Читать книгу Revisiting Renoir, Manet and Degas - Lyutsiya Staub - Страница 6

The visual arts have always been a source of inspiration for writers, from classical antiquity (starting from Homer, who included a description of the Shield of Achilles in Book 18 of the Iliad) to the present. However, it seems that early twenty-first century literature, more than ever before, is geared towards visuality through the use of visual images in verbal texts. The recent upsurge in the popularity of the word-image relationship is especially noticeable in the contemporary novel, which not only focuses on works of art, artists’ and models’ lives and the artist-model relationships, but also, while fictionalising the story of the very process of creating an artwork, seeks to test and evaluate its historical interpretation. While a variety of definitions of this particular genre have been suggested – “fictions about painters” (Bowie), “artist novels” (Beebe), “atelier narratives” (Joyce) and most recently “art-historical fiction” (Chapman) –, this paper will address it simply as art fiction. My concern is primarily with contemporary novels that allude to two-dimensional works of art, Impressionist figure paintings by Renoir, Manet and Degas in particular. Although my work focuses on literature, I hope this research will also be of interest for art experts, as art fiction does not only re-present a painting to make the reader see it through its description but creates a story around it, and by that delves deeper into the question of possible meanings of an artwork.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between visual art and contemporary art fiction by addressing the problem of the ekphrastic re-presentation and re-interpretation of an Impressionist figure painting through its composition, selected details of the painting and allusion to specific techniques used in the process of creating the masterpiece based on the examples of the following novels: Luncheon of the Boating Party (LOTBP) by Susan Vreeland (2007), Mademoiselle Victorine (MV) by Debra Finerman (2007), With Violets (WV) by Elizabeth Robards (2008), Dancing for Degas (DFD) by Kathryn Wagner (2010) and The Painted Girls (TPG) by Cathy Marie Buchanan (2013). The reason for choosing the corpus of five novels about Impressionists is twofold: the scope of the study is narrowed down, on the one hand, to a single period of literature and, on the other, to a specific period of art history. The overall aim of reducing of the scope of the corpus of texts is to avoid further risk of the study being too broad and unintentionally ambiguous.

Impressionism1 is probably one of the most popular movements with audiences – it is light, pretty to look at and easy to understand. Barbe-Gall points out that Impressionist paintings do not require prior knowledge and thus offer certain comfort to contemporary viewers who are usually able to “recognise something familiar in the paintings, something they have once experienced, or simply glimpsed, an ordinary situation or a passing sensation” (4). According to Brettell, the main attraction of these “joyous works remains the sense of spontaneity they impart, the pure pleasure they suggest in the artist’s act of looking and in the ability to capture a quick visual impression, seemingly without second thought or the aid of theory” (7). In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, in comparison to the mainstream work of artists accepted by the Institut2 and the Salon, Impressionist paintings looked rushed, incomplete and utterly incompetent, and thus caused bitter opposition and received fierce criticism from both the art critics and the audience. Impressionists step aside from traditionally approved historical or mythological subjects and find theirs in everyday ‘real’ life. They depict what they see and illustrate their subjective point of view. The work that emerges from this personal vision becomes rather relative.3 It is both the subject itself and the effects of the natural light on this subject that interests Impressionists and makes them rethink and adjust the manner they paint and by implication the dynamics of the painting process. According to Baxandall, Impressionism offers “canvases that [play] on a tension between an openly dabbed-on plane surface and a rendering of sense-impressions of seen objects that put emphasis on their hues” (45). The practical innovation of ready-made paint in tubes was one of the reasons why Impressionists could paint much more quickly than their predecessors and were able to take their work outdoors. They developed various techniques – visible brush strokes, impasto, alla prima, en plein air – and tried to adapt them in order to reveal the subject through soft forms, representing a shimmering texture of light, fostering an illusion of movement and depicting the instancy of a ‘real’ moment of modern life. Many talented artists are known as Impressionists and although there are certain similarities in their philosophy of painting, their works appear materially different – the style and preferred subject matters of each painter can be clearly distinguished. Therefore, Impressionism cannot be reduced to just a few aspects and be spoken about in general terms – each painter should be studied individually.

Impressionism has been so popularised through countless reproductions on posters, calendars, napkins, umbrellas, chocolate boxes and the like that people are sometimes surrounded by Impressionist art without even knowing it. Now Impressionist paintings and painters are subjected to another form of recycling – they penetrate the pages of art fiction. In the last ten years many contemporary writers (Vreeland, Finerman, Robards, Wagner, Buchanan, Cowell, Oliveira, Figes, Lasky, Scott Chessman, Gibbon – to name just a few) have turned to the subject of Impressionism, creating portrayals of famous Impressionists and their models, developing the stories of their relationships, yet also focusing on re-presentation (by describing the process of their creation and exploring it from both the artist’s and the model’s perspectives) and interpretation of the artworks. Analysis of ekphrastic re-presentation of an Impressionist artwork is particularly interesting in view of the fact that in Impressionist painting attention is diverted from separate details to the overall effect of the image, yet it is usually the composition and the details of the painting that help to re-present the visual source verbally. The aim of this study is therefore to examine how Impressionist figure paintings are re-presented through the composition of the painting and selected details and how such re-presentation affects the re-interpretation of an artwork alluded to in the narrative as well as the understanding of an extant work of art.

Chapter Two lays out the theoretical dimensions of the research, addressing the question of the visual and the verbal and emphasising the complementary function of arts. It examines the idea that the semiotic duality of an intermedial artefact facilitates close interaction between spatiality and temporality and by doing so creates great potential for generating new meanings in a cultural product, thus leading to new interpretations. There are different ways of manifesting visual arts within a literary text; however, the present analysis focuses solely on the actual subject matter captured directly in both media, bringing ekphrasis and the variety of ekphrastic relationships into the primary focus in contemporary art fiction. The first section presents a brief diachronic overview of the evolution of the definition of ekphrasis (Webb, Lessing, Heffernan, Krieger, Mitchell, Cheeke, Clüver, Yacobi). The study suggests a contemporary reading of the phenomenon of ekphrasis based on the tripartite principle of the representation of an art object and its multiple re-interpretations and proposes to define ekphrasis as a verbal re-presentation and re-interpretation of a visual representation (painting). The chapter moves on to consider the diversity of ekphrastic relationships by introducing several typologies of word-image relations (Hollander, Heffernan, Yacobi, Torgovnick, Robillard, Sager Eidt). I adapt and challenge the existing categories of ekphrasis by making them more specific for my study and finally elaborate a framework of intermedial interaction (communicative, re-presentational and interpretative categories) that is further applied to the study of selected contemporary art fiction narratives. While the communicative category is concerned with paratexts of contemporary art fiction, the re-presentational category focuses on ekphrastic descriptions of details, composition and the process of creation of an artwork, and the interpretive category considers perception and interpretation of a painting as well as meta-commentary on art movements in general provided by the story’s actants. In the chapters that follow I will examine different types of ekphrasis as well as their combinations in the novels in order to analyse to what extent the visual source is used in the text, which aspects of it are highlighted, which are omitted altogether, what is added and why. The overall objective of this research is to examine if and how art fiction influences the way the painting is perceived and to determine what effects the transmission of a painting through one or several ekphrastic categories (communicative, re-presentational or interpretative) has on its general understanding.

Chapter Three concentrates on the communicative category and analyses how the co-presence of media is established in the paratextual zone (Genette) of contemporary art fiction, with main focus being on the verbal and visual elements of the book cover. This chapter promotes the approach of judging the book by its cover. As the first manifestation of an intermedial artefact the book cover frames the future reading of the text. It provides the reader with verbal (the name of the author, title, genre indication, press blurbs) and visual (cover illustrations) information that aims to attract attention to the product, establish a relationship with a potential reader, encouraging the reader to interpret the conveyed meaning of the literary work in question, and eventually to persuade the reader to purchase the book. In this chapter, it will be argued that in the case of art fiction based on extant works of art, the book cover becomes a manifestation of the intermedial nature of the product (referring to the content of the book, naming or illustrating the characters, or alluding to the artist, an artwork or an artistic movement in general), often giving the reader an opportunity to engage with an art object both visually and verbally and thus activating new reading skills. I will analyse the form in which the textual and iconic images appear, the location of the image and the text, their referents and their inter-relationship on the front and back covers. The main purpose of this research is therefore to study the role of the book covers of art fiction, to interpret the functions of displayed verbal and visual elements and, most importantly, to examine the effects they produce.

The fourth chapter focuses on the re-presentation of visual sources in art fiction. Contemporary writers tend to take the reader on a journey around the painting and show it gradually coming to life. That is why in this section I examine how the artwork is re-presented through the process of its making – considering the labour that goes into a creation (obtaining inspiration, finding locations and models, choosing colours, applying paints, confirming composition, considering details, dealing with the problems of artistic creation and the like). I will argue that by narrating the process of making, the novelists – delving deeper into the images and their stories – on the one hand accentuate the dynamic and experimental activity of art making and draw attention to the fact that artworks are neither really static nor unchanging, while on the other, by examining the artist’s intentions in the process of creating an artwork, suggest a new narrative interpretation of the image.

As the central element of a figure painting is a human model, the process of making an artwork naturally involves posing. During the modelling process, the reader is introduced to the model as an element of a painting. However, in art fiction models also have the ability to move within and beyond a given artwork, live and act on and off the canvas, interact directly with the creator (thus becoming a mediator between the creator and the artwork), discuss the intended meaning of an artwork and even influence the resulting representation. On this basis I propose and further examine a hypothesis that the model performs a threefold function in the narrative, being 1) a human subject with a life outside the canvas, 2) an object of the painting, and thus a representation of art itself, and 3) a co-creator of the end product or an artist tout court. My analysis is divided into two sections, firstly addressing Renoir’s boating party in LOTBP (Alphonse, Alphonsine, Jeanne, Aline, Angèle, Antonio, Gustave, Ellen, Charles, Jules), and, secondly considering the opportunists, dancers and lovers who pose for Manet and Degas (Victorine (MV), Berthe (WV), Marie (TPG) and Alexandrie (DFD)). In this research I aim to study how the models contribute to the creation and interpretation of the artworks and how the modelling process described in the narrative helps to re-present the painting.

The chapter moves on to consider the re-presentation of fragments (selected details, compositional components and colour) of Impressionist figure paintings and the role they play in art fictional narratives. By describing or alluding to the details of the painting, contemporary writers take control of the selective process, guide the reader’s attention and eventually affect his/her visual perception of an artwork. I will discuss both the limitations of this guiding principle and the advantages of creating new effects en route of exploring the artwork, analysing the impact these effects exert on the reader. Further I examine which details tend to be singled out in Impressionist figure paintings, analyse them as focal points of the re-presentation, and analyse how they assist in re-presenting and contextualising the painting in its socio-historical and cultural settings as well as how they affect the visual perception and influence the interpretation of an artwork in contemporary ekphrasis. Finally, in view of one of Impressionism’s main concerns, I distinguish colour as a significant component of re-presentation and track the meaning that is assigned to colour in art fiction. I argue that the description of colour solution allows the novelists to re-direct the reader’s attention to specific details and to refer to the style and painting techniques of the artist, and thus reinforce the idea of creation, enhance the experience of ‘seeing’ and enrich the aesthetic value of the re-presentation as a whole.

Finally, the fifth chapter investigates how the re-presented artworks are perceived and interpreted by various actants and how the Impressionist art movement in general is commented upon in the narratives. The use of actually existing works of art in fiction allows novelists to explore and recycle ready-made interpretations of the image and, by using them as a foundation, create new meanings of a re-presentation. However, regardless of the derivation (ready-made or newly created) of the meaning, it is generally conditioned by a certain framework used for viewing art pieces and is thus determined by art historical method. The discussion will include the most popular and influential art historical methods usually used in regard to Impressionist paintings, such as connoisseurial (or biographical), formalist, iconographical, Marxist, social art history and feminist methods. This part will examine which approaches the novelists apply and in which combinations, what effects they create in the narrative and, most importantly, if and how they embellish the understanding of the re-presentation. Therefore, central questions raised within the interpretive category are: who are the transmitters; what type of transmission is offered; how do interpretations given by characters differ, and what impacts do they exert?

Within this section I will focus on the issue of the perceived versus intended meaning of an artwork, considering a painting to be a visual form of communication between a sender-artist and a receiver-viewer, in which the viewer is invited to decode or translate the message the artist has intended to send. The study will show how meaning making occurs in fictional visual communication, and suggest that the perceived meaning of an artwork is relative to the artist’s intentions, standard conventions, established systems of painting, familiar socio-cultural circumstances, and the viewer’s aesthetic values and ability to interpret. Moreover, it will draw a conclusion as to how the meaning given to re-presentation supplements the way the original extant artwork is perceived and interpreted. Furthermore, this chapter focuses on the paintings viewed on display (in either museum spaces or the painter’s studio) and the resulting multiple interpretations. The analysis intends to explain how the spatial distance dictated by museum culture (the viewer’s inability to touch the object), the temporal distance established via the separation of an object from the artist’s labour (experiencing the ready-made artwork not in the process of its creation) and the viewer’s emotional and aesthetic distance to the art object influence the understanding of the art piece.

In addition, I will explore the effectiveness of making characters revisit the same image and look at collections in the narratives. The discussion will centre on the re-presentation of Impressionism through the interpretation of artworks of several artists. It will argue that the novels introduce the readers to a heterogeneous group of painters, allowing readers to see the contrast between the individual styles, techniques, depicted subjects and artists’ intentions, and hence enrich the assembled collection of re-presented artworks, on the one hand, and extend the reader’s knowledge about the Impressionist art movement in general on the other. Additionally, this section investigates the historical and socio-cultural re-presentation of Impressionism through the medium of art criticism illustrated in the novels, seeing it as an ekphrastic meta-commentary on both a specific work of art and art movement. It is interesting to see how a combination of historically accurate settings, factual knowledge of Impressionism, authentic information about the paintings and fictional stories around them complement each other and eventually manipulate the reader’s understanding of the re-presentations. Ultimately, this study deliberates the question whether contemporary art fiction, which re-presents and interprets actually existing works of art through the lens of contemporary culture, can be considered a new guide to understanding art, acknowledged as a distant form of art history, seen as a contemporary aesthetic discipline or simply regarded as an à la mode intermedial product.