Project 7 The Flanneur

Project 7 The Flanneur

 Definition  stroller -lounger-saunterer - loafer



Charles Baudelaire 1821-1867

French poet art critic (portrait painted of him by Courbet 1848)

Charles Baudelaire - his definition of flanneur was that of a person who walks the city in order to experience it - this does not limit the word to someone committing the act of a peripatetic stroll in the Baudelaire sense but can include a complete philosophical way of living and thinking.  After the French 1848 revolution the empire was re-established with bourgeois pretentious of 'order and morals' .  Baudelaire turned to art saying that traditional art was inadequate for the new modern life.  Social and economic changes brought on by the industrialisation demand that artist immerse themselves in the metropolis and in Baudelaire's phrase `a botanist of the sidewalk`  

Walter Benjamin 1938 wrote an essay on flanneur as part of an analysis of the Paris poet Charles Baudelaire  "The Painter of Modern Life" in which he showed a poetic and poets vision of public places and spaces of Paris coining the term "motility" Benjamin was himself associated with a left wing group of Marxist intellectuals (the Frankfurt School) in which he used Baudelaire's poet or the figure of a flanneur as a metaphorical device for understanding the cultural impact high capitalism had on Parisian's in the mid 19th century.  He turned his mind to the arcade or in his words' the original temple of commodity capitalism'.   the glass covered passageway filled with shops commodities, consumers and prostitutes provided the flanneur who in defiance of high capitalism would stroll and observe the intoxicated consumers.

The Works of Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction 1935 acknowledges that change often occurs in ways that artists can neither predict or control.  19th century innovations in techniques or reproduction (photography and film) transformed the experience of art in such a way that Benjamin calls "the decay of aura" this meaning that a work that processes an aura (an effect of distance) must be unique and remain inaccessible to the audience.  He insists that aura has a ritual function that can makes itself useful in cults (fascism ' Fuhrer cult' ) as a modern ritual that changes art for reactionary means yet film and photo made it possible  to make endless copies of works of art therefore depriving it of its aura (if you see too many photos etc of a famous work of art it becomes the norm not original masterpiece ( i,e,at an art gallery).

For Baudelaire the role of the artist was to express modern life and human emotion which was to engage with the outside world  Schwarzback (1979-.1) suggested that 'modern life is city life' (the city is a playground of inspiration and a perfect setting for the artistic expressions of modern life

Schwarrzbak (1979.23) also suggested that Charles Dickens had an 'attaction of repusion' towards city life seen in his novels "places and people" in London are used in Oliver Twist to show a nightmare vision of a city of death (dark,evil, fear and suspense for both the characters and the reader.  Dickens walked the city (playing the role of the flaneur) which would act like a tonic and enable him to take up with new vigour the flagging interest of his stories and breathe new life in the them. 

Street Photography  The flanneur term tendency towards detached but attuned observation

One notable application of flanneur of street photography comes from Susan Sontag 1933-2004 American author literary theorist and political activist in a 1977 essay, In the book On Photography as well as her view of the history and present day role of photography in capitalist societies in the 70's  she describes how, since the development of hand held cameras in the early 20th century the camera has become a tool  for the flanneur.

visit to Tate Britian Oct 2010

visit to Tate Britain 2010


Paintings

Paul Nash 1889-1946 English landscape artist- surrealist notably war artist considered one of the most important English artists of 1st half of 20th Century

His painting of Totes Meer 1940 (Dead Sea) painted during his time as war artist (2nd world war)  From a distance you think you are looking at a rough landscape it is not until you get closer that you see the planes like a plane graveyard which I guess it is one of the affects of war.  Nash was said to say 'Death is the only solution on how to fly'.  was also known to sometimes work from photographs.

John Linnell 1792-1882 English landscape artist and naturalist 

Kennsington Gravel Pits 1811-12  oil on canvas  this painting with its observation of textures for the ground bright lighting and the vivid sky was developed from a study of watercolours previously painted by Linnell

Peter De Wint 1784-1849  English landscape artist

Children at Lunch by Cornstock 1810  oil on canvas

This captures the children taking a well earned break from the hard labour working at a young age on the farm they are captured completely unaware of being observed.

David Wikie 1785-1841 

The Village Holiday 1809-11 oil on canvas

This painting has so much to see  and say on the moral and humorous study of everyday day life this is on the theme of virtue and vice - (drink)  a man hesitates between going home to the wife or staying for another drink the wrong decision is shown by the collapsed drunk, even the dog was ashamed of him.

There were two paintings by William Mulready (1786-1863)

The Rattle 1808,  The Last 1884 both so clear and detailed the rattle, The Rattle, the father offers a rattle to his child and the man's face reflects the child's delight   The Last,  fully detailed  story of boy arriving late to school and the consequences of this!

Thomas Webster 1800-1886

Late at School 1834  another artist who shared with Mulready the interest in subjects concerning childhood and education.  I like the look on the two children's faces at the entrance you can read what they are thinking! and the child  inside looking out at them.

Duncan Grant 1885-1978

Bathing 1911   the male nudes represent the continuous movement of a single figure and the bodies like the water are stylised to heighten the effect of the decorative image

Definition    Mezzotint is printmaking - technically a dry point method

We looked at many modern pieces in the gallery

Rachel Whiteread 1963  untitled Black Bath 1963

Damien Hurst 1965,  (artist room Tate Britain) 

Trinity Pharmacology, Physiology, Pathology 2000  showing the anatomy of various parts of the body and the development of child in the womb all displayed in wall length glass cabinet.

In the main entrance were two works by Fiona Banner--- impressive the 1st was the Harrier, suspended vertically floor to ceiling wall to wall, mimicking the bird a harrier hawk it had hand painted feather markings, its cockpit was the eyes and the cone was the nose the beak looking like a trussed bird.

Behind this in the next part the the main entrance was the Jaguar  which was belly up on the floor, stripped of paint showing a highly polished surface which becomes a mirror reflecting back its surroundings beautiful work.  Fiona was born 1966 English artist short listed for the Turner Prize 2002 

Note  While reading though book received for Christmas (A Brief History of Art) came across L.H.O.O.Q. Mona Lisa with a moustache 1919/1930 Artist Marcel Duchamp.   Duchamp would purchase everyday items and re-appropriate its use as an art work either by defining or defacing it in some way as in the Mona Lisa this he did by inscribing it with the letters L.H.O.O.Q. and drawing a moustache on the face!!! the letters when spelt out in French read phonetically as Elle a chaud ou cul (she's got a hot arse)  I do not agree with defacing a masterpiece. But I suppose it is one way to catch the public eye and to make them think.