unerwartet, nervenaufreibend und aggreJiv; Kompositionen, die nur erne Sekunde oder (wenn die Nadel an einem tiefen &atzer hangenbheb und dieselbe Stelle wieder und wieder spielte) unendhch lange dauerten— Indem Knizak Moholy-Nagys „Ritzschrift-ABC" ins Extrem tneb, wurden nicht nur, wie auch bei Moholy-Nagy, erne Aufnahmeapparatur und ,egliches externe Klangereigms uberflusfig, sondern zugleich auch die Gesetze der Notation „Da Musik, die dSrch das Abspielen zerstorter Schallplatten zustande kommt, nicht (oder nur unter groBen Schwiengkeiten) m erne Notenschnft oder erne andere Sprache ubertragen werden kann, konnen die Schallplatten selber zugleich als Notationen verstanden werden"- D a m i t g e h t j ^ uber Moholy-Nagys Ansatz hmaus, dessen Pro,ekt emer ,,Ritzen-Handschnft" an der Idee, oder besser: der Konvention ernes vorgangigen Notationssystems noch festgehalten hatte. Moholy-Nagys Essay „Produktion - Reproduktion" pladiert nicht nur fur erne elementare Erneuerung der Tone^eugung, sondern hat daruber hmaus (nicht zuletzt semen Autor selbst) zu mnovativen Verfahren der mider^ugung mspinert. Auch wenn das Fotogramm in Moholy-Nagys Text von 1922 noch kerne Erwahnung fmdet, so stellt es doch den Prototyp „produktiver" Gestaltung im Bereich des Hides dar und wurde auch fur Moholy-Nagy zum bevorzugten Anwendungsgebiet fur „produktive" BilderzeuguSg. Als entscheidendes Kennzeichen des Fotograrnms gilt im Allgememen, dass es als Ergebms automattschen Handelns entsteht Wie Andreas Haus ausfuhrt, uberHeB Moholy-Nagy „den Prozess der stofflichen Formbildung geradezu begeistert mechamschen Kraften, urn nur noch deren Ttinsatz' zu gestalten. Im Fotogramm tut letzthch das Licht die A r b e i t - l n dieser Prmlegierung des Automatismus im kreativen Prozess zeige sich, so Haus, Moholy-Nagys Verwandtschaft mrc der kunstlenschen Bewegung des Surrealismus- Gerade am Beispiel des Fotograrnms lasst sich ,edoch demonstneren, dass Moholy-Nagyl radikale Hm-

*

Mian KnSak, ^Broken Mus.c", in: Broken Music, Block & Glasmeier p r sgs.), 75.

30 3!

Kni5ak,„Broke„ Music", 75. Haus,W0M^-N^,24.

32

K^La^loMoholy-Na^

11.

Echos von Lasl6 Moholy-Nagys Med.entheone

405

wendung zum Realen, die sich durchaus als „uberrealistisch"33 bezeichnen lasst, ihn wemger mit dem Surrealismus, als vielmehr mit dem Dadatsmus verbindet - erne These, die im Folgenden kurz skizziert werden soil. Dada stand fur em volHg neues Verstandms von Real1Smus in der Kunst Aus der Sicht des Dadaisten Wieland Herzfelde lassen S1ch die Kunstbestrebungen der Moderne „dahm zusammenfassen, daB sie, so verschieden sie auch smd, gememsam die Tendenz haben, S1ch von der Widdichkeit zu eman 2ipi eren"34 D e r I m p r e ssionismus, erne am visuellen Emdruck onentierte Kunst, versuchte die Gegenstande gemaB dem subjekttven Netzhautemdruck festzuhalten. Die dramatische Pinselfuhrung der Express 10 msten stand hingegen im Dienst emer ausdrucksstagernden Deforming von Welt. Die Abstraction loste S1ch schHeBHch ganz von der gegenstandHchen Darstellung und gilt bis heute als Inbegnff von antimtmettscher Kunst. Genau an diesem Punkt setzte der Dadaismus an, mdem er be W1 es, dass man am Prmzip des ReaHsmus festhalten und ^ugktch eme anti-mimetische Haltung emnehmen k o n n e * In semen privilegierten Ausdrucksformen, dem leadymade, der dadaistischen Collage, der Fotomontage, der Merz-Assemblage, der Live- Performance und nicht zuletzt dem Fotogramm, lasst S1ch eme r a d U e Ruckkehr zur Welt der Ob,ekte in ihrer dmghaften, taMkn Dimension erkennen. „Der Dadaismus", brachte es Herzfelde auf den Punkt, „ist die Reaktion auf alle [...] Verleugnungsversuche des TatsachHchen— Eme MogHchkek, „Tatsachliches" m techmsche Reproduktionsmedien wie Fotogratie und Film emzubrmgen, bestand darm, die optischmechanische Aufzeichnungsapparatur, die immer m Distanz zu der aufzuzeichnenden Welt der Ob,ekte agiert, emfach zu uberHsten. Hierfur erwiesen sich zunachst alle Formen der kameralosen BMherstellung als potenziell geeignet. Besondere Bedeutung kam freilich ,enen ,,produktrven" Techniken zu, die nicht nur den Zugnff der Kamera sondern auch ,enen der Hand auBer Kraft setzten und daher als autogenerattve Methoden der BMerzeugung bezeichnet werden. Das Verfahren des Fotogramms ist von dem Begehren getragen, den Abstand zwischen der Welt der Dmge und der Welt der Zeichen zu rninimieren. Die Aufzeichnung durch Kontakt hebt zwar die Distanz zur Sphare der Dmge nicht volHg auf, wohl aber

33

Haus wrist darauf hin, dass Moholy selbst den Ausdmck „ube™alistisch« verwendete (vgl.

Haus,W»M^-N^,ll). 34 33

36

W.eland Herzfelde, „ Z u r Einfuhrung" [1920], in: Die Zvan^erjahn. Mavtfeste undDokumen*, 31-34, 31. T h o m a s Elsaesser b e 2 e l c h n e t d.es als „Dada's a n t i e m e t i c concept of reahsm" (Thomas Elsaesser, „ D a d a / C l n e m a ? " , in: Dada and SurreaMFilm, Rudolf E. Kuensli (Hrsg.), Cambridge M A 1996, 13-27; 22). H e * f e l d e , , , Z u r Einfuhrung'', 31.

406

Gabnelejute

gerat „das reale Ob,ekt raumlich in die grofie Nahe zu semer Abbildung [...], da es buchstabHch auf das Hchtempfmdliche Papier gelegt wird [...]«* Da das Fotogramm erne taktile Relation in das anlonsten per Abstand agierende techmsche Medium der Fotografie emfuhrt, reprasentiert es erne mogHche Antwort auf die dem Medium mharenten „Verleugnungsversuche des Tatsachlichen" Die Art semes Zustandekommens bewett, dass em filmisches Bfld nicht allem durch Lichtabdruck mittels Kamera entsteht, sondern genauso gut der drrekten Ablagerung des Referenten geschuldet sem kann. Wird die von Haus angesprochene „Begeisterung" Moholy-Nagys fur die „automatische" Bflderzeuglmg des Fotogramms aus dem BHckwmkel des Autogenerattven betrachtet, ze& sich, dass Moholy-Nagys Re/Produktionsmodell noch erne Reme weiterer Verfahren der Film- und Medienkunst mit emem vorauseilenden theoretischen Fundament versah. Hierzu zahlen etwa das Mitte der 1950er jahre von dem franzosischen Kunstler Pierre Cordier erfundene Chemiegramm wie auch andere Formen der Bildproduktion, denen em selbsttatiger Prozess zugrunde Hegt. Im Fall des Chemiegramms reagiert das Fotopapier auf die Behandlung mit Chemikalien, wahrend das, was man - m Analogie zu Foto- und Chemiegramm als „Bakteriogramm", „Meteorogramm" und „Pyrogramm" bezeichnen konnte, sich der Emwrrkung von Baktenen, Witterungsemflussen oder Hitze verdankt. So experimentierte beispielsweise der deutsche Kunstler Edgar Lissel m semen kameralosen, nichtsdestoweniger fotografischen Arbeiten mit Cyanobaktenen, welche die erstaunhche Eigenschaft besitzen, auf Licht zu reagieren. Fur Downs Aurea (2005) impragnierte er Gipsplatten mit Baktenenkulturen und behchtete sie mehrere Monate lang mit dem Bfld ernes tefls schon zerfallenen Freskos aus dem Palast Kaise? Neros, dem Domus Aurea. Da sich die Baktenen zum Licht hmbewegen, stellen sie nun genau das wieder her, was sie ursprungHch vermchteten: Das Fresko 'wlchst' sukzessive nach. Von diesem Prozess fertigte Lissel exakte und farbgetreue Fotografien an, womit die bedrohten Bestande zummdest auf dem Papier konsemert w u r d e n In David Gattens What the Water Said, Nos. 1-3 (1997/1998) und What the Water SaM, Nos. 4-6 (2006) smd sowohl der Ton als auch das Bfld „the result of a senes of camera-less collaborations between the filmmaker, the

37 3B

Philippe Dubois, Derfotografische Akt. Versuch iiber an theoretics Dtsposttiv, Amsterdam & Dresden 1998, 92. Vgl. Edgar Lissel, Vom Werden und Vergehen der BiUer, Wien 2008. Vgl. auch Jute, Gnlma

bZt, 263.

Echos von Lasl6 Moholy-Nagys Medientheorie

407

Atlantic Ocean, and a crab t r a p — D e r Klmemacher hatte zu untersclnedHchenjahreszeiten fur ,eweils em bis zwei Tage unbeHchtete Filmstreifen in emer Krabbenfalle vor der Kuste von South Carolina im Meer versenkt. Die Spuren, die Salzwasser, Sand, Felsen, Muscheln und anderes Unterwassergetier hmterlassen haben, smd im Bfld als unterschicdlich tiefe Abschleifungen erkennbar, welche die ,eweils darunter Hegende Farbschicht der Emulsion 2 um Erschemen b r m g e n - Auf der Tonspur werden die Emschreibungen des Ozeans als bruitistisches Klangbild w^hrnehmbar. Als weiteres Beispiel fur „produktive" BMerzeugung mit dem Ausgangsmatenal der Massenreproduktionstechmk Film sei hier erne Arbeit des deutschen Filmproduktionskollektivs Schmelzdahm angefuhrt, das in den 1980er jahren mit baktenologischen, thermischen und chemischen Prozessen zu expenmentieren b e g i n n ^ Stadt m Flammen (1984), emer der ersten auf diese Weise entstandenen Filme, besteht aus emem alten Trailer mit kompnrmerten Actionszenen, der so lange an emer feuchten Stelle in emem Garten lagerte, bis sich Baktenen an der Oberflache des Filmstreifens angesammelt und die Emulsion angegnffen hatten. Beim anschHeBenden Kopieren auf der selbstgebauten optischen Bank durchsengte die Hitze der Projektodampe das Original, sodass es an emigen Stellen wegschmolz oder sich Blasen bildeten. Als Folge der Uberhrczung kam es auch zu Farbveranderungen. Voll von Rissen und Sprungen ermnert Stadt in Flammen an em altes Gemalde, dessen Lasur vom Zahn der Zerc beemtrachtigt worden ist - und belegt emmal mehr die Vielseitigkeit und Komplexita? ,ener kunstlenschen Haltung, deren theoretische Koordmaten Moholy-Nagys Re/Produktionskonzept 1922 in Worte zu fassen begann.

High und Low Wie emgangs aufgezeigt, fasst Moholy-Nagys Theorie zwei paradigmatisch gegensatzHche Modelle kunstlenscher Produktivitat ms Auge: ein handlerkMes Verfahren, reprasentiert durch die Ritzschnft, und erne automattsche Techmk, reprasentiert durch das Fotogramm. Diese Berucksichtigung zweier gegenlaufiger Tendenzen kunstlenscher Produkion besitzt weSrei! chende Konsequenzen in HmbHck auf die Verortung von Moholy-Nagys Text im Spannungsfeld von Ugh und hm> culture. Efes deshalb, weil die ^

Filmbeschreibung des Vedeihs Canyon Cinema aitiert nach < h t t p : / / c a n y o n c m e m a . c o m /G/Gatten.html>.

*

Die Emuls.on von Farbfilmen besteht aus d r a Sch.chten, von denen je erne fiir die Wiedergabe der d r e l Grundfarben Rot, Griin und Blau verantwortKch ist Die Gruppe Schmelzdahm ex.stierte von 1983 bis 1989. Ihr gehorten Jochen Lempert, JochenMullerundJurgenReblean.

«

408

Gabnelejutz

Front der Ausemandersetzung 2 w l schen Kritikern massenkultureller Phanomene und ihren Befurwortern genau entlang der Trennlime von Modemismus und Avantgarde verlauft (worauf msbesondere die USamerikamschen cultural studtes der 1980er jahre hmwiesen). Wahrend die Avantgarde die Massenkultur geradezu euphonsch begriiBte, gmg bzw geht der Modermsmus zu ihr entschieden auf Distanz,was u.a Andreas Huyssen veranlasste, von einem ..great divide" zwischen Modermsmus und mass culture zu sprechen.42 Wie auch Laura Kipnis konstatiert, war der Ausschluss der Massenkultur geradezu erne Seinsbedmgung des Modermsmus: ..modernism [is] constituted solely within this split! and existing only so long as it could keep its Other - the popular, the low [...] and the i m p u r e - a t bay"43 Moholy-Nagys Aufsatz ..Produktion - Reproduktion" wurde mit Recht als Reaktion auf die zunehmend automatisierte Produktionsweise des Industnezeitalters mterpretiert. Wie (emmal mehr) Andreas Haus hervorhob, boten „Fotogramme[..] erne fast einzigartige Moglichkeit, kunstlenschen Fortschntt mit dem Fortschntt der techmschen Produktionsmittel zu verknupfen, und waren so ein wertvolles Legitimationsmittel fur die Stellung der Kunst in der modernen Welt— Erne emseitige Konzentration auf den Fortschnttsgedanken unter der Agide des Fotogramms hat ,edoch vielfach den Blick darauf verstellt, dass sich Moholy-Nagys Text mcht nur emer Lesart im Zeichen des Modermsmus anbietet, sondern zugleich ein Symptom fur ,ene Eroswn der GrenZen zwischen Ugh und bn> culture darstellt die sich mit den Avantgarden der 1920er jahre anbahnte. Urn diesen Aspekt praziser zu fassen, ist erne Fokussierung auf genau ,ene Aspekte von Moholy-Nagys Theone notwendig, wo der ngide Gegensatz zwischen emem angeblich progressiven Modermsmus und emer regressiven Massenkultur zusammenbricht. Anders ausgedruckt: Was macht das 'Niedere' in Moholy-Nagys Ansatz aus? Zunachst sei daran ermnert, dass die Masse gerade dort ins Blickfeld gerat, wo sich Moholy-Nagy der Technologie zuwendet. Sem Interesse an den Massenmedten, die ublicherweise kommerziell und konventional genutzt werden, gilt dabei emer Erneuerung ihrer Ingebrauchnahme mit dem Ziel, die ..bedrohliche 'Fremdheit' der techmschen Produktionsprozesse aufzusprengen" und Kunst mittels Technologie zu politisieren Diesen ideologisch fortschnttlichen Gedanken will Moholy Nagy allerdings uber den *

Vgl. Andreas Huyssen, After the Great D.nde. Moderns,

Mass Culture, Postmodern^,

Bloo-

nlgtonl986. «

Laura Kipnis, ,,'Refunctioning' reconsidered: towards a left popular culture", in: H,gh Theory/hi Culture. Analysmg Popular Telenston and Him, Colin MacCabe (Hrsg.), N e w York 1986,11-36,21.

«

Yl,us,LasKlo

Moholy-Nagy, 11.

Echos von Lasl6 Moholy-Nagys Med.entheone

409

Weg ernes techmschen 'Ruckschntts' in die Tat umsetzen: Er propagiert erne produktive Nutzung der Apparatur, welche die techmschen Standards ignoriert und daher als L techzu beschreiben ist. Gegenuber dem Fotogramm-Modelk das wegen seiner automatischen Genese dazu verfuhrt, den Fortschnttsgedanken in Moholy-Nagys Medientheone zu verabsolutieren, stellt das mZschnft-Moddl dzs entscheidende Korrektiv dar: Mit der Rite schrift vollzieht Moholy-Nagy erne Ruckkehr zu emer vormodernen Form von kunstlenscher Produktion, die sich an Handschnftlichkerc onentiert und daher, wie Johanna Drucker prazisiert, als „most elemental form of self-expression"^ anzusehen ist Moholy-Nagys Ruckgnff auf handwerkHche, vormoderne und vorapparattve Formen der Kunstproduktion darf ,edoch kemesfalls mit emer nostalgischen Haltung des ZuruckbHckens gleichgesetet werden. Seme Revalidierung von / . ^ - V e r f a h r e n fordert vielmehr dazu auf, das Verhaltms von Avantgarde und techmschem Fortschntt ebenso zu uberdenken wie ,enes zwischen den Gegensatzpaaren Ugh und hm> culture emersercs, ^und^anderersercs. Das Zusammenfmden von 'uberholter' Technik mit aktueller Theone und Praxis, das Moholy-Nagy in „Produktion - Reproduktion" als Ausweg aus den Aponen ^ z w der Dialektik) der modernen Massenmedien enttirft, wird damit mcht zuletzt von emem demokratiepolitischen AnHegen getragen. Wenn es moghch ist, techmsche Tone oder Bilder ohne Aufnahmeapparatur herzustellen, dann ist Medienkunst mcht langer erne exklusive A^gelegenheit von Eliten - sie steht auch ,enen offen, die nicht uber adaquate Produktionsmittel verfugen.

«

D i c k e r , Theon^ngUodermsn,,

122.

Modernism in the Ether: Middlebrow Perspectives on European Literature in Flemish Radio Talks (1936-37) Koen Rymenants (Radboud Umversiteit Nijmegen) Pieter Verstraeten (K.U.Leuven / FWO) In present-day modernism studies, sustained attention for well-known texts and authors from the modernist canon is often complemented by an interest in their broader context Besides attempts to revise or expand the canon from perspectives such as gender and intermedial^, two ma,or trends can be distinguished in this respect. On the one hand, several recent studies examine the reception of modernist authors and the development of modernist literary practices in different cultural contexts, including those that are perceived as more peripheral in the international literary system.^ On the other hand, there is £ increasing interest in the interrelations between "highbrow" modernism and "middlebrow" or 'lowbrow" culture, especially the dissemination of modernism through the mass media and the ways in which literary and critical discourse bring together various cultural strata.^ In this essay, we combine both approach esfdemonstrating their relevance and reflecting on their implications. Our point of departure is a case study into a series of talks on "Modern Western European Literature" ("De Moderne West-Europeesche Letterkunde") that was broadcast by the Dutch-speaking service of Belgian public radio in 1936-37.* 1

A general overview of recent developments is provided by Douglas Mao & Rebecca L. Walkowitz, "The N e w Modernist Studies", in: PMLA, 123, 2008, 37737-48.

2

Examples include the "National and Transnational Modernisms" section in Peter Brooker etal (eds.), The OxfordHandbook of Moderns, Oxford 2010, 763-1011, and the volumes of the Athlone CntualTraMons W dealing with the European reception of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and D . H . Lawrence. E.g. A n n L. Ardis, Moderns and Cultural Confict 1880-1922, Cambridge 2002. The implications of this approach for literary historiography are shown by Chris Baldick, The Modern Movement. The Oxford Engish Uterary H^VoluL 10: 1910-1940, Oxford 2005. This essay is a thoroughly reworked version of an article that we have published in Dutch: K o e n Rymenants & Pieter Verstraeten, "Europese literatuur voor luisteraars verklaard. D e

3

4

Middlebrow Perspectives on European Literature in Flemish Radio Talks (1936-37)

411

Although as a geographic region Flanders (the Northern, Dutchspeaking part of Belgium) is located in the very heart of Western Europe, it is only of penpherS significance when it comes to European literary life. Because of this double position, perhaps, Flemish literature has a long tradition of drawing on foreign models for its inspiration. During the mterwar period, more specifically, the Flemish literary system seems to have dealt with international modernism in two distinct ways.^ A first option consisted of adopting modernism as a frame of reference or even a guideline for indigenous literary practice. The Antwerp poet, prose writer and cntic Paul van Ostai,en (1896-1928) is the most canonical representative of this strategy.6 During his short life, Van Ostaiien moved swiftly from impressionist and unanknist poetry to the ideas and techniques of Expressionism and Dadaism, leavmg as his final legacy a posthumously published volume of highly autonomist modernist poems. In his critical writings, as well, he quickly assimilated different literary movements, only to re,ect them shortly afterwards in the typical fashion of the avant-garde At the complete opposite of this assimilation strategy, which associates modernism with innovation, a cosmopolitan outlook, and a much-desired renewal of the Flemish literary tradition, stands a strategy of downright reaction. This stance is perhaps best illustrated by the critical texts of me traditionalist Catholic priest Jons Eeckhout (1887-1951), who subscribed to a set of humanist ideas on literature that were shared by many. Indeed, his perception of modernism as a threat to aesthetic, moral and religious values may be considered the standard position in mterwar Flemish literature.? Van Ostai,en's embrace of modernism, on the other hand, was the province of a small avant-garde. Even Gerard Walschap (1898-1989), whose work was instrument in liberating the Flemish novel from traditional conventions/ remained hesitant in his critical appraisal of modern-

5 « 7

B

radiole 21 ng als vorm van middlebrow-literatuurbeschouwing tijdens net interbellum", in: TtjdsMftlorNederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 125, 2009, 1, 55-80. We would like to thank An Goris for her remarks on an earlier draft. Dirk D e Geest, "Modernisme in de Vlaamse literatuur", in: Modem,Slne(n) in de Europese letterkunde 1910-1940,],n Baetens et al. (eds.), Leuven 2003, 23-43. Jaap Goedegebuure, "Between T w o World Wars, 1916-1940", in: A Uterary Htstory of the iZcountnl^o Hermans (ed.), Rochester N Y &Woodbridge 2009, 532-72, esp. 532-38. Dirk D e Geest, "The Critic as Catholic: Autonomy and Heteronomy in Flemish Criticism Between the Wars", in: The Autonomy ofUterature J A, Fins de Sticks (1900 and 2000): A Critical Asxssmnt, Gillis J. Dorleijn ,/ al. (eds.), Leuven 2007, 159-74. Goedegebuure, "Between Two World Wars, 1916-1940", 559-60.

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Koen Rymenants & Keter Verstraeten

ism, appearing fascinated yet also somewhat perplexed by authors like Robert Musrl Sid Thomas Mann.* Strategies to import modernism into, or exclude it from, the Flemish mterwar lkerary system were not limited, however, to the two well-known options described above. There was, in other words, a third way, different from the outlook of modernism's proponents and practitioners as well as from that of its fiercest critics. This dternative, that arose from a more didactical, middlebrow perspective on literature, has until now received relatively little attention in studies on the influence of modernism in Flanders This can be explained by the fact that it often employed new genres and media, notably radio, that tend to fall outside the scope of traditional reception studies.

Literature for Listeners and Readers: Aspects of Middlebrow Criticism In 1930, the Belgian Parliament passed a law that founded a National Institute for Radio Broadcasting (Nationaal Instituut voor Radro-Omroep or Institut National de Radiodiffusion, NIR/INR). The NIR went into the ether on 1 February 1 9 3 1 - Its mission was akin to the Rekhian model of broadcasting as developed by the BBC: to inform, to educate, to entertain. Although the main focus was on entertainment (sports reporting, plays, and especially music), the two other functions became increasingly important m the course of the 1930s." The NIR's Annual Reports for this decade show a marked increase in and differentiation of so-called "spokenword broadcasts": news bulletins, documentaries, interviews, literal readings, book reviews, and various talks including the series on "Modern Western European Literature". The series started on 30 May 1936 and ended on 7 October of the same year. In total it consisted of eight talks: two dealing with English literature, two with German literature! and one each for French, Belgian francophone, Flemish, and Dutch literature. Somewhat separately from the original series, two talks on Spanish and two on Italian literature were '

Elke Brems, " H e t vagevuur van het modernisme. Walschaps houding ten op 2 1 chte van het international modernisme", in: Gerard Wakchap. Regtonaht of Europeeer? (1922-1940), Lut Missinne & Hans Vandevoorde (eds.), Antwerpen & Apeldoorn 2007, 57-70.

10

The N I R / I N R was a bilingual state institution. Nevertheless, the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking services came to operate more and more independently, especially following an administrative reorganisation in 1937. All of what follows pertains to the Dutchspeaking (Flemish) service The early history of radio broadcasting in Belgium is summarized by Cas Goossens, Rad,o en teleL in Vlaanderen. Ben gesMeden^ Leuven1998, 35-58.

»

Marc Reynebeau, "Cultuur. Mensen 2 o n d e r eigenschappen", in: De Jaren '30 in Belgte. De massa in verlaMng, Ronny Gobyn & Winston Spriet (eds.) s.l. 1994, 13-73, esp. 48-52.

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413

broadcast in the spring of 1 9 3 7 - No recordings of these talks are available. Therefore, our main source of information consists of the printed texts in the series of "Programme Brochures" that the NIR started publishing in 1936. These brochures rendered a selection of the fleeting broadcasts more permanent and complemented them with a visual com ponent through the use of illustrationsThe close connection between the brochures and the actual broadcasts is evidenced by the many references to the original speaking situation that they still contain. In their texts, the speakers regularly refer, for instance, to the limited time (not: space) they have at their disposal: "After having discussed briefly the essay! the novel and the short story in contemporary English literature, my task is becoming yet more difficult: I want to give you an idea of drama and poetry in a quarter of an h o u r " " Similarly; quotations from the authors under discussion are often introduced by directly addressing the listener: "Listen, for a moment, to the description of lie journey fiom Ostend [m Aldous Huxley's 'Uncle Spencer']"^ Belgian radio had a large audience: between 1930 and 1940 the number of wireless sets per 100 people rose from 0.9 to 12, which meant that the ma,onty of families owned a s e t - The brochures, as well, must have been accessible to many, as these were sold through newsagents for 2 Belgian francs, i.e. about the price of a quality weekly magazine. The instalments of "Modern Western European Literature" were printed in 2500 or 3000 copies." By the end of 1938, all copies had been s o l d - In comparison to the potential total of radio listeners, a few thousand is, of course, not exactly a mass audience. The talks (and others like them) seem to have been geared towards a more limited, non-specialist but nevertheless educated audience interested in culture and the arts.

12

T w o Similar talks on South African literature, and a later, separate series on Scandinavian literature both fall outside the scope of this essay, but would be interesting material for further research.

«

The BBC's weekly The Listener served a similar purpose, providing "the necessary auxiliaries" to listening: "the printed word, the picture, and the diagram" See D e b r a Rae Cohen, "Modernism on Radio", in: The Oxford Handbook of ModernL, Peter Brooker et al. (eds.), Oxford 2010, 582-98, esp. 589.

"

Fran 2 de Backer, De Moderne West-E«roPeesChe Utterkunde 1914, Bmssel 1936, 17. All translations are our own.

15

D e Backer, De Engekche Utterkunde, 13.

I: De Engekche Utterkunde

16

Reynebeau, "Cultuur. Mensen 2 o n d e r eigenschappen", 48.

" IB

jaarvenlag van hetN.I.R. Dtenstjaar 1936, Brussel s.d. [1937], 90. Jaarvenlag van het N.I.K Dtenstjaar 1937, Brussel s.d. [1938], 133; Jaarvenlag van het menstjaar 1938, Bmssel s.d. [1939], 170.

stnds

N.I.K

414

K e e n Rymenants & Keter Verstraeten

Th1S was not only in line with the NIR's general policy » but is also confirmed by the texts themselves. The large numbers of names, titles, dates and concepts that are mentioned seem hard to digest (even in their printed form) unless one has at least a sketchy idea of European literary history. Moreover, the speakers sometimes explicitly appeal to their listeners' pre-existing knowledge. Discussing characterization in the novels of Joseph Conradffor example, De Backer notes that what is new in Conrad "can best be understood by thinking for a moment of a Balzac character, and then of a character in Dostoevfky»*> The talks' turning away from a real mass audience is perhaps marked most explicitly by a few statements to the effect that popular literature is not their main subject "But those [novels] that we will deal with, are not the ones that usually arouse the Interest of the masses",- "Literary drama, usually less appreciated by the common theatre-goer, is really marvellous".Given the lack of further historical documentation, the listeners' profile necessarily remains feidy vague. The identity of the speakers is clearer, at least at first sight. There are four academic specialists among them: Franz de Backer (English literature), Robert Gmette (Belgian francophone literature), joe Larochette (Spanish literature), and Robert van Nuffel (Italian literature). The other speakers are literary authors and critics: Frans Smks (French literature), Fernand Victor Toussamt van Boelaere (Flemish literature), and Urbain van de Voorde (German literature). Apparently, the NIR's literary advisor, writer Raymond Brulez (who acted as specialist on Dutch literature himself), relied to a large extent on his personal network m setting up the series. A lot could be said about these speakers' literary work, their institutional positions, their aesthetics, etc., but it is striking how little attention is paid to this kind of information in the brochures themselves. The academics are identified by brief mentions of their titles ("Prof. Dr." or "Dr."), but no further biographical information is provided about any of the speakers. Their specific identities - as individuals or as members of a larger group - do not seem to matter. The logic of the senes seems to be that the NIR has engaged a number of experts to speak on its behalf on themes that it has chosen In light of the overall profile of the texts, the speakers and the intended public, the "Modern Western European Literature" series can be regarded as a typically middlebrow phenomenon. The middlebrow is usu» 20

Jaarversiag van ietN.I.R. Dunstjaar 1930-1931, Bmssel s.d. [1932], 34. D e Backer, De Lngekche Letterkunde, 8.

^

Frans Smks & Robert Guiette, De Moderne West-Luropeesche Letterkunde II: De Fransde Letterkunde smds 1914. Ill: DeFrans-BelgMe Letterkunde s J 1914,BtusSel 1936, 18. D e Backer, De Lngekche Letterkunde, 11. Cf. Jaarvershg van hetN.I.R. D,enStjaar 1930-1931, 34.

* 23

Middlebrow Perspectives on European Literature in Flemish Radio Talks (1936-37)

415

ally described as a segment of culture somewhere in between the highbrow culture of a cultural elite and more popular, lowbrow forms of culture. It is often associated with the middle classes.- During the interwar period, it was heavily debated* but also flourished both in a type of literacy production that has been described as "an essentially parasitical form/dependent on both a high and a low brow for its identity, reworking their structures and aping then: insights",- and in specific types of distribution and reception, including book clubs, university extension programmes, forms of book reviewing, etc.- The middlebrow consisted, in other words, of a range of practices aimed at making "high" culture available to a wider public The series of talks clearly matches this general description. Moreover, the development of middlebrow culture has often been related to the rise of new media such as radio, e.g. by Joan Shelley Rubin in her discussion of American book programmes-The NIR's Programme Brochures, in turn, can be related to what Rubin has called "the vogue of the 'outline'", i.e. the mterwar popularity of "summaries, in a single, readable work, of the facts ostensibly comprising a given s u b j e c t This genre appealed to a certain sense of "uneasiness about the specialization of knowledge" and was made possible by "a cadre of authors who were unapologetic generalists - individuals who believed in the ability of ordinary persons to grasp what they had to say— Interestingly, Rubin has also characterized literal radio broadcasts as "discrete packages of knowledge, as if they were aural 'outlines'"-

24

Stefan Collin, Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain, Oxford 2006, 111; Joan Shelley Rubin, The Making of Middlebrow Culture, Chapel Hill & London 1992, 31-33; Nicola H u m b l e , The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohem,an,sm, Oxford 2004, 10-11.

2=

Collini, Absent Minis, 112-119; Rubin, The Making ofMiddlebrow Culture, xii-xv; H u m b l e , The Fem.n.ne Middlebrow Novel, 15-24.

26

H u m b l e , The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 11-12.

n

Examples are discussed by Collini, Absent Minds, 112-113, and Rubin, The Making of Middle-

2B

Rubin, The Making of Middlebrow Culture, 266-329. See also Rae Cohen, "Modernism on Radio", 588.

29

R u b i n , The Making

of Middlebrow

Culture,

30

R u b i n , The Making

of Middlebrow

Culture,

210.

3!

R u b i n , The Making

of Middlebrow

Culture,

268.

brow

Culture.

209.

416

K e e n Rymenants & Pieter Verstraeten

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9n nope Ao-inc* pot- 0"^ auMTia T4 npAio oaSaTonupio^o ioO >oeu0ploJ *cl ™ i t i i T * " ' ™ V aiHlpo TOixa I1" fcvo pdSwo Aaorixewo oaMA 10& *GnoT.e SiappilvvJEnriv Sftpa *fli nvnivEL Eua |iL*p6 «uAi»£ia * U K « ; Kfll YU0>lva«OK«M 06 xpiiua Tiaoie*- 6pi*e- KI 5J>aq noAii buvaia. Bfl K « » D V eF*"-n apaioi pnpocrra OT'IV nCora nal 8a e^a*ovion>(j« dpyd avow?™ o.ic; nkatcs TOU nr'oapouioiJ 90 UelVOU* p $ w TO naumva UJKLO inq ™ tninAxouu. i r t S* riEpicKu^iiiflO«(iyrtui)lpqan\oL.01«iii«Eii;tt5riiWti'eiC1'lvri6Mva[4v4 »cb TO TiiAi^S i"i mvi|DEi(; tpJiOK ia> 10 HOhMJllUC dvoiieaa oro Bav-tia Kdi ni yAcb™Wi rou... AapfldVDUM T V KOVIV k^-iaW TfldfiVTlXEIRWHO" IO& BEiMOU BQL llf|V P9VOUV. •SUiOLinv-iona&f-rrnCn/ t"J r f f i Bdaraoe; rati pEydAou Sam0J*u FUDII^V iripotl^ouv npo? "rtiu pivni1" ^ypaJ.riv TTi 9OTIHJ;"II niitpotl f« xaptou ouiT|vaplou nfipE T*)tf Rn»t BaXiKJO. ftTdv aaSeid «ai j i i i p i * . E^a^e rAav.aOTd 6A0 To. KCOipOliia TOU i>0' I * MM»>ntmiR5iH0O, p'ou cira. EXa potipou oro nAaio y o i Einc TiHyawc pE TO^t; aW^uC. To OTOpaXI UOU «nun voiipcaa. Bi ntuu orf|\ ivGpijv. 9d Bpeco vd anq Bfxi o p v ^ ^ p c Bc-w EPXEKTI dpvdTEDa. oiJTE rane. V n v W I E ™KJ dpYd va tfnweouuE IJJEIw£ Via navrn enic; TOUOMITES ttii* i n r i p i u . IJ6«3 a r t n\alo n v m l oio556P-ri. fUipnin and information that makes life possible according to new models. The grid, when activated, creates a situation of Cartesian plan in which every point is described by the intersection of two straight lines, which is, of course, to be understood, not only in the physical sense, but as a visual-verbal metaphor for the rational and ordered distribution of resources". This efficient and equal allocation across the breadth of the occupied territory means first of all increased mobility, smce any location will provide means of subsistence as adequately as any other: one need not remain tethered to house, city or municipality. Another important feature of this grid, or any grid, is that it levels out all points: with a lack of hierarchy or focal point any spot within the matrix is as important as any other. Thus, to participate in me post-industrial

12

Reyner Banham, " A H o m e is N o t a H o u s e " , in: Reyner Banham: Destgn by Choue, Penny Sparke(ed.), N e w York 1981, 56.

13

Superstudio, "Inventory, Catalogue, Systems of Flux... a Statement", 166.

A Tentative Embrace: S u p e r s t o r e ' s N e w Media N o m a d s

465

ecology that Superstudio imagines is to expenence a sense of space in which power is evenly distributed everywhere. Or, as they suggest, "Every pomt will be the same as any other. So having chosen a random point on the map, we'll be able to say 'My house will be here for three days, or two months or ten years'". According to the group, then, egalitananism and parity pervade the spaces where the grid expends. Superstudio, therefore, argues for what art historian Rosalind Krauss termed the "centrifugal" force of such matrices in her essay titled "Grids". Because of the regular and unceasing repetition of the lines that extend in all directions, the grid is thought of as potentially infinite, expansionist and utterly ignorant of borders or boundaries, not to mention hierarchies. In terms of modernist painting, this has the effect of "dematenalrzing" the surface of the painting as its lines conceivably extend beyond the canvas edge. Similarly, in Superstudio's work the grid is not valued for its material clwactenstics It does not parcel out territory into discrete units, for instance; neither do the grid lines serve as transportation conduits, like an urban grid might. It expends everywhere equally and with unerring repetition, dematerializmg architecture (the network of wires may eventually disappear entirely under the surface of the earth), rather than thickening and condensing periodically to animate specific points along the way. Surface not only "dematenalizes" architecture but also "detemtorializes", as Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattan define the term in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Sch^ophrema, their study on late capitalism. Importantly, for Deleuze and Guattan, as well as for Superstudio, the figure of the nomad is used as a central figure to illustrate how the sub,ect navigates this radically open environment First, for the nomad, the individual pomts that are visited during his ,ourney are subordinate to the path that he takes: "Every pomt is a relay and exists only as a relay. A path is always between two pomts, but the in-between has taken on all the consistency and enjoys both an autonomy and a direction of its own. The life of the nomad is the intermezzo. Even the elements of his dwelling are conceived in terms of the tra,ectory that is forever mobilizing t h e m " " Thus, the nomad is marked primarily by constant movement; the pomts that he visits along the way ("water pomts, dwelling pomts, assembly pomts, etc.") are not important for any material reality or local interest, but for the fact that they delineate his course and make possible further movement.

"

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattan, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Brian Massumi (trans.), Minneapolis 1987, 380.

466

RossICElflme

Equally important, therefore, is the function assigned to the grid. Indeed, as architectural historian Mark Wigley stated, m a different context, networks are "pure function".* As to the nature of the nomad's trajectory, D e l e t e and Guattan state, "Even though the nomadic tra,ectory may follow trails or customary routes, it does not fulfill the function of the sedentary road, which is to parcel out a closed space to people, assigning each person a share and regulating the communication between shares. The nomadic tra,ectory does the opposite; it dtstnbutes people (or ammals) m an open space, one that is indefinite and noncommunicating"- Thus while country roads, for instance, will mark out segments of farm land so that they may be divided and sold amongst land owners, the nomadic routes that D e l e t e and Guattan describe serve merely to scatter their users. Similarly, Superstudio's Supersurface would appear to be a tool primarily of movement and of distribution of bodies and information. The grid lines do not demarcate a space parceled out for land speculators; it merely facilitates the haphazard circulation of the nomadic individuals who use it Of course, D e l e t e and Guattan were not the first theorists to equate personal liberation, nomadism, and new technologies. In Superstudio's own time, the media theorist Marshall McLuhan also looked to the nomad as a useful metaphor for the new, technological sub,ect. In his influential and widely read 1964 book Understanding Medta: The Extenstons of Man, McLuhan details how computer-driven mechanisms will serve to liberate the human psyche from its attachment to the mundane and repetitive tasks associated with industrial technologies, thus freeing individuals to wander and explore. "Men are suddenly nomadic gatherer? of knowledge, nomadic as never before, informed as never before! free from fragmentary specialization as never before - but also involved in the total process as never before; since with electricity we extend our central nervous system globally, instantly interrelating every human experience"" According to McLuhan, the ability to allow computers to take over many of the tasks once given over to human hands will cause only a temporary crisis in the manufacturing industry. Eventually, everyone wHl extend his or her knowledge through a wide-ranging liberal education and connect with fellow

15

Mark Wigley, "Network Fever", in: Grey Room, 4, 2001, 82-122. The whole quotation reads as follows: "Buildings are 'shells' for m o v e m e n t patterns that reach out far beyond them. Whereas buildings house function, networks are pure function, function without shell. If m o d e r n architects are serious in their commitment to function, they will have to reduce their fixation on shells and become responsible for networks" (88).

« «

D e l e t e and G u a t t a n , ^ Thousand Plateaus, 380; italics in the original text. Marshall McLuhan, Understand,ngMedta: The EXtens,ons ofMan, Cambridge MA. 1994 (1964), 358.

A Tentative Kmbrace: Superstudio's N e w Media N o m a d s

467

Fig. 77: Superstudio, Supersutface. Photomontage, 1972. Courtesy Cnstiano Toraldo di Francia.

intellectual nomads in what he termed the "global village", which is not a physical site, but rather, much like the Supersutface that Superstudio projects, an extensive communication network that unites geographically and demographically disparate individuals.18 McLuhan's writing is tinged with the flavor of a science fiction pulp novel in its unbridled utopianism for a technologically superior futureworld. In the Supersutface Km Superstudio, too, proceeds to speculate about the many sci fi-inspired features that would be included in this new environment. One result would be the eventual creation of an everthinner architecture that increases the human being's ability to interact with his or her environment. "Bidonvilles, drop-out city, camping sites, slums, tendopoles, or geodetic domes are all different expressions of an analogous attempt to control the environment by the most economical means. The membrane dividing exterior and interior becomes increasingly tenuous: the next step will be the disappearance of this membrane and the control of the environment through energy (air-cushions, artificial air ">

"As electrically contracted, the globe is no more than a village. Klectnc speed in bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion has heightened h u m a n awareness of responsibility to an intense degree. It is this implosive factor that alters the position of the Nepro, the teen-ager, and some other p-roups. They can no loncrer be contained, in the political sense of limited association. The are n o w Jolved in our L s , as we in theirs, thanks to the electric media". McLuhan, Understanding Media, 6.

468

RossICElflme

currents, barriers of hot and cold air, heat-radiating plates, radiation surfaces, etc.)— Furthermore, another result would be the eventual creation of technologically enhanced individuals. See, for example, one of their stated hypomeses for "survival strategies" in the new world they imagine: "the creation and development of servoskm: personal control of the environment through thermal regulation, techniques for breathing, cyborgs... mental expansion, full development of senses, techniques of body control (and initially, chemistry and medicine)"- Indeed, humankind will develop both telekmetic and telepathic powers: "We'll carry out astonishing mental operations. Perhaps we'll be able to transmit thoughts and images. Then one happy day our minds will be in communication with that of the whole world" Like me network itself, Surface's users may themselves become pure function. It is important to pursue further Superstudio's complex position vis-avis the mediums and technologies of advanced capitalism. For on the one hand, they have by now rejected the consumer ob^ct as foreclosed to any Hberatory potential while embracing a host of communications technologies that facilitate the flow of those same ob,ects. The mechanized house acts as a barrier between the individual and his immediate environment, and yet a network of wires and cables may enable a more sustained connection to the earth and its inhabitants. As Felicity Scott has observed, Superstudio and their cohorts "subscribed neither to the historical avantgarde strategies of opposition (now regarded as ineffectual because of the totalized condition) nor to the modermst ideals of technologically driven progress (rendered ever more disturbing by the nature of a new generation of technology). Rather, their strategies involved an imperative for architecture to remain engaged with those systems while not just submitting to t h e m " - It is this sense of sustained personal engagement with the means of communications themselves that sets apart Superstudio's position from others of their generation. In short, it is feedback that must be incorporated into the network's design, for without it, the individual becomes subservient to the totalizing logic of the system itself, an "authoritarian structure in which the individual has no possibility for the independent exercise of his own choices", as Italian writer Filiberto Menna declared in his catalog essay for Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.^

»

S u p e r s t a t e , "Description of the Microevent/Microenvironment", in: Italy: The fc Domestic Landscape, 244. "Bidonville" is a French term used to describe slums on the outskirts of a large urban area. The term was m o s t often used in reference to shantytowns on the outskirts of Tunisian and Moroccan cities.

20

Superstudio, "Description of the Microevent", 244.

a

Felicity Scott, Architecture or Techno-utopa: PoBtics After Moderns,

22

Filiberto Menna, " A Design for N e w Behaviors", in: Italy: The Ne„ Domestic Landscape, 412.

Cambridge M A 2007, 141.

A Tentative Embrace: S u p e r s t o r e ' s N e w Media N o m a d s

469

Indeed, Superstudio's global nomads do not merely receive services from the grid, they use it as a communications tool as well. Unlike the dnver in his racecar, the network user interacts with other users, not just the reified mechanical object Thus connected, the individuals can use the network to radically communitarian ends, forming alliances and relationships across great distances. This is an architecture not of physical proximity, but of dispersed communities who use the technolog> provided to form new "spaces": "We'll talk a lot, to ourselves and to everybody", the film's voice-over intones. Additionally, "We'll be able to create and transmit visions and images", demonstrating that the network they foresee is indeed a recursive system in which the nomadic residents are the ones who provide the information that will be transmitted along its power lines. The result is that, "One happy day our minds will be m communication with that of the whole world" Therefore, while it must be admitted that Superstudio subscribes to a sometimes-naive faith in technology, in their scheme the individual is less beholden to the technologies themSlves than m previous tech-sawy avant-garde pro,ects, such as tiiose by the British Archigram group, whose Plug-In G ^ w a s controlled by an unseen power source - The megastructure into which Supersufface's nomadic resident plugs is one that the individuals themselves control to an extent not seen before. Superstudio, therefore, counters the Utopian pro,ects of both the Modern Movement and its critics that determine, with autocratic precision, the lifestyles and activities of those who live within the strict parameters established by the designer. With Supersurface, Superstudio wishes to provide a framework in which mdividual users become the designers of their own environment. In the end, the effects of Superstudio's pervasive grid are profoundly political. While the social basis of their proposal is the abstention from work and alienated labor production in favor of a sybaritic lifestyle of freewheeling pleasure, the potential for feedback within the system and the ability to net work disparate populations speaks to the radical possibility of political agency. It is not justlhat the nomads who range over me integrated surface of the earth have "dropped out" of the institutions of corporate culture; it is the fact that they are also connected to each other by the communications web that makes meir counterculture actions take on a different character; they have insinuated themselves into the architectural fabric of the environment, where their actions can neither be controlled nor sanctioned. They are in continual movement, and can appear at any point along the grid at any mo-

23

See, for instance, Simon Sadler, who claimed that Archigram's megastmctures "made sense to those without a knee-jerk reaction against technocracy", in: Architecture Without ArcUtecture, Cambridge MA. 2005, 121.

470

RossICElfline

ment As such, as D e l e t e and Guattan also noted, "The nomad reterntorial12es on d e t e r i o r a t i o n i t s e l f - T h e nomad does inhabit the spaces he occupies, but that very space is everywhere; it is the surface of the earth itself As the authors go on to say, the nomad possesses speed, rather than mere movement, and this quality allows him to suffuse himself furtively into any available space: "Movement designates the relative character of a body considered as W , and which goes from point to point; speed, on the contrary, consumed the absolute character of a body whose trreduabk parts (atoms) occupy or fill a

smooth space m the manner of a vortex, with the possibility of springing up at any p o i n t - It is this randomness, the ability to appear at any pomt witiiin the space of the grid, either physically or virtually that provides him with the authority to control the system itself, to use its tools against autocratic authority and to stage insurgencies as he sees fit. Expanding on D e l e t e and Guattan's analysis of the nomad, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, in Empin, similarly claimed that, "The power to Circulate is a primary determination of the virtually of the multitude, and circulating is the first ethical act of a countenmpenal o n t o l o g y - Ultimately, they claim, it is "through circulation [that] the multitude reappropnates space and constitutes itself as an active s u b j e c t - T h l s power to "spring up" at any point and to circulate widely around the globe with ease leads to a renewed sense of the body and the environment, as Superstudio suggested, but they, along with Deleu/e and Guattan (and Hardt and Negri) alsfsee this as the basic precondition for a newly active sub,ect who uses the tools and technologies of postindustnal capitalism to discover their political sub,ectivities as well In the final analysis, we are witness to an historical moment in which mediums, separated from the messages they contain, represented opportunities for tremendous social and political agency. The domestic landscape of consumer goods could be abandoned in favor of communications technologies, even as those same channels, in other hands, grease the wheels for furfier consumption. What seems an apparent contradiction, however, may appear otherwise when considered from another angle. Both Superstudio and Del e t e and Guattan speak not only of nomadsfbut of viruses, too. And while those communications channels may be used to sell us the latest iPhone model, they also create new spaces of habitation, spaces that spread and proliferate, creating hydra-headed communities that ignore national boundaries and authoritarian hierarchies. This is not an architecture of rootedness, or of place, but of transient occupation and cunning insurrection.

24 *

D e l e t e and G u a t t a n , ^ Thousand Plateaus, 381. D e l e t e and G u a t t a n , ^ Thousand Plateaus, 381, italics in the original text.

26

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Bmpm, Cambridge M A 2000, 363.

•n

Hardt and Negri, Bmpm, 397.

Index

Abakanowicz,Magdalena,253,254,255, 256,257,258,259,261,262,263,264 Abbott, G.F., 46 Abramowicz, Maurice, 169 Acel, Pal, 380, 381, 388, 389, 391 Adam, Antoine, 307 Adamson, Glenn, 261, 262, 263 Ades, D a w n , 287

Arendt, H a n n a h , 460 Arensberg,Walter,16,17,18,28,287 Arland, Marcel, 222 Aron, Raymond, 85 Aronpuro,Kari,248,249,250 Arseniou,Elissabeth,427 Artaud,Antonin,227

Adomo,Theodor,35,69,73,77,78,81, 82,296,300,331,446

Asman, Carrie L ! 104 Assassin, 86 Atget, Eugene, 197, 325 A u d u b o n Post, May, 26 Audureau, Annabel 307,315 Auric, Georges, 231 Auther,Elissa,256,259 Ayers, David, 69 Azorin,179

Agde,Gunter,341,355 Ahti,R1sto,249 Alagna, Roberto, 90 A l b L z , Isaac, 67 Albert, Mechtild, 133, 164 Albert-Birot, Pierre, 129, 132, 133 Alexeieff, Alexander, 349, 350, 358 AUain, Marcel, 315 Allan, Robin, 344 Allen, Woody, 31 Alliance Ethnik, 86 Alt, Dirk, 346 Ambasz,Emilio,460 Amiel, Vincent, 93 Ammer,Manuela,401 Amselle,Jean-Loup,88 Anderson, T.J., 145, 146, 150, 158 Andriessen,Louis,36 Angel, Sara J., 363 Angelidi,Antoinetta,439,440,441,442, 443 Angelopoulos,Theo,438 Anhava,Tuomas,242 Annaud, Jean-Jacques, 86 Anscombe,G.E.M.,130 Antheil, George, 63 Anton, Frederic, 86 Apollinaire,Guillaume,32,129,132,133, 136,180,245,251,306,307,308,309, 310,311,312,313,314,315,316,317, 318,319,320,327,337,374 Appadurai,Ar)Un,328

Aragon,Louis 210,211,216,217,222, 284,319,321,324,325,327 Archigram,469 Archipenko, Alexander, 57, 310, 315 Ardis,AnnL.,410

Asholt, Wolfgang, 167, 205, 209, 211, 212

Baader,Johannes,99,100,102,107,109 B a c h j o h a n n Sebastian, 124, 339, 343 Backer, H a n s , 109, 110 Baetens,Jan,71,251,411 Baker, Josephine, 136 Bakhtin, Mikhail, 9 9 , 1 0 4 , 1 0 5 , 176,179 Baldassari, Anne, 371, 373, 374 Baldick, Chris, 410

BaKs, Nikos, 433, 434 Ball, Hugo, 286 Balpe, Jean-Pierre, 93 Bancel, Nicolas, 88 Banham,Reyner,464 Bark, Jan, 449 Barron, Stephane, 93 Barthes, Roland, 206, 213

Bart6k,Bela,115,121,123,124,125,127, 128,339 Bart6k, Peter, 339 Bartosch,Berthold,350 Bartsch, Kurt, 386 Barzun, Henn-Martin, 311, 316, 317 Bataille, Georges, 331, 332 Batchelor, David, 272, 274, 357 Bauche, Freddy, 342 Baudelaire, Charles, 76, 130, 131, 307, 318, 337

474 Baudnllard,Jean,322,329,330,331,332, 335,336 Baumann, Hans, 102, 107 BaZieYilargmn, Justine, 88 Beauvois,Xavier,95 Becher,JohannesR.,162 Behar, Henri, 307 Behne, Adolf, 109, 384 Beirut, 34 Bello, Jose, 237 Bellows, George W., 16, 18 BendazZi,Giannalberto,350 Bened 1C t, James, 331 Benglis, Lynda, 254, 255 Benjamin, Walter, 102, 104, 105, 205, 321, 324,329,331,448 Bennett, Arnold, 46 Bensoussan, Albert, 140 Bentley, Eric, 137 Berg,Alban,41 Bergdahl, Victor, 343 Berger, J o h n , 376 BergiusHanne,99,100 Bergman, Par, 316 Berio, Luciano, 4 1 , 42 Berlewi,Henryk,147,152,159 Bernault, Florence, 88 Bertens,Hans,35 Bertim, Marie-Joseph, 89 Bertrand, Rene', 350 Besse,Chrystel,89

Beuys,Jose P h,32,266,267,268,269,270, 271272,273,274,275,276,277,278 Bevan, Robert, 47 Bianchi, Paul, 352 Billy, Andre, 310, 313 Bing,Ilse,191,196 Bishop, Claire, 454 Bizet, Georges, 91 BiZot,Jean-Francois,90 Blake, Andrew, 40 Blanc-Gatti, Charles, 344 Blanchard, Pascal, 88 Blanchot, Maunce, 207 Blei, Franz, 110, 111 Blinder, Caroline, 191 Bloch, Ernst, 331 Block, Ursula, 396, 404 Blomberg, Erik, 451 Bloom, Clive, 296 Blumenkranz-Onimus,Noemi,307 Boccioni,Umberto,48

Bocklm, Arnold, 343, 344, 345, 351

Index Bodrero, James, 343 B o h m e , Fritz, 339 Bohn,Willard,320 Boiffard, Jacques-Andre, 205

Bois,Yve-Alain,329,349,372 Boll, Heinnch, 100 Bolliger, H a n s , 102, 286 Bomberg, David, 53 Bonnet, Marguerite, 215 Borch-Jacobsen,Mikkel,238 Borgers,Gemt,135 Borges,JorgeLuis,42,160,161,162,163, 164,166,167,168,169,170,172,173, 174 Borowski,Wlodzimierz,258 Bortnyik, Alexander, 356, 357 Boschetti, Anna, 310, 311 Botsoglou,Chronis,437 Botticelli, Sandro, 217, 351 Boubeker, Ahmed, 88 Bouchareb,Rachid,86 Bourdieu, Pierre, 84, 92, 162, 206, 312, 313 Bourgeois, Louise, 254, 255, 256 Bournaud, Nicholas, 452 Brancusi,Constantin,23,24 Branzi, Andrea, 458 Brassai-,191,196,199,203,210 Brecht,Bertolt,129,137,176,180,377, 448 Brems,Elke,412 Brentano, Clemens, 131, 132 Bresson, Carrier, 196, 197 Breteau, Rene, 310 Breton, Andre, 29, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210,211,212,213,215,222,227,228, 284,321,324,325,327,333 Breunig,L.C.,133 Brion-Guerry,Liliane,307 Brodacki,Krystian,142,143,145,154 Bronson,A.A.,15 Broodthaers, Marcel, 15 Brooker, Peter, 282, 410, 413 Broude, N o r m a , 259 Brown, Robert E , 342 Browning, Robert, 76 Bru,Sascha,71,251,282 Bruera, Franca, 306 BnJgere,Fabienne,92 Bmlez, Raymond, 414 Buchan, J o h n , 304 Buchloch, Benjamin H . D . , 15 Buchowska,Dominika,44

Index Buelens,Geert,129,423 Bull, J o h n , 45

Bufiuel, Luis, 227, 228, 229, 232, 233, 236, 237,238 Burger, T h o m a s , 73 Burger, Peter, 13, 14, 23, 69, 74, 76, 77, 78, 239,250,277,436,446,456 Burrells, Anna, 293 Burroughs, William S., 457 Burstem, Jessica, 303 Butler, Cornelia, 253 Butler, Samuel, 419

Cabanne,Pierre,15,28,29,32,284 Cage,John,31,32,131,244,431 Cahun, Claude, 325 Caillois, Roger, 92 Ca 1 2 ergue, Rerre, 306, 317 Calder:Alexander,244 Calderon, George, 45, 46 C a l d e r 6 n d e la Barca, Pedro, 185 Cale,John,37 Calinescu,Matei,175,240 Camfield, William, 15, 18, 31 Campion, Jane, 40 C a n s L s A s s e n s , Rafael, 163 Cardew, Cornelius, 33 Cardona,Rodolfo,182 Carongton, Leonora, 221, 222 Carter;Huntly,44,45,46,47,48 Caws, Mary Ann, 130 Celine, Louis-Ferdinand, 211, 212 Cendrars, Blaise, 193, 307, 308, 310, 311, 316,317,318,319,320 Cerusse,Jean,306,310 Cesaire,Aime,84,88 Cezanne, Paul, 45, 313 Champfleury, Jules, 307 Chandler, Raymond, 297 Chaplin, Charlie, 232, 384, 385, 390, 391, 393 Chateau, Dominique, 90 Chesterton, Gilbert Keith, 419 Chevalier, Maurice, 135 Chevrier,Jean-Francois,191,194,196 Chiarelli,Luigi,178

Chicago,Judy,259,262,264 ChippTHerschelB.,375,376 Chirac,Jacques,87,88 Chlebnikov,Velimir,130 Chopin, Frederic, 143 Chretien, Henri, 346

475 Christakis,Leonidas,433,434,438 Christie, Agatha, 296 Clair, R e n ^ S ? Clarke, Graham, 287 Clausen, Claus, 348 Clausen,Jurgen,348,350 Cocteau,Jean,227,228,229,230,231, 235,236,238,239 Coderch, Anna Maria, 106, 110 Cohen, Claudine, 89 Cohen, D e b r a R a e , 415 Colecchia,Francesca,140 Collani, Tama, 306 Collini, Stefan, 415 Comenas,Gary,20 Conrad, Joseph, 414 Constant, Benjamin, 25 Constantine, Mildred, 256 Constantinidis,Christos,434 Corbiau, Gerard, 95 Corderch, Anna Maria, 106 Cordier, Pierre, 406 Cork, Richard, 53 Corneau, Alain, 94 Cornell, J o s e p h , 325 C o r n e t t e d e Saint Cyr, Pierre, 87 Cornwell-Clyne, Adrian, 341, 351 C o « a , Bruno, 397 Corry,Leo,170 Courbet,Gustave,29 Covert, J o h n , 16 Crevel, Rene, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223 Croft, J o h n , 41 Cronau, Rudolf, 343 Crosland, Alan, 401 C r o t t i j e a n , 15 Crow, T h o m a s , 230 C m m b , Robert, 90 Cummings,E.E.,129 Curlis, Hans, 387 C 2 iffras,Ge 2 a,359

D'Annun2io,Gabriele,180 d'(Ettingen,Helene,310,313 da V i n e , Leonardo, 238, 374 Dahlback,Bengt,373 Daix, Pierre, 374

Dali, Salvador, 66, 227, 228, 232, 236, 237, 238,321,325 Dali 2 e, Rene, 309, 310 Daly,Nick,3 Dand,C.H.,351

476 Darnels, Dieter, 401 Danvers, Francis, 85 Darbel, Alain, 92 Dario, Maria, 306, 310, 311 Dario, Ruben, 163, 175, 182 Darras, Bernard, 87 Dasenbrock, Reed Way, 301 Davids, Louis, 135 Davies, Arthur B., 16 Davis, Whitney, 237 de Backer, Fran*, 413, 414, 416, 417, 418, 419,420,421 deBal 2 ac,Honore,54,76,414 deBeauvoir,Simone,451 deCertau, Michel, 452 deCerteau, Michel, 206, 213, 452, 457 de Chateaubriand, Francois Rene, 319 deChinco, Giorgio, 321, 325 deCurel, Francois, 314 deDuve, Thierry, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 31,272 deFalla,Manuel,64,66,67 deGalve 2 ,Pedro-Luis,168 DeGeest, Dirk, 411, 422 deGoncourt,Edmond,207 deGoncourt, Jules, 207 deGongora, Luis, 139, 140, 164 deMaetL,Ramiro,51 de Meyer, Adolph, 20 de Quiche, Wilma, 345, 347 de St. Point, Valentine, 57 de Torre, Guillermo, 167 deUnamuno, Miguel, 179 deVilliers, Gerard, 217 deVlaminck, Maurice, 50, 318 deZayas,Marius,20,318 Dean, Carolyn J., 238 Debord,Guy,93,209 Decaudin, Michel, 306 Degas, Edgar, 21, 194 del Carol, Sara Luisa, 161 delValle-Inclan,Ram6n,175,176,177, 178,179,180,181,182,183,184,185, 186,187 Delaunay, Robert, 57, 308, 316 Delblanc,Sven,448 D e l e t e , Giles, 84, 85, 465, 466, 470 Demopoulos, Michel, 438 Demos, T.J., 15 Demuth, Charles, 17 Deppner, Martin Roman, 338 Derain, Andre, 50, 308, 311 Dereky,Pal,115,116,120

Index Derrida,Jacques,78,214 Dery,Tibor,118,119,120 Desnos, Robert, 211, 216, 219, 221, 222, 223 Detweiler, Frederick K., 23 Deutch,Miriam,132 Dewald, Christian, 356 Diaghilev, Sergei, 59, 60 Dickerman, Leah, 113, 289 Dillon, Cara, 36 Dinga, Cleopatra, 437 Disney,Walt,92,339,343,344 Dixon, Martin J. C, 431 DocGyneco,86 Dodal,Karel,347,354 Doisneau, Robert, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196,197,198,199,200,202,203,204 Donahue, Moraima, 140 Donne, John, 419 Dorleijn, Gillis J., 411 Dostoevsky,Fyodor,414 Dougherty Dm, 186, 187 Dove, Arthur, 17 Drost, Wolfgang, 165 Dmcker,Johanna,399,409 Drummond, Philip, 228, 232 Dr 2 ewiecki,Zbigniew,144 Duarte,BeneditoJunqueira,356 Dubois, Philippe, 406 Dubuffet,Jean,217 Duca,Lo,347 Ducasse, Isidore, 227 Duchamp,Marcel,13,14,15,16,17,18, 19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,28,29, 30,31,32,62,281,282,284,285,287, 288,289,290,291,292,308,309,365, 367,456 Duchamp, Raymond, 29 Duchamp, Suzanne, 13, 14, 25 Dufy,Raoul,346 Duhamel, George, 309, 327 Dulac,Germaine,227 Dumas, Alexandre, 312 Duncan, Isadora, 57, 60 Duran, Manuel, 140 Durand, Beatrice, 88 Durand, Pascal, 6, 307 Durgnat, Raymond, 236 Daadek, Adam, 151

Eagleton, Terry, 102, 104 Echegaray, Jose, 185

Index Eco,Umberto,459 Ed 1 S on, Thomas, 386 Edschmid,Kasimir,100 Edwards, Paul, 293, 304 Eeckhout,Jons,411,423 Eggeling, Viking, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384,385,386,389,390,391,393,397 Ehrler,S.A..,340 Ehrl1Cher,Hanno,166 Eilshemius,Louis,19,20,21,28 Ekbom,Torsten,449 ElL1sslt2ky,377,398 Elderfield, John, 286 Eliot, T h o m a s Stearns, 73, 416, 419, 421, 424 Ellitt, Jack, 403 Elsaesser, Thomas, 405

Eluard, Paul, 207, 284, 321, 325 Emmanouil, Marina, 434 Engel,Jules,343,344 Engl, Joseph, 402 Enzensberger, Hans-Magnus, 446, 457

E P stein,Jacob,45,48,49,50,51 Erasmus Alan, 39, 42

Ernst, Max, 113, 224, 290, 321, 322, 324, 325,433 Ernst, Paul, 114 Ette, Bernard, 135 Ette,Ottmar,212 Eysteinsson,Astradur,251

Fabri, Alexandre, 346, 350 Fahlstrom,Oy™d,445,446,448,449, 450,451,453,454,456,457 Fahnders, Walter, 167 Fantomas,316 FarnsworthMears, Helen, 23 Fauconnet, Guy Pierre, 318 Fechter, Paul, 341, 350 Fedida, Pierre, 237 Feinstein,Sascha,145,146,151 Fe,t5,Ferenc,120 Felix-Vallotton,Nabis,367 Ferat, Serge, 310 Ferrari, Osvaldo, 162 Fiedler, A , 341 Fiedler, W., 340 Fine, Ruth, 170 Fink, Robert, 37 F 1 nkelste 1 n,Ha 1 m,234 Firminger,Marjorie,301 Ksch,Eberhard,376

477 Fischerkoesen, Hans, 355

Fischinger,Oskar,339,340,343,344,348, 349:353,354,397,402 Flahutez,Fabrice,215 Flam, Jack, 132 Flato, Arkady, 145 Flaubert, Gustave, 76, 287 Fleuret,Fernand,309 Fontan,Arlette,89 Forster,Ralf,339 Fortes, Fernando, 356 Foster, Hal, 321, 325 Foucault, Michel, 68, 85 Fowlle,Walace,228 Francois, Etienne, 111 Franju, George, 451 Frank, Robert, 191 Franko,Mark,60 Franz Josef I, 117 Freud, Sigmund, 218, 237, 238 FriedrichTHugo,130,131,140

Frieling, Rudolf, 454, 455 Frischengruber,Lisi,356 Frischmuth, Barbara, 116 Fnzot, Michel, 203 Frueh, Alfred, 22 Fry, Roger, 45, 48 Frye, N o r t h r o p , 225

Fuller, Loie, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 67, 68

GabrieUe Mark, Lisa, 253 Gaillard, Franco.se, 89 Gale, Peggy, 15 GammeUrene,291 Gandhi, Mohandas K., 463 Gann,Kyle,31 Garcia, Carlos, 161, 162 GarciaLorca,Fedenco,58,59,64,65,66, 67,68,129,139,140,141,176,180, 236,237 Garnero,Jean-Baptiste,345,346,350 Garrard, Mary D . , 259 Gasiorek,Anar2ej,305

Caspar, Bela, 340 341,342,346,348,351, 356,359 Caspar, Imre, 349 Gatlif,Tony,86 Gatten, David, 406 Gaudier, Henri, 52 Gaudier-Brzeska, Henri, 50, 298 Gauguin, Paul, 45, 349 Genette, Gerard, 224

478 Genin,Christophe,84 Georgius, 135 Ge2a:M.T6th;357 Gezelle,Guido,138,139

Giard, Luce, 206 Gibson, Ian, 237 Gide, Andre, 239, 417, 419, 421 Gies, David T., 187 Giese,Rainer,268,274 G e s e n , Rolf, 348 Giles, Vic, 373, 377 Gill, Eric, 47 GUI, Stephen, 132 GiUoch, Graeme, 329 Gilot,Francoise,374 Glnna,Arnaldo,397 Ginnanni-Corradini,Amaldo,397 Onnanni-Corradini, Bruno, 397 Ginsberg, M e n , 244 Ginsborg, Paul, 459 Girard, Rene, 177 Glackens, William, 16, 18 Glasmeier, Michael, 396, 404 Glass, Philip, 36, 38 Glebes, Albert, 380, 393 Glissant,Edouard,89 Glover, David, 3 Gobyn,Ronny,412 Goedegebuure,Jaap,411 GogolBordello 34 Gold, Artur, 143 Goldberg, Rube, 291 Golding, John, 364 Goldstein, Dara, 365

Goll, Ivan, 379, 380, 384, 385, 386, 388, 390,391,392 Gombrowic2,Witold,142 G6me2delaSerna,Ram6n,163 Goodwin, Andrew, 35, 37 Goossens,Cas,412 Gopnik, Adam, 281 Gore, Spencer K, 47 Goya, Francisco, 106, 110, 184 Gracq,Julien,221,223,225 Granados, Enrique, 67 Granath,OUe,448 Greenaway,Peter,36,37 Greenberg, Clement, 129, 271, 289, 364 Greenough, Sara, 288 Gressieker, H e r m a n n , 341 Griebel, O t t o , 102 Gomault, Paul, 345, 346 Gonevsky, Alexandra, 350

Index Gris, Juan, 367 Gropius, Walter, 398, 399 Groschup, Sabine, 356 Gross, Desider, 353, 356 Grossinger,Christa,99 G r o s 2 , George, 102, 111, 290, 379, 380, 393

Gr6s 2 ,De 2 s6,353,354,355,356 Groys, B o o s , 454 G m p p o Strum, 458 Guattao, Felix, 465, 466, 470

Guckes,Emil,348,351,355 Guffey, Elizabeth, 334 Guiette, Robert, 414, 417, 419, 421 Guirlinguer,Lucien,88 Gumbrecht, H a n s Ulrieh, 164, 165, 169, 170,171,172,176 Guoin, Fred, 135 Gutierrez-Girardot, Rafael, 165 Gyorgy,Balint,357

Habermas,Jurgen,73,74,81 Hadjidaki, Natasha, 427, 428, 429, 430 Ha,du,Imre,346 Halas,John,357,357,360 Halas, Vivien, 357 Halasz,Janos,356,357,358,360 HalffterRodolfo,67 Hamalainen,Timo,249 Hamalidi, Elena, 425 Hammarberg,Jarl,448,449 Hankin, Mike, 353 Hardellet, Andre, 225 Hardt, Michael, 470 Harouel,Jean-Louis,89 H a m s , Derek, 173 Harrison, Harold B., 51, 52 Hartley, Marsden, 17, 18, 290, 291 Harvie, Christopher, 304 Haus, Andreas, 395, 398, 399, 400, 404, 405,406,408 Hausmann.109,379,380,285,286,391, 393 Hawley,Kathenne,63 Headlam,Dave,35,37 Heard Hamilton, George, 30 Heartfield,Gertrud,373 Heartfield,John,282,290,373,434 Heath, Joseph, 90 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm F n e d o c h , 78, 208 Heidemann, Paul, 353 Heile,B,orn,41

Index Heme, Heinrich, 132 He lnl ch,Nathal 1 e,92 He 1 nonen,V 1 sa,241 Heissenbiittel, Helmut, 244 Hejmej.And^ej.H* Heller Steven, 366, 367, 376, 377 Helm, Brigitte, 352 Hemingway, Ernest, 21 Henri, Adrian, 34 Henri, Robert, 16, 21, 22 Hepburn, Allan, 298, 300 Herder, J.G., 131 Heritier, Franco.se, 88 Hermann, Helmut G., 102 Hermann, R1Chard, 35 Hermans, Theo, 411 Her 2 felde,W le land,405 Hesse, Eva, 254, 255, 256 Heymcke, Kurt, 162 Hickman, Gail Morgan, 355 Hicks, Sheila, 259 Hilberseimer,Ludwig,380,384,386,388 Hillbom,Hendrik,24,25,29 Hirst, Damien, 90 H,artarson,Benedikt,71,251 Hodell,Ake,449,452 Hodgson, F.W., 373, 377 Hoeree, Arthur, 403 Hoerle,Heinrich,113 Hohl,Reinhold,376 Hollier, Denis, 239 Hollo, Anselm, 243, 244 Holmes, C.J., 47 Holmes, James., 137 Hober, Jenny, 34 Homer, 187 Hood, Arthur, 52 Hoormann, Anne, 338, 349 Hopkins, David, 281, 282, 288, 431, 444 Horkheimer,Max,73,81,296,300,446 Hormig6n,JuanAntionio,176,182 Horsley,Lee,293,294,297,304 Hosiaisluoma,Yri6,244 Howard, Richard 239 Huelsenbeck, Richard, 102, 106, 107, 286 Hughes, Robert, 378 Huizinga,Johan,104 HulmerTE.,49,52,53 Hultberg, Teddy, 450 Humble! Nicola, 415 Huml,Irena,258 Hurok, Solomon, 65 Hutt, Allen, 365

479 Huxley, Aldous, 413, 416, 417, 419 Huysmans,Joris-Karel,207 Huyssen, Andreas, 14, 15, 31, 57, 287, 332, 408,428,446,456 Hyde Greet, Anne, 133 Hyland,Lennart,445,446

Iatropoulos,Dimitris,434 Ignotus,Pal,120 Illyes,Gyula,123,126 Immendorf,Jorg,268 Inglot,Joanna,257,261 Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique, 17, 231, 232 236

Jacob, Max, 307, 308, 310, 311, 313, 314, 315,316,317,318,319,320 Jakubowska,Agata,253 James, RichardS., 351, 403, 419 Jameson, Fredric, 34, 35, 36, 41, 323, 335, 336,456 Janik, Dieter, 170 Janiszewski,Jakub,261 Jarry, Alfred 180,307,311,312 Jasiehski,Bruno,148,149,150,151,156, 159 Jauss, Hans Robert, 245 Jaworski,Stanislaw,152 Jenkins, Henry, 452 Jennings, Humphrey, 351 Jennings, Michael William, 321 Jewanski,Jorg,339 Jimenez, J. Rubio, 184 Jimenez, Juan Ram6n, 180 Joans, Ted, 433 Johnson, BengtEmil, 448 Johnson,Jack;52 Johnson, Tom, 37 Jones, Amelia, 287, 288, 291 Joyce,James,242,410,416,417,419,421, 423 J6zsef,Attila,120,121,122,124 Juhasz,Ferenc,122,123,125,126,127, 128 Jullien, Francois, 88 Jung, Carl Gustav, 238 Jung, Helge, 124 Junod, Philippe, 344 Jusdams, Gregory, 426 Jute, GabrieleT394, 397, 399, 401, 403, 406

480

Kafetsi, Anna, 436 Kafka, Franz, 417 Kahn, Douglas, 424 Kahn, S.Henry, 350 Kaldor, Maria, 121 Kalivoda,Frantisek,341,359 Kalokiris,Dimitris,427,433 Kandinsky,Wassily,383 Kane, Martin, 102 Kamgowska-G.edroyc.Ewa^S Kaplan, Patricia A., 286 Kaprow, Allan, 13 Karas1nsk1,Zyemunt,143,144 Karpan, Paul, 126 Karrenbauer,L.,248 Kaskefine, Wolfgang, 342, 354 Kassak,Lajos,115,116,117,118,122, 379,385 Kassowite.Feli^SSe Katas2ek,S2ymon,143,144 Kateourckis.Kyriakos^? Kayser,Ulrich,348 Kayser, Wolfgang, 177, 182 Keaton, Buster, 232 Kelley,Jeff,13 Kent, Rockwell, 16 Kepes,Gyorgy,341,342 Kerchache, Jacques, 88 Kermabon,Jacques,345,346,350 Kermode, Frank, 60 Kertes 2 , Andre, 191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 199,200,201,202,203,204 Kessa„lis,Nikos,435 Kester, Bernard, 259 Keucheyan,Ra2mlg,85 Kherad,Rahlm,88 Kiesler, Frederick, 63 Kiesler,Friedrich,386 K i n d e r , Catherine, 88 Kipnis, Laura, 408

Erstina, V i n o , 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250 Kittier,Friedrich,396,457 Klee,Paul,84 Klein, B e m h a d , 351 Klemm,W1lhelm,161,162 Kllmt,Gustav,342 KnSak, Milan, 403, 404 Knoche, Paul, 340 Knoebel, Carmen, 269

Knoebel,l m l ,266,267,268,269,270, 271,274,275,276,277,278

Index Knopf, Jan, 137 Koch, Carl, 387 Koestler, Arthur, 451 Koffeman,Maaike,311 Kohner, Paul, 349, 355 K6kal,Karoly,379 Kolinsky, Eva, 137 Kom)at,Aladar,116,117 Komunyakaa,Yusef,145,151 Koons,Jeff,90 Koponen,Mattijuhani,240 Kopytoff, Igor, 328 Korit2,Amy,136 K o r n m a n n , Serge, 346 Kort, Pamela, 343 Koshofer,Gert,346 Koskinen,Ha«o,240 Kostelanet2,R1Chard,250,374 Kounenaki, Peggy, 437 Kowal, R o m a n 142,151 Kowalewska, Helena, 154 Kozinn, Allan, 42 Ko2loff,Max,198 Kracauer, Siegfried, 59 Kramer, Andreas, 282 Krauss, Rosalind, 321, 329, 334, 465 Kriebel, Sabine, 113 Krukowski,Wojciech,264 Kruse, Werner, 358 Kubler, George, 330, 335 Kuensi, Andre", 258 K u e n d i , Rudolf K , 405 Kuhn,Walt,16 Kurkela,Vesa,241 Kuspit, Donald, 275

La A r g e n t i n e s , 59, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 Labanyi,Jo,176 LafarguedeGrangeneuve,L01c,86 Laforgue, Jules, 419 Lafourcade, Bernard, 297 Lagerkv 1 S t,Par,451 Lahire, Bernard, 95 Lake, Carlton, 374 Lang, Jack, 92 Lang, Peter, 458 Langaney, Andre, 88 Larochette,Joe,414 Larsen, Jack Lenor, 256 Lass 1 la,Pertt 1 ,241,250 Lasskiewic*, Maria, 258 Las 2 16, Alexander, 339, 340

Index Latour, Bn_.no, 88, 266, 278 Lautreamont,217,319 Lawrence, Dav.d Herbert, 410, 416, 419 Lawrence, Fredenck, 73 La2arow1C2, Klaus, 110 Le Blanc, Gu.llaume, 88 Leach, Ne.l, 462 Lebow, E l leenF.,20 Lefeb™, Henri, 206, 213, 336 Lefebvre, Jules, 25 Leger,Fernand,63,318,380,386,393 Lehmann,Ulr.ch,327 Leighton, Patricia, 365, 371 LeiL, Michel, 205, 218 Lempert,Jochen,407 Lernout,Geert,423 Lesne, Gerard, 90, 91 Letourneux,Matth1eu,225 Levantakos,D1amant1s,438 Lev.n, Thomas Y., 329, 396, 402 Lev.-Strauss, Claude, 85 Lev.tt, Helen, 196, 198 Lewer,Debb l e ,99,lll Lew.s,Wyndham,47,50,51,54,57,73, 293,294,295,296,297,298,299,300, 301,302,303,304,305 Lew.s Shaw, Mary, 60 L.get,Gyorgy,124 L.ndenberger Thomas, 111 Lindfors, Jukka, 250 L.ppard, Lucy, 255 L.ppert, Klaus, 342 Lissel, Edgar, 406 L.s 2 t,Fran 2 ,124 L l ts,Marc,6 Livi, Franco.s, 307 Longree, George H.F., 320 Lonnroth, Lars! 448 L6pe 2 ,Encarnac 1 6n,64,65,66 Loy,M.na,22,290 L u L ™ , Anthony, 44, 48, 49, 50 Ludw lg , Peter, 384, 386, 437 Lugones,Leopoldo,173,174 Luhmann,N.klas,213 Lumsdon, Christine, 26 Lundkvist.Art.ir, 453 Lunk.ew.c 2 -Rogoyska,Mar.aEwa,257, 259 Lupton, Ellen, 365 Lye, Len, 351, 352 Lyon,John,176,179,180,182 Lyotard, Jean-Francois, 91

481

Maase,Kaspar,169,171 Mac Odan, Pierre, 197 MacCabe, Colin, 408 MacDonald,38 Mace, Er.c, 93 Machado,Anton.o,176,179 Macho, Thomas, 396 MacRury,Ian,40 Macskassy,Gyula,356,358,359 MagnaguagnoGu.do,102,286 Maher,JamesT.,135 Maier, Carol, 177 Ma.gret,Er.c,93 Mainer, Jose-Carlos, 180 Makkonen, Anna, 241 Makowsk,Tadeus 2 ,143,154 Makus 2 yhsk,Kornel,145 Malapert deBasentin, Bernard, 350 Malev.ch,Kas.m.r,270,275 Mallarme,Stephane,41,60,76,129,130, 133,364 Mall, Morfia, 431 Malraux, Andre, 87 Malt,Johanna,321,324 Manel.us,Tarmo,246 Manet,Edouard,21,45,436 Mann, Thomas, 412, 419, 420, 421 Manso, Susan, 286 Mao, Douglas, 71, 410 Marcouss.s, Lours, 367 Marc 2 .ncsak,Gyorgy,342 Mariano, Luis, 91 Mar.n,John,16 Mar.nett,F.l.ppo,55 Mar.no, Antonio L., 363 Mar.vaux,P.erre,91 Market^, Tonia, 439, 440, 441, 442 Martin, D.rk, 269, 275 Martin, Henr,Jean, 365, 373 Mart.n,John,65,66,67 Martin, Wallace, 45, 46 Martland,Steve,34,35,36,37,39,40,42, 43 Marx, Karl, 75, 89, 239 Mar2, Roland, 373, 386 Masolle, Joseph, 402 Mathews, Rich, 262 Matisse, Henri, 45, 48, 57, 374 Mattuschka, Mara, 356 Mayakovsky,Vlad.m.r,129 Mayol, Pierre, 206 Mbembe,Ach.lle,88

482 McBride,Henry,19,20 McCann, Sean, 304 McCay,Winsor,343 McCracken,Scott,3 McLaren, N o r m a n , 403 McLuhan, Marshall, 371, 378, 466, 467 McNickleChastain, Catherine, 20 Mea 2 2 1 , Barbara, 306 MeiZoz, Jerome, 211 Mellon, Jean, 228 Menking, William, 458 Menna,Filiberto,468 Metcalfe, J o h n , 39 MetZinger,Jean,17,57 Meyer, Raimund, 102, 286, 287 Michels,Pol,107 Middeljans, April, 302 Miggs,B.,248 Mignon, Patrick, 94 Miller, Henry, 242 Miller, Norbert, 100 Miller, Tyrus, 299 Mills, Florence, 136 Milne, Alan Alexander, 450 Milos2,C2eslaw,158 Mir6, Joan, 325 Mirra, Helen, 269, 270 Mirska,Irena,154 Missinne,Lut,412

Mitras, Michael, 427, 428, 430, 431, 432 Mitsora, Maria, 428 Model, Lisette, 191, 460 Modleski, Tama, 334 Moens,Wies,422 Mogridge, Basil, 110 Moholy:Lucia,394,398 Moholy-Nagy,Las216,341,342,357,374, 379,380 3 8 4 , 3 8 5 , 3 8 6 , 3 8 7 , 3 8 8 , 3 9 1 , 392,393,394,395,396,397,398,399, 400,401,402,403,404,405,406,407, 408,409 Moholy-Nagy, Sibyl, 342 Mola,Emilio 375 Mollard, Claude, 92 Mondrian,Ret,136,199,383 Monte, James, 255 Montfort, Nick, 446 Moore, Catherine, 320 Moore, Eudorah., 259 Moore, Frank M., 28 Moorehead,A.,248 Moray, Jim, 36

M o r i i William, 338, 340, 341, 397

Index Mori 2 ot, Jacques, 90 M o m s , Robert, 271 Mossetto Campra, Anna Paola, 311 Mott,J.L.,18,31 Mouriki, Pandora, 442 Moutsopoulos,Thanassis,437 Muller,Jochen,407 Munton,Alan,54 Munzenberg, Willi, 376 Murakami, Takashi, 87, 90 Murphy, Dudley, 63 Murphy, Gerald, 372 Murphy, Sara, 372 Musil, Robert, 412 Mussche, Achilles, 422

Nagy,GaborTolcsvai,128 Napoleon III, 86 Natalini,Adolfo,458,459 N a u m a n n , Francis, 13, 15 292 Nava,Mica,40 Negri, Antonio, 470 Nemeth,Andor,120 Nerman,Bengt,449 Nesbit,Molly;282 Nice, James, 39 Nicholls, Peter, 71, 131, 251 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 106, 287 Ni,insky,Vaslav,59 Nikolopoulou,Maria,425 Nilsson,Torsten,450,456 Noll, Marcel, 325 Noske,EbertScheidemann,112 Noske,Gustav,107 Nottingham, Walter, 261 Nyle„,Leif,449 Nyman, Michael, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40

O'Brien, J o h n , 129 O'Keefe, Georgia, 288 Obalk, Hector, 13 Offenbach,Jacques,91,303 Ohl,Fabie„,94 Olea Franco, Rafael, 173 Oliva, Cesar, 178 Olson, Charles, 244 Oppenheim, Edward Phillips, 300, 301 Oppler, Ellen C , 376 Orage,A.R.,46,72 Oro;z,Marton,338

Index 0 a , m , Tama, 7 1 , 251 Oviedo, Jose Miguel, 173

Owen, William, 365, 366, 368, 369, 370 Owidzki, Roman, 257

Pach, Walter, 15 Paech, Joachim, 172 Painleve, Jean, 350

Pal, George, 342, 347, 348, 349, 355, 357 Palermo, Blinky, 268 Panofsky,Erwin,351 Para 2 , Albert, 211 Parker, Claire, 350 Parouty-David,Francoise,94 Passard, Alain, 86 Paterson,Alexis,33,35 Paulhan, Jean, 217 Pauli, Pierre, 258 Paulsen, Wolfgang, 102 Pausas,Francisco;21 Pavarotti, Luciano, 91 Pawlikowska-Jasnor 2 ewska,Maria,146, 154,155,156,159 Pa2,Octavio,131 Peiper,Tadeus2,152,153,154,159 Peirce, Waldo, 21 Peltonen,Matti,241 Pendleton, Elizabeth, 23, 24 Penrose, Roland, 325, 364 Penrose, Valentine, 325 Pera, Cristobal, 162 Perceau,Louis,309 Percy, T h o m a s , 131, 132 Perec, Georges, 206, 213 Perelman,Bob,456 Peret, Benjamin, 325 Perez Bazo, Javier, 163 Perlman,BennardB.,20 Perloff,Marjorie,13,14,131 Peters, J o h n D u r h a m , 455 Petersburski,Jerzy,143 Peterson, Elmer, 14 Pfenmnger, Rudolf, 396 PiatkowIki,DioniZy,142,145,147 Picabia, Francis, 14, 17, 57, 282, 284, 285, 308,320,367,386

Rcasso, Pablo, 17, 45, 48, 62, 281, 307, 308,310,311,312,313,315,317,363, 364,365,366,367,368,369,370,371, 372,373,374,375,376,377,378 Pierre,Jose,133,217,218,223,225 Piotrowski,Piotr,71,262

483 Pirandello, Luigi, 176, 178 Pissaro,Camille,194 Plath, Sylvia, 31 Plecy, Albert, 193, 194, 198 Plutyhska,Eleonor,257 Poggi, Christine, 364 P o L o t t i , Mark, 228 Pollin, Claire, 39 Porter, Love, 17 Portnoff, Alexander, 17 Potter, Andrew, 90 Potter, Keith, 38 Potts, Alex, 278 Pouivet, Roger, 90

Pound, Ezra, 72,130, 293, 299 Prendegast, Maurice, 16 Prohylesowa,Zofia,154 Proust, Marcel, 416 Psychopedis,Jannis,436,437 Ptaszkowska,Hanna,259 Puccini, Giacomo, 9 1 , 451

Queen Victoria, 418 Queneau, Raymond, 205, 211 Quinn,John,16

Rabanus,Kristina,211 Rabatel, Alain, 223 Rabe,Folke,449 Rabelais, Francois, 99, 105, 179 Radlihski,Jerzy,142 Radnitzky Emmanuel, 62 Rae Cohen, Debra, 413, 423 Raffin,Fabrice,91 Raik,Etienne,350 Raimondi,Rugerro,91 Rainer,Cosima,401 Ra,k,Istvan,350 Ramsden, Herbert, 140 Ranciere,Jacques,455,456 Rang, Florens Christian, 104, 105, 106 Raphael., 334 Ratzel, Curt, 347 Ravel, Maurice, 67 Raven, Arlene, 259 Ray, Man, 16, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 210,282,284,285,287,288,289,290, 291,292,398 Raynal, Maurice, 308, 310, 311, 313, 314, 318,319 Read, Peter, 308, 320

484 Reble,Jurgen,407 Redei,Karoly, 121 Reeves, Harrison, 314 Rehage, Philippe, 312 Reich" Steve, 37, 38 Reiss,J6 2 ef,153 Rembrandt, 13 Renaut, Alain, 88 Rene, Hans, 341 Renoir, Pierre-Auguste, 17, 2 1 , 436 Renoldner, Thomas, 356 Ressbg.Karlhein2.340 Restany, Pierre, 436 Reuterdahl, Henri, 21 Reutersward, Carl Fredrik, 445, 446, 448, 451,452,454,456,457 Revai,J6zsef,123 Reynebeau, Marc, 412, 413 Rialland,Ivanne,215 Rice, Dorothy, 19, 20, 2 1 , 28 Richards, Barry, 40 Richardson,John,363,367,372,374 Richter, H a n s , 355, 379, 381, 383, 384, 386,391,393,397 Richter,Petra,267,268,270,274 Riha, Karl, 100, 113 Riley, Terry, 34, 38 Rimbaud, Arthur, 130, 131, 239, 307, 316, 319,337 Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreyevich, 67 Ring, Nancy, 284, 285 Risacher, Rene, 346 Robinson, Christopher, 238 Robinson, Lennox, 180 Roche, Maunce, 432 Roche, Henri Pierre, 22 Rochlit 2 ,Rainer,90 Rodchenko, Alexander, 377 Rogoyski,Jan,257 R o l k e , Heinz, 131 Rollig, Stella, 401 Roloff,Volker,180 Romanos,Chrysa,435,436 Roosevelt, A., 30 Rose, Bermce, 271 Rose, W . K , 298 Rosenblum, Robert, 364, 369 Rosenstein,Erna,255 Rosner,Ady,145 Rosnerova-Leschnerova,Irena,347,354 Ross, Andrew, 334 Rossner, Michael, 176

Index Rotella,Mimmo,433 Rothschild, Deborah, 365 Rotschild, Silvia, 353 Rotwand6wna,Janina,154 Rouault, Georges, 318 Rousseau, Henri, 50, 302, 306, 307, 312, 313,315,320,312 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 84 Roussel, Raymond, 32 Rubens, Peter Paul, 350 Rubin, Joan Shelley, 415 Rubin, William, 367, 371, 372 Rudiger,Renate,398 Rusby,Kate,36 Rutebeuf,84 Ruttmann, Walter, 338, 349, 392, 397 Rymenants,Koen,410

Saarikoski,Pentti,240,242,243,244,245, 248,249,250 Saban, Annette, 130 Sabartes, Jaime, 374 Sade, Marquis de, 309 Sadler, Simon, 469 Sae2,Damien,89 Sahli,Jan,391,395 Salama,Hannu,240 Salmon, Andre, 310, 313, 319 Salo,Arvo,246 Salo,Markku,250 Salper, Roberto L., 177 Samson, Regrna, 160 Samuel, Horace B., 54, 55 Samuel, Raphael., 332, 334 Sanchez, Juan Jose, 165 Sanchez Meji'as, Ignacio, 66 Sanchez-Pardo, Esther, 57 Sanouillet, Michel, 14, 26, 227 Sark5Zi,Matyas,358 Sartre,Jean-Paul,85,229 Savinio, Alberto, 310, 318, 320 Sawa, Alejandro, 182 Sayers, D o r o t h y L., 296 Schad, Christian, 398 Schaeffer, Pierre, 450 Schafer,Jorgen,113 Schaffer, Boguslaw, 142 Schamberg, Morton, 16 Schamoni:Victor,338 Schapiro, Miriam, 259 Schawelka, Karl, 338 Schmelzdahin,407

Index Schmidt, A n d r 2 e ) , 142, 145 Schmitt, Christian, 130 Schnapper, Dominique, 92 Schneede,UweM,384,394 Schneider-Henn, Dietrich, 357 Schoell,Ko„rad,180 Scholem,Gerschom,105 Schol2,Georg,lll,112 Schreber, Daniel Paul, 238 Schul2e,Hagen,lll Schube, H u g o O t t o , 348 S c h w a s , Robert, 38 S c h w a s , Robert K., 38 Schwitters, Kurt, 130 Scott, CKve, 197, 199, 200, 202, 204 Scott, Felicity, 468 Scott, Walter, 131, 200, 225 Seckel,Helene,317 Seeger, Alan, 318 Senghor, Leopold Sedar, 88 Sever™, G m o , 55, 57 Sexiond'Assaut,86 Sfar,Joann,95 Shackleton, William, 47 Shakespeare, William, 186 Shattuck, Roger, 313 Shaw, Bernard, 72 Shaw, Michael, 13, 77 Shaw, Robert, 123 Shelley, 77 Sheppard, Richard, 99 Sheringham, Michael, 205, 206, 207, 211, 212,213 Sherry, Vincent, 298, 299, 302 Shiach,Morag,6 Sickert,Walter,44,48,50,51 Sidler, Natalia, 339 Sieverding,Katherina,268 Silver, Kenneth, 372, 373 Silverman, Kaja, 334 Simmel,Georg,462,463 Simmons, Sherwin, 281 Simon, Alicja, 154 Sims, Hal, 21 Sinclair, Louis, 83 Sire, Agnes, 193 Sirk, Douglas, 338 Skoc2ylasUrbanowic2,Maria,257 Sled.iewska, Anna, 257 Sloan,John,16,17 Smith, Anthony, 364, 365 Smits,Frans,414,416,417,419 Sniecikowska,Beata,142,147

485 Sobe,ano,Gon2alo,181 Soergel: Albert, 113, 114 Soldatos,Yiannis,438 Solotorevsky,Myrna,170 Sontag, Susan, 332 Sorkin,Jenni,254 Soufas, Christopher, 175 Soupault, Philippe, 211, 216, 222, 223 Souvestre, Pierre, 315 Sparke, Penny, 464 Specter, Jack, 24 Spies, Werner, 224 Spiteri, Raymond, 227 Spriet, Winston, 412 St! Dennis, Ruth, 57 Stabakis,Nikos,427 Stallabrass, Julian, 192 Sta2ewski,Henryk,257,258,262 Stem, Gertrude, 26, 302 Sterner, Rudolf, 274 Stella,Joseph,16,17,290 Stempel, Wolf-Dieter, 130 Stendhal, 318 Stern, Anatol, 147, 148, 156, 157, 159 Stewart, Susan, 332, 334 Stiegler, Bernard, 93 Stieglit2,Alfred,15,16,18,19,22,23,31, 282,287,288,289 Stoekl, Allan, 331 Stoichita,Victor,106,110 Stoltenberg, H a n s Loren 2 , 397 Storey, J o h n , 132 Stramm, August, 137, 162 Strand, P a u l 16 Stravinsky, Igor, 153 Strom, Gunnar, 356 Struskova,Eva,354 Stuttgen,Johannes,269,270,275 Styrsky,Jindnch,325,326 Suleiman, Susan Rubin, 430, 431, 432 SuPerstudio,458,459,460,461,462,463, 464,465,466,467,468,469,470 Survage, Leopold, 310, 314 Susik, Abigail, 321 Svevo,Italo,421 Swingle Singers, 34 Synge, J o h n M., 180 sLbolcsi,Bence,123,128 S 2 egedy-Mas 2 ak,Mihaly,128 S2oLy,Andras,125 S 2 ombathy,Balint,127

486

Talbot, Joby, 37 Talens,Jenaro,228 Tasso,Torquato,183 Taylor, Jill,13 Taylor, Michael, 289, 290 Taylor, Ronald, 331 Tch6r 2 ewski,Jer 2 y,255 Teige,Karel,325 Temk 1 „,A„„,271,272 Tennyson, Alfred, 52, 76, 378 Teuber, Dirk, 113 Thaler,Jurgen,104,105 Thiesse Anne-Mane, 315 Thomas, Karl, 356 Thompson, Michael, 329 Tilbury,John,33,34,43 Tiravania,Rirknt,455 Tomkins,Calvin,15,16,18,23,25 Ton,es,Frauke,211 Tonson, Jacob, 46 ToraldodiFrancia,Cristiano,461,463, 467 Toussamt van Boelaere, Fernand Victor, 414,422,423 Trakl,Georg,422 Tronti, Mario, 460 Trotsky, Leon, 82, 83, 207 Tme, Dorothy, 288, 289 TschaikowskiPyotr Mich, 343 Tucker, Marcia, 255 Tudesq, Andre, 310 Turna^e, Mark-Anthony, 34 Turunen,Ris to ,241 Tuwim,Julian,146,157,158,159 Tyyri,Jouko,240 T.ara,Tristan, 14, 99, 100, 227, 246, 284, 285,286,287,288,289,291,292 T 2 iovas,Dimitris,427

Index VanDongen,Kees,367 Van Dyck, Karen, 428 Van Gogh, Vincent, 313 VanMiedo,Wim,423 van Nuffel, Robert, 414, 416, 418 van Ostaijen, Paul, 129, 133, 134, 135, 138,139,140,141,411,422 Van Ostaijen, Paul, 137, 138, 139 Vandevoorde, Hans, 412 Vargyas,La,os,120 Varia,Radu,23 Varnedoe, Kirk, 202, 281 Varpio,Yr,o,241 Vath-Hin* Henrietta, 343 Vattimo, Gianni, 79 Veblen,Thorstein,330 Veivo,Harri,240 Venclova,Tomas,152 Venn, Beth, 15 Verdi, Giuseppe, 91 Verges, F r a n c e , 88 Vermeer, Johannes, 231 Verne, Jules, 312 Verstraeten,Pieter,410 Vertov,D 2 iga,384,390,392 Viikari,Auli;241 Vilaseca, David, 236 Viment, Pascal, 350 Violante, Isabel, 306, 307 Vogt, Hans, 402 vonArnim,Achim,131 von Beethoven, Ludwig, 41 vonFreytagLoringhoven,Elsa,291 von Hindenburg, Paul, 377, 378 von Mihaly, Denes, 358 von Wright, G.H., 130 Vondung, Klaus, 109 Voulgar, Sophia, 427 Voulgaris,Pantelis,438

Ubac,Raoul,325

Vaccaro, Alejandro, 160, 161 Vakalo,Eleni,434 Valaoritis,Nanos,427,433 Valavanidis,Yannis,437 Valoukos,Stathis,438 vanDam,JanG.,355 vandeVoorde,Urbain,414,417,419, 420,421,422 Van den Berg, Hubert, 71, 252 vanDoesburg,Theo,383

Wagner, Christian, 109 Wagner, Richard, 231, 237 Walker, Ian, 194, 321, 325 Walkowit., Rebecca L., 71, 410 Wall, Jeff, 14 Wallden,Rea,425 Walschap, Gerard, 411, 412 Walters, D. Gareth, 141 Walther, Fran. Erhard, 276 Wanaverbecq,Annie-Laure,203 Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, 446 Warmer, Regis, 86

Index Warning, Rainer, 164 W a m k e Martin, 339 Walkiewic2,Andr2e,K.,156 Wat, A l e x a n d e r , 151, 152 Watson Taylor, Simon, 321 Wehle,Winfried,164,170 Weigel,Sigrid,396 Weikop, Christian, 282 Weiss,Jeffrey,281,365,367,368 Welge/jobst 175 Wells, Herbert George, 72, 312, 419 Wells, Paul, 357 Went 2 laff-Eggebert,Harald,130,176 Werfel,Fran^422 Wesselmann,Tom,436 West M a ™ , Elizabeth, 35 Westbrock,Ingrid,352 White, Michael, 229, 281 Whitehead, Gregory, 424 Whitman, Walt, 115, 138, 314 Wigam,Mary,57 Wigley, Mark, 466 Wilder, Alec, 135 Wilding, Faith, 260, 261, 262, 263, 265 Williams, Gregory H., 266 Williarns,JohnA.,99 Williams, Linda, 235, 236 Williams, Raymond, 78, 203, 204 Wilson, Tony, 36, 37, 39 Wilson, W o o d r o w , 80

487 Wisniewska,Matylda,154 Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 130 Wittke, Paul, 347 Wladyslaw,Hasior,255 Wlodarski,Marek,257 Wohlffeiler,Erwin,145 Wolf, Nelly, 211 W o o d , Beatrice, 22 Woolf, Virginia, 73, 410, 419, 421 Wordsworth, William, 131, 132 Worthington Ball, Alice, 28 WoutersfKeesCAT.M.,135 W o 2 a k , Bruno, 356

Yeats, William Butler, 180 Young, La Monte, 34, 37, 38, 147

Zabunyan,Elvan,89 Zahareas, Anthony N . , 182 Zamora Vicente: Alonso, 182 Zarebski:Andr2e,,142,145 ZarubaJersy.U? Zavala: Iris M , 175, 176, 177, 178 Zervigon: Andres Mario, 377 Zervos: Christian, 367 Zilcar, Judith, 63 Zola, Emile, 207, 208, 211