- According to Mcluhan we are in the "Late Age of Print"
- The Gutenberg printing press created in 1450, kickstarted the 'Age of Print'.
- The Royal Academy - taught the 'fine arts' - painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry. These were the culturally accepted forms of art, as they were what was commissioned by the rich and affluent who could afford such things at the time. The experience of 'snobbery' towards commercial art forms that we study here eg. graphic design, illustration, has fed from this…
- The industrial revolution led to urbanisation. With dense concentration of people, never experienced before, class divides became more evident. People began to recognise themselves as a part of a certain class.
- The working class not being able to identify themselves with the culture of the ruling classes (historical paintings) began to construct their own culture using printing methods such as engraving, lithograph ect. This was the beginning of 'popular culture', culture for the masses.
- We therefore began to see a divide between two separate cultures - the culture of the ruling class (a minority culture), and the culture of the working class (popular culture).
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| Belshazzar's Feast https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Martin_-_Belshazzar%27s_Feast_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg |
- It was painted by John Martin who choose not to follow the 'traditional route' of becoming an artist (Royal Academy).
- He exhibited the painting himself, charging a small fee to view and then did REPRODUCTIONS of his painting (engravings) that you could buy. This is an example of art becoming available to the masses (the 'everyman') and also the importance of the original art work being emphasised through its reproduction.
- In this book Mathew Arnold (a member of the ruling class) talks about how the spread of this new culture (popular culture) is ruining englishness?
- The title itself can be pulled apart in order to express the veiled meaning within the book. "Culture" - traditional art, historical painting ect. Culture being determined by the ruling classes. "Anarchy" is used in direct reference to the working classes - the emergence of this new 'popular culture'.
- Stemmed from fear? People were starting to question social structures… This is why the ruling classes became desperate to restore and maintain the 'natural order'.
"Leavism" - FR Leavis & Q.D Leavis
- Sees this emergence of popular culture as actually 'culture in decline'
- There is 'collapse' in authority and it needs to be restored to when the intellectuals would lead the masses. When the ruling class would be the ones to determine and shape culture.
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| Black Bess or the Knight of the Road http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/penny-dreadfuls |
- This book would have been looked down on by the ruling classes. But this does not matter - it was made by the working class for the working class. Made by people who want read and see this sort of thing. This is a prime example of popular culture being DEMOCRATIC.
"The work of art in the age of reproduction" Walter Benjamin
- He talks about this "aura" surrounding art work - what he is referring to here is the habit of viewing art as containing some kind of genius, eternal value or authority. This is similar to what Berger talks about in his book (many of the ideas taken from Benjamin's essay) about intellectuals using 'learnt assumptions' by which to value art, viewing/valuing art with 'nostalgia'. (polysyllabic jargon if you will…)
- For example the Mona Lisa is surrounded by this 'aura' of containing some kind of higher meaning and genius. It is culturally accepted as a masterpiece, but does anyone actually know what makes it a masterpiece? Does anyone actually like it? Or do we just queue up to view it behind its bullet proof glass because we are told its important?
- This whole idea of art containing some kind of higher value becomes political. It feeds into the ruling classes expressing superiority through culture. 'you deserve to be downtrodden' - people are happy to be downtrodden, treated as inferior.
- Walter Benjamin was German and wrote this during a time of growing facism, the rise of Hitler into power. That is why there are lots of parallels between this (referrals to facism) as they both show a class/group of people creating ideas of superiority ect over another group of people.
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| Marcel Duchamp L.H.O.O.Q https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.H.O.O.Q.#/media/File:Marcel_Duchamp_Mona_Lisa_LHOOQ.jpg |
- Reproduction has allowed us to remove art away from its 'temple' - galleries ect. and put it into new contexts. These new contexts can be used to change and shape the meaning of the image.
- We can choose to mock the authority of these images e.g. Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q
- Through this the cultural authority of images are destabilised - people can write their own culture. This reproduction of images is anti-authoritarian.
The invention of the camera
- The ability to reproduce images through photography worked even more effectively in ripping up the existing class dynamic.
- "historical paintings" were important as they worked to document a moment in history, as well as to immortalise a person - people of importance were only able to do this. With the invention of the camera, the ability to immortalise yourself became available to the masses.
- With photograph art was no longer 'needed' in order to document a certain time or place.
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| Andy Warhols "Marilyns" http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T03/T03093_10.jpg |
- Andy Warhol's work is the perfect example of mass production of images. The place where his images were created was called the 'factory' and all of the images he created stemmed from mass media and popular culture.
- His work is directly attacking the 'aura' surrounding traditional/original works of art. His prints have no meaning, no soul or mystery (destroying the concept that art does have these things). It exposes this 'aura' as nonsense.
- His work is a prime of example of art being designed for reproducibility.
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| Left: Walker Evans Alabama, Tenant farmer wife Right: Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans |
- These are two photographs - one of them the original taken by Walker Evans, and the second a photograph of this photograph taken by Sherrie Levine - that she then sold as her own work.
- This created a debate regarding intellectual property, is this stealing? (read high court arguments)
- Again this disputes the 'aura' surrounding original art work, that an exact replica of an image can just be created by a completely different person through photography.
- But does this destroy genius? Because taking a photograph of an image is not recreating this image? It does not contain any of the consideration ect. that would be needed to create this image in the first place…
(William Morris "Lesser Arts") -READ
- We value print culture today, over the digital, as we feel a human connection. It had been produced by a human being, it is physical - we can feel it and hold it in our hands.
- Print culture is still the radical art of people.
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| The Print Project 'No fly Posters' http://files.idnworld.com/creators/files/v20n6/NoFlyPosters/006_The-Print-Project.jpg |
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| The Glastonbury Free press |
- Anthony Burrill.. Print culture can be seen on streets, in our homes. It becomes a part, an experience of daily life. It is designed to be fleeting, comes and goes.
- There is a new resurgence of print culture. Can we see parallels between original artwork and the emergence of the age of reproduction, and print culture and the rise of the digital age?
- Is print culture now taking on a new/increasing in value? becoming cool and trendy? Appealing to a niche market? And now digital art/images viewed on the internet are behaving in the same - accessible for the masses, you don't have to buy it…images are now free for all.
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