4/5: Marcel Broodthaers, La
Tour Visuelle
This
work exemplifies the style of Pop Art culture that pervaded the 60’s while also
making an interesting point about society as a whole. Using commonplace items such as glass jars,
wooden discs, and magazine reproductions of eyes, Bloodthaers created a work
that was much in the spirit and style of artists in that day, but used his
creation to point out something completely different. The artist himself was against commercialism
and what was considered either traditional or fashionable in the art community
at the time. Much of his ideals were inspired by the
Dadaists, who rejected the atrocities of World War 1. Much in the spirit of the Dada movement,
which was to reject, Broodthaers is rejecting the Pop Culture works put forth
at the time. Looking at the work, we can
see that the eyes face all directions; there is virtually nowhere to look where
the eyes are not watching. The artist
seems to be pointing at consumerism and pop culture, saying that the direction
culture is going will leave no secrets and might be impossible to escape. This work seemed to be aimed specifically at
the New Realists, who argued that consciousness is not physically identical to
the nervous system. By creating
something that was made almost exclusively of fake eyes, it’s like he’s jabbing
a needle at the movement, mocking them for their so-called high ideals of
thought.
Broodthaers comments on cinema:
A critique of New Realism:
A little more on Dadaism:
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