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Twombly = Tiepolo, Warhol = Tintoretto (portretist) etc. Încæ se mai
crede oare despre cvasimonocroma Guernica cæ ar fi fost un protest împotriva
ororilor ræzboiului din Spania, mai degrabæ decît o reluare (conceputæ
genial, începînd cu formatul øi dozajul exclusiv gri-negru al paletei) a
motivelor din Hypnotauromachia øi a Suitei Vollard din anii care au precedat-o,
unde temele sînt uciderea, violul, femeia, calul spintecat, lampa øi
întunericul, noaptea øi scena Minotaurului victorios? Ar fi ca øi cum ai spune
(în pofida a ce zicea concluziv despre asta Bataille) cæ scandalul cu Olympia
se trægea de la nudul unei prostituate celebre ce-i pozase lui Manet.
„Dacæ credem cæ arta ar trebui sæ fie moralæ, reamintea Jünger în 1990,
asta ar fi sfîrøitul artei.“ Mobilizarea actualæ se lipseøte de agit-prop, kinopravda,
culturpop etc. Orice avangardæ militantæ este deja integratæ sistemului,
care face uz necontenit de un advertising færæ frontiere, de la scutecele
de bebeluøi la candidaflii la preøedinflia SUA. Aprecierea mea e realistæ øi,
prin asta, optimistæ. Ceea ce s-a numit minimal øi conceptual deja o presimfleau.
Însæ fundalul lor filosofic era încæ naiv, drept dovadæ afirmafliile
pletorice øi sentenflioase ale lui D. Judd øi ale altora. Din triada: Mind, Craftmanship,
Weltanschauung, tehnica a înlæturat termenul al doilea, pentru
a øi-l apropria. Arta a ajuns aøa sæ øchioapete. Øi, poate, de aceea øi-a pierdut
de asemenea øi mirarea respectuoasæ dinaintea lumii. Drumul ei ar
putea lua direcflii în care creaflia artisticæ ar fi o remanenflæ underground, cum
anunfla Duchamp în ultimul lui interviu: ceea ce ræmîne, însæ curæflit; un
soi de flatness precum cea apæratæ de troflkistul C. Greenberg „în epoca
de argint“ (Øcoala de la New York; dar el apæra încæ pictura: voia s-o salveze,
insistînd, pe bunæ dreptate, pe terenul nord-american dintr-un punct de
vedere antieuropean), determinatæ de saturaflia datoratæ împlinirii tehnicii
– un acid iconoclast, nu antiestetic, ci antiartistic; aventura formelor ar urmæri
(însæ sîntem într-o perioadæ de îndoialæ: Physis se îngreuneazæ) elaborarea
naturii transformatæ în elaborare a oamenilor de cætre oameni (Marx). Unde
prevaleazæ un subiect, sarcastic øi transcendental deopotrivæ, al unui întreg
material, permutabil, utilizabil, care e lumea ca piaflæ; un ezoterism care
a rupt legætura cu contrariul lui, exotericul; litera nemaifiind un înveliø, ci
sensul secret al suprafeflei.
Cæutarea de Neugestalten, Neuformen prin esteticæ, imperativ øi uneori alibi
al avangardelor istorice, a fost masiv înghiflitæ de inovaflia tehnologicæ. Tehnica
e un magnet care atrage øi adæposteøte o mulflime de capacitæfli øi de
cunoaøteri. Aici montajul dominæ. Orice obiect tehnic este, literalmente,
deja un Gestell. Totul, sau aproape totul, se aflæ în aceastæ înghiflire øi aceastæ
deprivare. Cine ar putea zice cæ tehnica nu a dovedit cæ reuøitele ei sînt
doar o acumulare de urîflenii? Admiraflia pentru o elice de avion din lemn,
de Brâncuøi, ne reaminteøte asta. Însæ la vremea aceea, acum un secol, tehnica
øi estetica ræmîneau încæ duale øi chiar, în mod eroic, în competiflie.
the night and the scene of the winning Minotaur? It is like saying (despite
of what Bataille had to say about it in a conclusive manner) that the Olympia
scandal originated in the nude of a famous prostitute posing for Manet. “If we
believe that art should be moral“, Jünger recalled in 1990, “this would be the
end of art.” The present mobilization can do without agit-prop, kinopravda, culturpop
etc. Any militant avant-garde is already part of the system, which makes
an endless use of borderless advertising, from pampers to the candidates to the
presidency of the USA.
My account is realistic and therefore optimistic. What has been called “minimal”
and “conceptual” had already foreseen it. But their philosophical background
was still naïve, as it is proved by the plethoric and sententious assertions of
Donald Judd and others. The technique has removed the second term from the
triad Mind, Craftmanship, Weltanschauung and appropriated it. That’s how art
became limp. And maybe that’s why it has also lost its respectful wonder before
the world. Its path could turn into directions where artistic creation would be an
underground permanence, as Duchamp proclaimed in his last interview: what
remains, but cleaned up; a sort of flatness such as the one defended by the
Trotskist Clement Greenberg “during the silver era” (the New York School;
but he was still defending painting: he wanted to save it by insisting, justly, on
North-American ground, from an anti-European point of view), determined by
the saturation provoked by the skill of technique – an iconoclast acid, not antiaesthetic,
but anti-artistic; the adventure of forms would aim (but we are in
doubt: Physis is getting heavy) at the elaboration of nature turned into an “elaboration
of the people by the people” (Marx). Where one subject, both sarcastic
and transcendental, prevails, of an entire material, permutable, usable, which is
the world as a market; an esotericism breaking with its opposite, the ex-otericism;
where the letter is no longer the cover, but the secret sense of the surface.
The search of Neugestalten, Neuformen through aesthetics, an imperative and
sometimes an alibi for the historical avant-gardes, was massively swallowed up
by the technological innovation. The technique is a magnet which attracts and
shelters a sum of capacities and knowledge. Here, the montage is dominant.
Any technical object is literally a Gestell. Almost everything was within this swallowing
and deprivation. Could we say that technique hasn’t proved that its
accomplishments are but a bunch of ugly things? The admiration towards
a wooden airplane propeller by Brancusi reminds us of that. But at that time,
a century ago, technique and aesthetics were still dual and even, heroically, in
competition.
Summer 2008
Translated by Alex Moldovan
vara 2008
Traducere de Adrian T. Sîrbu
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