Continuing with Pierre Bourdieus newly published book on Manet. He is commenting on a book by American scholar Linda Nochlin called The invention of the avant-garde: France 1830-1880: according to Nochlin, Manet is infinitely more revolutionary than Courbet, who wanted to be revolutionary and had explicit intentions. This is why she links Courbets the Painters Studio to Manets Déjeuner under the banner of the avant-garde - the avant-garde being, according to Saint-Simon who coined the term, the reunion between one type of progress in the area of art and one type of progress in the area of politics. Courbet wanted to make sth that would be revolutionary in both areas, whereas Manet carried out an artistic revolution that turned out to be political too. In other words, he didnt start out from a political intention to translate it into art, he carried out an artistic transgression which is also a political one. This is where Nochlin talks about Manets joke. She writes that it was what the art students of the time would call a blague, a joke in French. What has never been taken sufficiently into account in so-called serious criticism is the character of these works (Le Déjeuner and Olympia) as monumental and ironic put-ons, blagues, a favorite form of destructive wit of the period.
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 17:31:38 +0000
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