Page 27 - Studio International - November 1967

its emphasis on the enjoyment of the dissociated moment. pictorial step appeared as sacrificial. But for those who
He values his sensations, and the infinite ways of enriching were taking the steps, on the contrary, each prior sequence
them, above the force of any outside obligation or claim of forms and associations existed as relatively contami-
that they be comprehensible to others. In this light, nated solutions to obsolete necessities. Constantly re-
Duchamp's arcane games are far removed in content, but charged and redefined, the imagery of contemporary
not necessarily in spirit, from Renoir's 'amusement'. It pleasure swells from a microcosmic to a macrocosmic
would not do, after all, to forget the aristocracy, and the impact, belatedly grasped by the audience of its time,
exclusiveness of children—in their world. Games may be until it, too, becomes an obstacle to the narcissistic urges
models for the attainment of pleasure, but they can also of still younger artists. This is what initially instilled that
function as ways to outwit others and avoid intimacy. aspect of difficulty and irresolution, as well as dynamic
Such, at least, was the theme of Eric Berne's book, movement, which has been the history of modern art. By
Games People Play, in which the human transactions by now, so taken for granted has been this rather abrasive
which psychological and emotional distance is maintained state of affairs that we tend to forget its origin in
between people, are studied as components of game-like that higher amusement, and self-acknowledging artifice,
structures. Although ultimately such distance may not be which aesthetes like Pater and Baudelaire, a hundred
desired, or desirable, there can be little question that it years ago, first postulated. That there can be no pleasure
also serves to preserve certain integrities from social without pain, since each sets into relief the nature of the
distraction and disintegration. In visual art, this game other, there is no doubt. But the hard-won autonomy of
structure has a tradition a hundred years old—that is, an individual's artistic imagination, seeking its own
dating from Manet—which we call the avant-garde. gratification, also tends to be antagonistic to society's
If I may be presumptuous in my definitions, I would say anticipation of pleasure. This is the dualistic aspect of the
that the essence of this tradition might be re-stated as the avant-garde; it is the fact which makes for the well
priority of the individual's pleasure as a creator over that known tension and attrition in our relationship with
of the public's as consumer. The priority, and, as it ambitious works of art—just as patients may experience
often turns out, the opposition, of the private satisfaction, resistances and transferences in therapeutic session with
to the public expectation. In retrospect, this gap, or con- analysts. The demanding painting, then, becomes that anxious
flict, can be seen as the inevitable psychological con- imminence in our lives when, in proportion to the extent we can
sequence of Western industrial society's ambivalence abandon ourselves to its implausible delights, we test our own
towards play and leisure—activities which are seen as capacity for self-respect.
threatening to stability, although they may represent the Under this light, society's embosoming of the avant-
Below very goals towards which the civilization strives. Viewed garde tradition today can be stigmatized by the more
August Renoir merely as the struggle between the pleasure and the pejorative, rather than positive connotations of the word
Nymphe a la source c. 1882 reality principle, this opposition gains vividness. decadent. One sees an a priori acceptance of the problem-
oil on canvas But historically, the exfoliation of the avant-garde has atical and esoteric, as if these were qualities that could be
26¼ x 48½ in. been much more paradoxical. For it has appeared typi- digested (neutralized, yes), by a kind of cheery accultura-
Courtesy National Gallery,
London cally as a spectacle of ever increasing stylistic renuncia- tion to their presence. Far from being a special enlighten-
tions—that is, exactly the opposite of the product of a ment, fruit of our sophisticated, swinging age, this
Below right liberated artistic libido. Stripped and reduced always to embracing of new art constitutes the most serious block
Marcel Duchamp something apparently thinner and poorer than it was to aesthetic benefits. Everywhere one views extremely
Network of stoppages 1914
before, modern art, in its final continuity, seems like a reasonable attitudes, a sort of gibbering open-mindedness,
oil on canvas
scenario of willful self-defeat. an unshockable aplomb. These are well known pheno-
58 x 78 in.
Yet, much of this is explained by the necessarily outside mena, remarkable for the way they insulate feeling.
Mary Sisler Collection,
New York position of those who observed it, and for whom each Strategically outpaced and outflanked, the artist finds