Removed from its artistic origins in the French avant-garde during the interwar
period, the European based group known as the situationist international is often
represented as being solely occupied with politics to the exclusion of all else, particularly
art and aesthetics. In what follows I argue that throughout the sixties the anti-aesthetic
position was actually the governing model in France obliging the avant-garde to adjust
their strategies accordingly. Artists and artists' collectives that placed politics before
aesthetics were the norm, enjoying widespread popularity and recognition from both the
public and the French State. These overtly partisan groups and individuals sapped art of
the power it had enjoyed in the fifties as a venue removed, or at least distanced from,
formal politics. In response, the situationists officially rejected the art world, turning to
the popular and vernacular culture of the streets in an attempt to get beyond both
classical aesthetic principals and the overt propagandistic objectives of groups such as le
Salon de la jeunePeinture. Turning to the climactic moment of 1968 I track the ways in
which these debates informed the posters and graffiti which marked the unfinished
revolution, sorting out the various aesthetic positions and political persuasions that
dominated the events. My thesis contends that the situationists were not anti-aesthetic,
that they simply advocated a different kind of aesthetics: one that rejected traditional
notions of beauty for the more active and open concept of poiesis or poetry. Beyond
words on a page, this notion implied art as a way of life, emphasizing production,
creation, formation and action and can be traced back to the groups prewar origins in the
Dada and surrealist movements. Moreover, this concept of poetry was not adverse to
issues of form being highly dependent on the materiality and physicality of the urban
centre, specifically the streets. Finally my conclusion expands upon the similarities
between this notion of poetry and the 17th century understanding of beauty, the latter
concept being associated with a subtle criticality and strategic wit. It was this
interpretation of beauty that defined and produced the art of 1968.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10958 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Scott, Victoria Holly Francis |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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