The Mediatization of the Artist

279 Pages·2018·6.26 MB·English

by  Rachel Esner,Sandra Kisters (eds.)

the mediatization of the artist
edited by rachel esner + sandra kisters
The Mediatization of the Artist
Rachel Esner · Sandra Kisters
Editors
The Mediatization
of the Artist
Editors
Rachel Esner Sandra Kisters
University of Amsterdam Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Rotterdam, The Netherlands
ISBN 978-3-319-66229-9 ISBN 978-3-319-66230-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66230-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017950693
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover design by Henry Petrides
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
F
oreword
In the name oF the artIst
The artist, in my opinon, is a monstrosity, something beyond nature.1
At the Paris Salon of 1890, Paul Richer (1849–1933), a sculptor and
professor of anatomical art at the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibited a
statue under the title Le Premier Artiste.2 The bronze represents a pre-
historic man seated on an animal skin and carving the image of a mam-
moth with surprisingly realistic proportions.3 His face, lit up by a smile
of contentment, expresses what we are meant to understand as the first
manifestation of aesthetic emotion, the first spark of artistic conscious-
ness. Contemplating the result of his efforts, the caveman has finally
succeeded in freeing himself from immediate material need and is now
able to enjoy a purely spiritual or intellectual pleasure. Richer had the
pedestal inscribed with the words Age de la pierre taillée (The Age of
Carved Stone) to indicate not only the specific historical origins of art in
the Palaeolithic period, but also to demonstrate that even at the origins
1Gustave Flaubert, “Lettre à Louis Bouilhet,” December 15, 1850; from Pensées de
Flaubert (Paris: Louis Conard Editeur, 1915), 16.
2On Paul Richer, see Bulletin de la vie artistique, April 1, 1921, 206–9.
3On these questions see, for example, Philippe Dagen, “L’art préhistorique vers 1900:
un ‘réalisme’ fort incongru,” Préhistoire art et sociétés: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique
Ariège-Pyrénées (Société préhistorique Ariège-Pyrénées, 2006), 35–42.
v
vi FOREwORD
of civilization, man had engaged in an autonomous activity that found
its end and its justification in sensuous delight. He not only cut stone
to make tools, but also to give shape to his creative vision. This fanciful
representation of the first artist now replaced an earlier and more poetic
evocation in which, following the legend of the daughter of the potter
of Corinth, the birth of art was linked to amorous desire and memory.4
By giving the first artist an imagined identity dating back to the dawn
of time, Richer reaffirmed the utility of this social class. Artistic aptitude
and aesthetic enjoyment became the natural qualities of civilized man,
that which distinguished him from animals.
In the nineteenth century the artist acquired a predominantly mythi-
cal stature. This separated him from the rest of humankind by freeing
him from both the demands of morality and its concomitant behavio-
ral constraints, as well as the burdens of everyday life that weigh on all
those who cannot enjoy the liberties offered by the state of “being an
artist.” The ambivalence of the painter’s or sculptor’s social position
was reflected in the word used to designate the members of his broth-
erhood, whose boundaries it seemed more and more difficult to define.
In fact, as the century progressed, the term “artist” lost in clarity what
it gained in popularity. As early as 1808, the Dictionnaire du bon lan-
gage noted the deplorable expansion of the use of the word. “Artist was
used to designate painters of course, but also actors, wigmakers and vet-
erinarians: In Paris, thespians, the basest vagabonds, the most obscure
artisans, even the shoeshiners, have for some time taken up the title of
artists: one could hardly be more impudent.”5 At the end of the cen-
tury, Emile Littré’s Dictionnaire de la langue française maintained that
the use of the word to designate someone who practiced the fine arts
had not become current until the second half of the eighteenth cen-
tury.6 Before that it had been limited to qualifying tapestry-makers or
goldsmiths, as well as alchemists as specialists in another kind of “grand
4Pliny, Histoire naturelle, Book XXXV, 151 and 152.
5Quoted in Alain Rey, “Le nom d’artiste,” Romantisme 55 (1987): 5–22.
6The first edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, from 1694, links the word
“artist” to the art of alchemy: “Il est aussi substantif, et signifie celui qui travaille dans un
Art. Il se dit particulièrement de ceux qui font les opérations chimiques. Il faut être un
grand artiste pour bien préparer le mercure.” The fourth edition, from 1762, defines it as
we would today: “Celui qui travaille dans un art où le génie et la main doivent concourir.
Un Peintre, un Architecte sont des artistes.”
FOREwORD vii
art.”7 Pierre Larousse, more prolific than Littré, devoted no less than five
columns to the definition of the term, repeatedly citing George Sand,
Theophile Gautier, Lamartine, and Proudhon to illustrate its variability.
He also pointed out that nowadays everybody claimed to be an artist: “A
remarkable thing! while in our time many people whose profession has
absolutely no connection with art usurp the title—meaning we now have
hairdresser-artists, pedicure-artists, and even veterinary-artists, etc.—the
greatest practitioners of the fine arts are content to call themselves paint-
ers, sculptors, architects or musicians.”8
Romanticism, and later Symbolism, reinforced the general public’s
fascination with the personality of the artist. The word thereby ceased
to designate the titleholder of a particular profession, itself linked to the
acquisition of a particular set of skills and the production of a particu-
lar object. Instead, the notion of “artist” evoked a vague quality that
was intimately bound up with the deepest part of certain individuals, an
uncertain psychological disposition consisting all at once of exaltation
and melancholy, humility and self-conceit, self-centeredness and socia-
bility. As a result of this semantic indeterminacy and these psychological
contradictions, the social image of the artist became confused or, more
precisely, multiple—changing according to the times and the circum-
stances, and according to the circles in which he or she moved, or the
intentions of the artists themselves and their allies. The artist could be
described with equal conviction in the guise of dandy or bohemian, as
confessor or fallen demon, pariah or hero, as an enigma or an example to
be followed. More than that, perhaps, the artist became one of the most
frequently illustrated subjects in works of art and a topic of discourse in
the media, transformed from a mere social being into an artistic creation
or popular celebrity. The artist, by becoming a work of art or a media
sensation was thus transmuted into an image, both allegory and carica-
ture. It is this process that the present volume seeks to explore, cover-
ing a range of periods and media forms from the nineteenth century to
today, and from statuemania to the blockbuster film, and revealing that
7Emile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1863–
1872), vol. 1, entry “Artiste.”
8Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle par M. Pierre Larousse (Paris: Larousse,
1867–1890), vol. 1, entry “Artiste,” 732.
viii FOREwORD
the topoi invented centuries ago regarding the nature of the artist are as
relevant today as they ever have been.
Paris, France Alain Bonnet
April 2017
C
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Rachel Esner and Sandra Kisters
Part I The Artist in the (Illustrated) Press
2 “At Home”: Visiting the Artist’s Studio
in the Nineteenth-Century French Illustrated Press 15
Rachel Esner
3 Success Stories and Martyrologies: Images of Artists
in Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 31
Lieske Tibbe
4 “Les épisodes de la vie d’un artiste intéressent beaucoup.”
The Power of the Media and How to Use It: An
Exploration of Ensor’s Self-Mediatization 47
Herwig Todts
5 Artists’ Confessions to Tériade in L’Intransigeant,
1928–1929: The Construction of a Public Image 61
Poppy Sfakianaki
ix
x CONTENTS
6 Life’s Pioneer Painters: Dorothy Seiberling and American
Art in Life Magazine, 1949–1968 79
Melissa Renn
Part II The Artist in Documentary and Art-House Film
7 Creative Process and Magic: Artists on Screen in the
1940s 99
Pierre Saurisse
8 COBRA, Canvas, and Camera: Luc de Heusch Filming
Alechinsky and Dotremont at Work 115
Steven Jacobs
9 In Bed with Marina Abramović: Mediatizing Women’s
Art as Personal Drama 131
Marcel Bleuler
10 Art and Aisthesis in Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio 147
Marco de waard
11 Interviewing the Artist: Richter Versus Bacon 165
Sandra Kisters
Part III The Artist in the Popular Imagination
12 The Myth of the Artist in Children’s Illustrated
Literature 183
Laura Bravo
13 A Physiology of the Inglorious Artist in Early
Nineteenth-Century Paris 197
Kathryn Desplanque
14 Mythologies of the Artist in Modern India: Cinema,
Melodrama, and Ravi Varma 215
Niharika Dinkar