New York Modern Sanat Düşüncesini Nasıl Çaldı: Soyut Dışavurumculuk, Özgürlük ve Soğuk Savaş

by Serge Guilbaut, Elif Gökteke (Translator)

Yakın dönemin sanat tarihine tutulan bir ayna, sıra dışı bir sanat tarihi okuması.

Avangard sanatın özerklik iddiasının bir sorgusu niteliğindeki "New York Modern Sanat Düşüncesini Nasıl Çaldı", Amerikan kültür ve sanat dünyasında Anti-Stalinizm ve Troçkizmden 'sanat için sanat'a uzanan sürecin ilginç öyküsü. Serge Guilbaut, Amerikan kültür dünyasının sahne arkasındaki sanat ve siyaset ağını irdeliyor.

Dünya sanatının merkezi Paris'ten New York'a nasıl taşındı? Amerikan Soyut Dışavurumculuğu'nun, İkinci Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra kazandığı büyük başarının ardında yalnızca sanatsal nedenler mi vardı?

'Özgürlükler ülkesi' liberal Amerika, soyut sanatı bilinçli olarak mı destekledi? Hükümetinin Soğuk Savaş döneminde izlediği tutum, bilinçli bir sanat politikası mıydı?

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Art History, Visual Art

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1983

Reviews

[Eszter · Rating 2 out of 5]

agghhghhghh! too many words! too few ideas! but a pretty decent point. incidentally, i went to a lecture that this guy gave on monday and he used too many words then, too, and he couldn't get the av equipment to work and i may or may not have almost fallen asleep while sitting in the first row. oh and incidentally, i am supposed to give an hour-long presentation on this book at noon today but instead of cooking up an awesome powerpoint, i am updating goodreads. hm.

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ostensibly, this book examines the political and social context for modern/abstract expressionist art during the Cold War. Very early on the author indicates that, after contextualizing the movement historically, he will be addressing the period between 1947 and 1951.

It is perhaps fitting that, in a book about the political and social context of Abstract Expressionism, that the only thing more abstract than the art examined should be the prose examining it. A few samples of the writing:

"What I argue is this: that from compromise to compromise, refusal to refusal, adjustment to adjustment, the rebellion of the artists, born of frustrations within the left, gradually changed its significance until ultimately it came to represent the values of the majority, but in a way (continuing the modernist tradition) that only a minority was capable of understanding."

and

"To avoid misunderstanding, it is worth pointing out explicitly that the triumph of the avant-garde was neither a total victory nor a popular one, but rather a typically avant-garde victory, that is to say, fragile and ambiguous."

I struggled to avoid mentally replacing "fragile and ambiguous" with "ephemeral and meaningless."

A truly tedious book, one I honestly couldn't bring myself to finish. Your time is much better spent pondering Malevich's Black Square while listening to John Cage's 4'33" on repeat.

[Writerlibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in modern art and know a little about the New York School this gives you a whole other view of the period. It's not so much on the artists but on the motivation, the political views of the players at that time. Critics, merchants, politicians and artists were all involve in a struggle for liberty, democracy and culture. The American way.
This essay doesn't shy away from unpopular views and from polemic. Interesting read.

[Adolfo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro leido, por fin. Libro interesante de como el sistema capitalista se apropio de un estilo de arte para usarlo de difusión de su ideologia y hacer asi una semblanza de la forma de vida norteamericana, el mal llamado "american way of life" con el expresionismo abstracto, remarcando la libertad, el individualismo, la fuerza, la acción, la espontaneidad, el espíritu creativo, etc.
Lo interesante del libro es que el relato sobre el desarrollo del estilo expresionista abstracto va de la mano con el desarrollo de la historia y no se pueden ver separadamente la una de la otra.
Lo que entendí es que los artistas del expresionismo abstracto, en si críticos del sistema capitalista, después de la II guerra mundial se encontraron desconcertados, frente al hecho de que lo que apoyaban antes, un socialismo humano, se transformo en un totalitarismo total, estalinismo de la URSS. Y ese totalitarismo tampoco se podía apoyar.
En sus obras los artistas crearon pintura apolítica, fuera de toda posición política o ideológica.
A pesar de su posición apolítica el arte fue usado políticamente por el sistema.
Y por último, la edición es aberrante, esta llena de faltas, es una vergüenza que lo hayan publicado así.

[SY · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book chronicled the decade-long process by which the art-loving general public in America finally reached a broad consensus on the value of abstract expressionism. This process was illustrated through an exceptionally thorough account of shifts in public sentiment, as reflected in both the popular and specialist press. Additionally, Guilbaut made the case that this eventuality had been carefully orchestrated, that it had been a consciously nationalist project from the earliest years of the Cold War.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that culture was instrumentalised as a propaganda weapon during the Marshall Plan era. While this book outlined the backdrop out of which a blatant instrumentalisation of culture had emerged, for me it is still unclear - judging from Guilbaut's account - to what extent the conditions that made it possible for these exploits to occur after 1951 had in fact been carefully engineered at every step during those early years, and how much of it was the more natural outcome of a public conversation, even if the conversation sometimes took on a nationalistic overtone.

This has been one of the better volumes I'd read on the topic. The research is very thorough, and the tone of the scholarship is fair. Highly recommended.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guilbaut articula en este ensayo toda la estructura desarrollada en NYC para desdibujar las fronteras del arte moderno parisinas, convirtiéndolas en la tradición del naciente arte norteamericano: el expresionismo abstracto. Para ello define los agentes: críticos (Clement Greenberg), coleccionistas (los Guggenheim), medios de masas (Life) y propuestas (exposiciones temporales de vanguardias europeas), con un estilo fluído y atravesado por una perspectiva marxista.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting socio-political perspective on the shifting art world post WWII.

[moon]

prof recced to me lol pretty good enlightening about a period i have been only vaguely surface level exposed to i wonder if it’s dated at all? but overall rlly good lowkey quick read too

[Leonardo]

...en los años que siguieron al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial el locus de la producción artística y la idea del arte moderno cambió de París a Nueva York. Serge Guilbaut cuenta la fascinante historia de cómo, cuando la escena del arte de París había sido arrojada al desorden por la guerra y la ocupación Nazi, y en medio de una campaña ideológica para promover el rol de liderazgo de los Estados Unidos en el mundo de posguerra, el expresionismo abstracto de artistas de Nueva York tales como Jackson Pollock y Robert Motherwell se estableció como la continuación natural y el heredero del modernismo europeo y, específicamente Parisino. Nueva York robó la idea del arte moderno.

Imperio Pág.283

[Gary Robert Gress · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this so long ago, and just today realized that I did. For me, as a student of art, the shift of the world's art center from Paris to New York after the war is a huge disappointment; it is exemplified by the mystique of Surrealism versus the mindlessness and money of Abstract Expressionism.

But the book conveys well how this came about, so I can't really shoot the messenger.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of educational value to it, and there were definitely some interesting points to it, but it was a hard read for me. I was very bored, and the academic/essay value in which it was written made it hard to catch my attention.

[Mary Cecilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've re-read this book a few times. It is a fabulous account of the Cold War politics that affected the burgeoning art scenes. Love love love it!

[MaryAddison · Rating 3 out of 5]

possibly read.