Dialectical Passions: Negation in Postwar Art Theory

321 Pages·2010·9.29 MB·English

by  Gail Day

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Dialectical Passions

COLUMBIA THEMES IN PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIAL CRITICISM, AND THE ARTS
COLUMBIA THEMES IN PHILOSOPHY, SOCIAL CRITICISM, AND THE ARTS
Lydia Goehr and Gregg M. Horowitz, Editors
ADVISORY BOARD
J. M. Bernstein
T. J. Clark
Noël Carroll
Arthur C. Danto
Martin Donougho
David Frisby
Boris Gasparov
Eileen Gillooly
Th omas S. Grey
Miriam Bratu Hansen
Robert Hullot-Kentor
Michael Kelly
Richard Leppert
Janet Wolff
Columbia Th emes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts presents monographs, essay col-
lections, and short books on philosophy and aesthetic theory. It aims to publish books that show
the ability of the arts to stimulate critical refl ection on modern and contemporary social, political,
and cultural life. Art is not now, if it ever was, a realm of human activity independent of the com-
plex realities of social organization and change, political authority and antagonism, cultural domi-
nation and resistance. Th e possibilities of critical thought embedded in the arts are most fruitfully
expressed when addressed to readers across the various fi elds of social and humanistic inquiry. Th e
idea of philosophy in the series title ought to be understood, therefore, to embrace forms of discus-
sion that begin where mere academic expertise exhausts itself, where the rules of social, political,
and cultural practice are both affi rmed and challenged, and where new thinking takes place. Th e
series does not privilege any particular art, nor does it ask for the arts to be mutually isolated. Th e
series encourages writing from the many fi elds of thoughtful and critical inquiry.
L ydia Goehr and Daniel Herwitz, eds., Th e Don Giovanni Moment: Essays on the Legacy of an
Opera
Robert Hullot-Kentor, Th ings Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Th eodor W. Adorno
Gianni Vattimo, A rt ’ s Claim to Truth , edited by Santiago Zabala, translated by Luca D’Isanto
John T. Hamilton, Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language
Stefan Jonsson, A Brief History of the Masses: Th ree Revolutions
Richard Eldridge, Life, Literature, and Modernity
Janet Wolff , Th e Aesthetics of Uncertainty
Lydia Goehr, Elective Affi nities: Musical Essays on the History of Aesthetic Th eory
Christoph Menke, T ragic Play: Irony and Th eater from Sophocles to Beckett , translated by James
Phillips
György Lukács, Soul and Form, translated by Anna Bostock and edited by John T. Sanders and
Katie Terezakis with an introduction by Judith Butler
Joseph Margolis, Th e Cultural Space of the Arts and the Infelicities of Reductionism
H erbert Molderings, A rt as Experiment: Duchamp and the Aesthetics of Chance, Creativity, and
Convention
Whitney Davis, Queer Beauty: Sexuality and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Freud and Beyond
Dialectical Passions
Gail Day
Negation in Postwar Art Th eory

Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York. Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Day, Gail.
Dialectical passions : negation in postwar art theory / Gail Day.
p. cm. — (Columbia themes in philosophy, social criticism, and the arts)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-14938-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-52062-1 (electronic)
1. Art, Modern—20th century—Philosophy. 2. Art, Modern—21st century—
Philosophy. 3. Negation (Logic) I. Title. II. Series.
N6490.D34 2011
701'.18—dc22
2010004988

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free
paper.
Th is book was printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither
the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have
expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Contents
vii List of Illustrations
ix Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
1
25 T. J. Clark and the Pain of the Unattainable Beyond
2
70 Looking the Negative in the Face:
Manfredo Tafuri and the Venice School of Architecture
3
132 Absolute Dialectical Unrest, Or, the Dizziness of a
Perpetually Self-Engendered Disorder
4
182 Th e Immobilizations of Social Abstraction
230 Afterword: Abstract and Transitive Possibilities
247 Notes
301 Index

Illustrations
0.1 Chris Marker, fi lm still from S ans soleil [ Sunless ]. 2
1.1 Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), L avender Mist: Number 1, 1950, oil,
enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas, 221 × 299.7 cm. 35
1.2 Jackson Pollock, Th e Wooden Horse: Number 10A, 1948, oil, enamel,
and wood on brown cotton canvas mounted on board, 90 × 178 cm. 60
2.1 Offi ce for Metropolitan Architecture, view of the Espace Pirane-
sien , completed 1994, Euralille, Lille, France. 72
2.2 Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), C arceri VII , 1760,
etching. 76
2.3 Raoul Hausmann (1886–1971), New Home , 1920, collage, 29.5 ×
21.9 cm. 88
2.4 Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), Schroeder House, built in 1923–1924,
Utrecht, Netherlands. 8 9
2.5 Eliezer (El) Markowich Lissitzky (1890–1941), Illustration to
Th e Story of Two Squares, written by the artist, published in Berlin,
1922. 90
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
2.6 Karl Ehn (1884–1957), Karl-Marx-Hof, built in 1927–1930, Heili-
genstädter Strasse, Vienna, Austria. 97
3.1 Belvedere Torso, Greco-Roman, marble, 159 cm high. 156
3.2 Giotto di Bondone (c. 1266–1337), C harity, c. 1305, fresco, Scrovegni
(Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy. 161
3.3 Giotto di Bondone (c. 1266–1337), E nvy , c. 1305, fresco, Scrovegni
(Arena) Chapel, Padua, Italy. Photo: Th e Bridgeman Art Library. 164
3.4 Martha Rosler, detail from Th e Bowery in two inadequate descrip-
tive systems , 1974/1975. 1 80
4.1 Daniel Buren, L es couleurs: sculptures, 1977, photographic record of
detail of work in situ, MNAM, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 188
5.1 Radek Community, M anifestation , 2001, video still of action in
Barrikadnaya, Moscow. 231
Acknowledgments
M y most important debt is to Steve Edwards for his unfl agging pa-
tience, commitment, and engagement. I doubt Dialectical Passions would
have been completed without his personal support and his astute read-
ings of its countless drafts. I have also been especially fortunate to have
received the inspiration, guidance, and friendship of Fred Orton and
wish to take this opportunity to say how thankful I am. Caroline Ar-
scott, John X. Berger, Andrew Hemingway, Alex Potts, Susan Sieg-
fried, and Julia Welbourne have been sustaining presences through the
gestation of this book, providing critical insights into my ideas and of-
fering crucial encouragement to persist when stasis prevailed. To the
readers of the manuscript, in part or in whole, and at various stages of
its development, I owe particular thanks: Caroline (again), Martin
Gaughan, Ken Hay, Stewart Martin, Adrian Rifkin, John Roberts,
and Fred Schwartz. Th eir advice and incisive comments have helped
clarify and develop my arguments. Along the way I have also benefi ted
from discussion and debate with Joanne Crawford, Tim Hall, Cathe-
rine Lupton, David Mabb, April Masten, Stanley Mitchell, Jo Morra,
Ben Noys, Peter Osborne, Giles Peaker, Chris Riding, Nick Ridout,
Frances Stracey, Nick Till, and Ben Watson. Invitations to present
work-in-progress from Tim Clark, David Cunningham, John Good-
bun, Tom Hickey, Neil Leech, Colin Mooers, and Julian Stallabrass,
and also from Alex and Andrew, have enabled earlier versions of my
research to be tested in sympathetic, yet challenging environments.