HARMAN, Graham. Greenberg McLuhan and the Next Avant Garde

8202019 HARMAN Graham Greenberg McLuhan and the Next Avant Garde

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullharman-graham-greenberg-mcluhan-and-the-next-avant-garde 124

Speulaions A Journal of Speulaive Realism V (2014)983145983155983155983150 2327-803983160htpspeculaions-journalorg

251

Greenberg Duchamp and the NextAvant-Garde

Graham Harman

American Universiy in Cairo

I983150 C983148983141983149983141983150983156 G983154983141983141983150983138983141983154983143 983137983150983140 M983137983154-cel Duchamp we have wo o hepivoal figures in he wenieh

cenury ars Ye hey seem o sand in complee opposiionso ha he repuaion o Duchamp rises as ha o Greenberg

alls and vice versa Greenberg is viewed as he champion oormalism o arworks sealed off rom heir socio-poliicalsurroundings and even rom he privae inenions o hearis Greenberg held ha Duchamp was simply ldquono a goodarisrdquo and ha his devoees (including he highly regarded

Joseph Beuys) were ldquoalso no especially good arissrdquo1 Fromhe lae 1940s hrough he early 1960s Greenbergrsquos criicalviews marched sep-by-sep wih he progressive advance ohe arisic avan-garde in he eclipse o Paris by New York

and he riumph o Jackson Pollock and he so-called ldquopos-painerly absracionrdquo o Kenneh Noland and Jules OliskiSince ha ime Greenberg and his preerred syles have allenino disavour while in he words o one observer ldquohe repua-ion and work o Marcel Duchamp hellip [have] surpassed hose

1 Clemen GreenbergLate Witings (Minneapolis Universiy o MinnesoaPress 2003) 221



Speculations V

252

o Picasso in he eyes o ar hisorians ariss and Duchamprsquosadmirers alikerdquo2

Over he pas decade here has been a growing sense haGreenberg is becoming readable once again while Duchamprsquoslegacy was perhaps on he verge o becoming overexploiedMy hope is ha by re-examining Greenbergrsquos complainsabou Duchamp by weighing he srenghs and weaknesseso hose complains we migh gain a resh sense o whaavenues migh sill be open o ar criicism and perhaps ohe ars hemselves

1 Greenbergrsquos Critique of Duchamp

From he dawn o his career in 1939 hrough May 1968 ClemenGreenberg published a oal o 333 essays aricles and reviewsAs ar as I can deermine all o his writen oupu conains jus wo reerences o Marcel Duchamp In January 1943 hereis a passing reerence o some pieces by Duchamp in PeggyGuggenheimrsquos new gallery which Greenberg el were unsuc-cessully displayed3 Almos a quarer cenury laer in April1967 Greenberg ells us ha minimalism commis isel o

he hird dimension because his is where ar inersecs wihnon-ar and he credis Duchamp and he Dadaiss wih hisdiscovery4 Jus wo reerences in weny-eigh years ha is all

Bu beginning wih Greenbergrsquos May 1968 lecure in Sydneypublished he ollowing year Duchamp becomes a more cenralopponen Though he reerences become only slighly morenumerous hey become more vehemenly negaive as wellas more cenral o Greenbergrsquos deence o his own aesheicviews The ables had urned Greenberg was now an inel-

lecual exile raher han a king while Duchamp had been

2 Gavin ParkinsonTe Duhamp Book (London Tae Publishing 2008) 63 Clemen GreenbergTe Collected Essays and Citicism Peceptions and Judg-ments 983089983097983091983097-983089983097983092983092 vol 1 ed John OrsquoBrian (Chicago Universiy o ChicagoPress 1986) 1414 Clemen GreenbergTe Collected Essays and Citicism Modenism with aVengeance 983089983097983093983095-983089983097983094983097 vol 4 ed John OrsquoBrian (Chicago Universiy o ChicagoPress 1993) 253



Graham Harman ndash Te Next Avant-Garde

253

reroacively anoined as he heroic orerunner o more recenarisic rends Le us look briefly a each o hese reerencesso as o prepare or a more general discussion

In he Sydney lecure o May lsquo68 Duchamp is criicisedwice or atemping o ranscend he unranscendable di-erence in qualiy beween good ar and bad ar The firsinsance condemns no jus Duchamp bu a large poriono he ar o 1968

Things ha purpor o be ar do no uncion do no exis as ar unil

hey are experienced hrough ase Unil hen hey exis only as empirical

phenomena as aesheically arbirary objecs or acs These precisely

are wha a lo o conemporary ar ges aken or and wha any arisswan heir works o be aken ormdashin he hope periodically renewed

since Marcel Duchamp firs aced on i fify-odd years ago ha by din

o evading he reach o ase while ye remaining in he conex o ar

cerain kinds o conrivances will achieve unique exisence and value

So ar his hope has proved illusory5

Laer in he Sydney lecure Greenberg expands on his noion6 No one in he ars he says had ever quesioned he difference

beween high-qualiy and low-qualiy ar unil he emergenceo he ldquopopularrdquo avan-garde by which he means Dada andDuchamp The inheren difficuly o high arisic ase andproducion was replaced by he difficuly o acceping an os-ensibly non-arisic phenomenon as an arwork Greenbergoffers a sarcasic lis o real or imagined pseudo-arworksproduced by he Duchampian pop avan-garde

The idea o he difficul is evoked by a row o boxes by a mere rod by

a pile o liter by projecs or Cyclopean landscape archiecure by heplan or a rench dug in a sraigh line or hundreds o miles by a hal-

open door by he cross-secion o a mounain by saing imaginary

relaions beween real poins in real places by a blank wall and so orh7

5 Greenberg Te Collected Essays and Citicism Modenism with a Vengeance 2936 Ibid 301-037 Ibid 302



Speculations V

254

Greenberg concludes ldquoIn his conex he Milky Way migh be offered as a work o ar oo The rouble wih he MilkyWay however is ha as ar i is banalrdquo8 In he 1968 Sydneylecure hen Duchamp is presened as someone who evadesquesions o aesheic qualiy and replaces hem wih heclaim ha any arbirarily designaed objec can be an arworkThis inerpreaion o Duchamp is no surprising and noinaccurae

In Greenbergrsquos 1971 essay ldquoCouner-Avan-Garderdquo9 hecriique o Duchamp becomes harsher and more inricaeIn Wesern ar Greenberg says here had always been a smallnumber o innovaors who also led he way in erms o aes-

heic qualiy Beginning in he 1860s here was increasingdisance beween advanced ar and official ase Advancedar began o challenge ha ase o such a degree as o causea cerain amoun o shockmdashimporan new ar acually be-came scandalous wih Mane he impressioniss Ceacutezanne heFauves and cubism In each case he scandal wore off afersome ime hough he underlying aesheic challenge o heavan-garde remained Bu he challenge and he scandal cameo be misaken or one anoher Wih he Ialian uuriss

ldquoinnovaion and advancedness began o look more and morelike hellip caegorical means o arisic significance apar romaesheic qualiyrdquo10 Wih Duchamp his avan-gardeness wasreplaced by a ull blown avan-gardeism As Greenberg sees i

in a ew shor years afer 1912 [Duchamp] laid down he precedens or

everyhing ha advanced-advanced ar has done in he fify-odd years

since hellip [He] locked advanced-advanced ar ino wha has amouned

o hardly more han elaboraions variaions on and recapiulaions

o his original ideas11

8 Greenberg Te Collected Essays and Citicism Modenism with a Vengeance 3039 Clemen Greenberg ldquoCouner-Avan-Garderdquo At Intenational (1971)15 16-19 Reprined in Macel Duchamp in Pespective ed Joseph Masheck(Englewood Cliffs Prenice-Hall 1975) 122-2310 GreenbergLae Wriings 611 Ibid 7




255

These are srong words given he near-oal absence o Duch-amp rom Greenbergrsquos wriings unil he later was almos sixyyears old And wha was he core o Duchamprsquos vision nowcredied by Greenberg wih seting he agenda or advanced-advanced ar as o 1971 Tha agenda is ha

he shocking he scandalizing he mysiying and conounding became

embraced as ends in hemselves and no longer regreted as iniial side

effecs o arisic newness ha would wear off wih amiliariy Now

hese side effecs were o be buil in The firs bewildered reacion o

innovaive ar was o be he sole and appropriae one 12

More han his he shock and scandal in quesion wereno longer aesheic as i was wih grea avan-garde ar bucame solely rom he exra-aesheic realm ldquoDuchamprsquos firsreadymades his bicycle wheel his botle rack and laer onhis urinal were no a all new in configuraion hey sarledwhen firs seen only because hey were presened in a fine-arconex which is a purely culural and social no an aesheicor arisic conexrdquo13 The poin became no o violae he aes-heic sandards o he recen avan-garde in order o creae

progress in ase bu o violae social decorumThere are a ew oher poins o consider Duchamp always

ook pride in an ar ha appealed o he mind raher hanhe eye agains wha he dismissively called ldquoreinal arrdquo14 Buor Greenberg his excess o thinking is precisely he deah oar In oher words avan-gardism o Duchamprsquos ype involvesoo much conscious choice The aris perorms a series oeasy cogniive suns ha ail o ourun heir concepion hearis is no longer surprised by wha he arwork discovers

ldquoConscious voliion deliberaeness plays a principal par inavan-gardis ar ha is resoring o ingenuiy insead oinspiraion conrivance insead o creaion lsquoancyrsquo inseado ldquoimaginaionrdquo in effec o he known raher han he

12 GreenbergLae Wriings 713 Ibid 1214 ParkinsonTe Duhamp Book 6



Speculations V

256

unknownrdquo15 The new becomes a consciously available se oexernal gesures raher han he objec o unremiting sruggleAs a resul ldquohe excepional enerprise o arisic innovaion by being convered ino an affair o sandardised caegories oa se o lsquolooksrsquo is pu wihin reach o uninspired calculaionrdquo16 Ye aesheics ough o be a mater o surprise raher han oshock o difficul grappling wih somehing slighly beyondour grasp raher han he ransparen masery o a cleversubversive concep As Greenberg laer pu i mahemaicaldemonsraions become boring when repeaed and so oo dohe ldquodemonsraionsrdquo o Duchamp as o he arbirariness owha couns as an ar objec By conras ldquoharsquos no he way

i is wih more subsanial ar good and bad ha kind o aryou have o experience over and over again in order o keepon knowing irdquo17

A relaed noion is ha avan-gardism hinks i can overurnhe enire hisory o ar wih a single ransgressive gesurewhereas or Greenberg ar advances by masering he bes aro he pas and adaping i in some relevan way

Maybe he mos consan opic o avan-gardis rheoric is he claim

made wih each new phase o avan-garde or seeming avan-garde arha he pas is now being finally closed ou and a radical muaion in

he naure o ar is aking place afer which ar will no longer behave

as i has hereoore18

Atemps o shock and overurn ar rom he ouside havereplaced challenges o ase rom wihin he esablished radi-ion Bu or Greenberg surprise mus always occur inside agiven conex ldquonew and surprising ways o saisying in ar

have always been conneced closely wih immediaely pre-vious ways hellip There have been no grea vauls lsquoorwardrsquo noinnovaions ou o he blue no rupures o coninuiy in he

15 GreenbergLae Wriings 716 Ibid 817 Ibid 8218 Ibid 9




257

high ar o he pasmdashnor have any such been winessed in ourdayrdquo19 As he would claim five years laer in his BenningonSeminars ldquoDuchamp had hardly grasped wha real cubismwas abourdquo20mdashnamely he flatening-ou o he picure planeas opposed o he deepening illusion o picorial deph sincehe Ialian Renaissance For Greenberg his is eviden romhe raher radiional perspecival elemens in Duchamprsquosown quasi-cubis paining effors beore he gave up pain-ing and urned o he bicycle wheel and oher readymadesInsead Greenberg holds Duchamp misakenly believedha he orce o cubism lay in is difficuly and shock value

This leads us o he final and perhaps mos imporan aspec

o Greenbergrsquos ani-Duchampian views Though i migh seemsurprising a firs Greenberg is adaman in reaing bohDuchamp and surrealism as orms o ldquoacademic arrdquo Thereare wo kinds o academic aris Greenberg holds The firsis able o recognise he new avan-garde rends o he presenday bu ollows hem in a waered-down nonhreaening ormGreenberg offers he example o Paul-Alber Besnard whosevulgarised i imaginaive varian o impressionism in he1880s ldquoousold Sisley and Pissarro o heir grie and became

beter known oo in he shor ermrdquo21 The second kind armore common ldquois one who is puzzled [by he new rends]and who hereore oriens his ar o expecaions ormed byan earlier phase o arrdquo22 Duchamp was a hal-heared earlydevoee o Ceacutezanne and he Fauves bu was simply unable ograsp he new aesheic sandards generaed by cubism andmisinerpreed cubism as nohing more han a shock anda scandal o previous sandards raher han as a syle wihinheren aesheic meri For his reason Greenberg holds

Duchamp can be aken seriously as an ineresing culural

19 GreenbergLae Wriings 1520 Ibid 8121 Clemen GreenbergHomemade Esthetics Obsevations on At (OxordOxord Universiy Press 1999) 8722 GreenbergLae Wriings 15






259

akes is medium oo much or graned by replacing drawingroom porrais wih wild anasies o hallucinogenic eniiesMeanwhile Dada akes is medium oo much or graned bygiving up on he projec o ransorming i rom wihin andchallenges i only wih shocking gesures rom he ouside

There are oher deails o Greenbergrsquos criique o Duch-amp oher scahing and wity remarks bu already we haveencounered he core principles o his criique o whichhere are perhaps six

1 Duchamp rejecs qualiy as an aesheic sandard

2 He reas he shock value o advanced ar no as anunorunae side effec ha wears off over ime bu ashe cenral purpose o ar

3 He shocks esablished sandards no by inernal aesheicmeans bu by ransgressing everyday social decorumdisplaying urinals breass or he spread-ou naked

body o a murdered woman in a fine ar conex hawill be predicably horrified by such gesures

4 He privileges hinking in ar urning arworks inoransparen conceps o an excessive degree

5 He overesimaes he radical break his work makeswih he pas

6 Though he hinks himsel o be he pinnacle o arisadvancemen Duchamp is acually an academic aris

who akes he medium o ar oo much or graneddespairs o being able o innovae rom wihin and ishus led ino a sor o juvenile saboage hrough shock-ing affrons o he fine ars gallery conex

This six-poin lis is perhaps more ineresing i we reversei ino Greenbergrsquos own posiive aesheic program






261

2 Non-Relational Philosophy

This links Greenberg closely wih wo key figures in hewenieh cenury humaniies One is he Canadian mediaheoris Marshall McLuhan amous or his saemens ha

ldquohe medium is he messagerdquo and ha ldquohe conen or messageo any paricular medium has abou as much imporance ashe senciling on he casing o an aomic bombrdquo28 In oherwords we wase our ime when we argue abou he good or

bad conen o elevision shows since he real work is done by he invisible changes in he srucure o consciousness brough abou by elevision regardless o wha high- or low-

qualiy conen i migh possess I we ranslae Greenbergino McLuhanian erms hen ldquohe conen o any paininghas abou as much imporance as he senciling on he casingo an aomic bombrdquo All poliical acivism in ar all lieraryanecdoe and inspiraional messaging ades beore he purelyormal consideraion o how he medium isel is made oshine orh in he conen

Bu perhaps an even more imporan link is wih MarinHeidegger he heavyweigh champion o wenieh cenury

philosophy in my view sill unmached by any figure o equalsaure since Is no Heideggerrsquos enire philosophical breakhrougha premoniion o wha McLuhan and Greenberg ormulaedmuch laer The phenomenology o Edmund Husserl askedus o suspend judgmen abou any hidden reasons in naureor hings o happen as hey do and o ocus insead on hepaien descripion o phenomena in consciousness in allheir subley Heideggerrsquos grea breakhrough came when hefirs noed ha usually we do not encouner eniies as presen

in consciousness This is already an arificial special case haoccurs mos ofen in he beakdown o eniies As long as yourhear and lungs are healhy and working effecively as longas he highway is no buckled by earhquakes as long as hehammer and screwdriver are working in your hands raher

28 The longer quoaion comes rom he amous 1969Playboy inerview inMarshall McLuhan Essential McLuhan ed Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone(London Rouledge 1997) 222-60



Speculations V

262

han shatering ino iny pieces hey end no o be noicedWhile phenomena in he mind are pesent or pesent-at-handeniies hemselves are ready-o-hand or Heidegger remain-ing invisible as hey work owards various purposes

Even his sandard way o reading Heidegger urns ouo be oo superficial He is no jus giving us a difference

beween conscious percepion and heory on he one handand unconscious pracical acion on he oher Noice haeven praxis reduces hings o figures since my use o a chairor hammer reduces i oversimplifies i by ineracing wihonly a small number o is vas range o qualiies The lessonrom Heidegger is no ha conscious awareness is he sie o

figure and unconscious praxis is he sie o ground Inseadhe hidden ground is he hing isel which is reduced cari-caured or disored by any relaion we migh have wih iwheher heoreical or pracical And moreover his is no

jus a special ac abou human beings bu is ypical even oinanimae relaions Bu or he momen here is no need odeend an unorhodox reading o Heidegger since even hemos orhodox reading already makes he poin we need whais visibly presen in he world appears only agains a hidden

background rom which i draws nourishmen In his senseHeideggerrsquos criique o presence in he hisory o philoso-phy can be viewed as anoher criique o ldquoacademic arrdquo arha consiss in he endency o ake is medium oo muchor graned in Greenbergrsquos powerul definiion In similarashion ldquoacademic philosophyrdquo or Heidegger would be hekind ha reas being as somehing ha can be exhaused insome orm o presene

Ye here is a unny hing abou his celebraion o he deep

background medium in Heidegger McLuhan and GreenbergIn all hree cases he deph urns ou o be uterly serileincapable o generaing anyhing new Le us sar wih hecleares case ha o McLuhan For McLuhan he dominanmedium in any siuaion is so deeply buried ha here is noway o address i in direc cogniive erms Bu no only canwe no look a he medium direclymdashsince any atemp oexplain he effecs o elevision or he inerne will always




263

all shor o he awesome dephs o hese mediamdashhe me-dium isel canno even change wihou some impeus romhe ouside As ar as I am aware McLuhan only allows orwo ways ha media can change There is reversal hroughoverheaing or rerieval hrough he work o ariss Reversaloccurs when or example he speed and convenience o carsreverses ino he slowness and inconvenience o raffic jamsNoice ha his is no because cars hemselves have changed

bu only because heir apparenly superficial eaures (suchas heir shiny meallic bulk) became unmanageable due ohe vas quaniaive increase in he number o cars Whacauses one medium o flip ino anoher is no he deep aspec

o a medium bu is more secondary and rivolous eauresAs or rerieval his happens or McLuhan when somecurren clicheacute or obsolee medium is given new lie andmade credible again When vinyl LP records go rom obso-lee echnology ousripped by compac discs o he newlyrevered medium o connoisseurs who despise he cold andserile sound o CDs we have a case o rerieval Bu primarilyMcLuhan hinks his is he work o atists I is ariss whoransorm banal visible figures by siuaing hem in some

sor o enlivening background medium ha breahes newlie ino hem The crucial poin or us here is as ollows ForMcLuhan background media are more imporan han anyo heir conen Ye precisely because hese media are so deepso inaccessible o conscious conac hey are incapable oransormaion Such ransormaion can occur only a hemos superficial layer o mediamdashwheher i be heir peripheraleaures in he case o overheaing and reversal or he levelo dead surace conen in he case o he aris who rerieves

some pas medium as he conen o a new oneIn Heideggerrsquos philosophy he same poin also holds wha-

ever he appearances o he conrary There are admitedlysome passages in Heidegger especially in he laer wriingswhen he reas humans as i we could only passively awaihe sending o new epochs o being Bu in ac he impliciproblem aced by Heidegger is ha since his objecs wih-draw so deeply rom one anoher hey are unable o make



Speculations V

264

conac precisely beause hey are deep I hey make conaci is only hrough heir mos superficial ouer layer I I aminjured by a hammer or virus i is no because hey assaulhe very core o my personaliy bu only because hey exploiminor eaures o my being such as a sensiive humb or aew accidenal cus in he skin Heideggerrsquos deph is so deepha everyhing mus happen on he surace hough he doesno realise his as clearly as McLuhan does

Even Greenberg admis ha he conen o paining isno unimporan A imes he calls i he sie o inspiraionPicassorsquos paining is no jus abou a relaion beween he im-age and he fla picure surace o he canvas bu also abou

a guiar or horse or ace o a woman Ye his remains merelya placeholder in Greenbergrsquos wriing he concedes he poinwihou developing urher wha he role o sheer content migh be in ar His primary concern remains he way hahe conen o he medium reflecs he very srucure o hemedium amously in his case he flaness o he picureplane And hough Greenberg reely admited ha his wasa ransien hisorical consrain no binding or all eras hewroe so litle abou non-conemporary ar ha we can only

speculae as o he principles he would have used o disin-guish good rom bad Renaissance perspecival ar or goodrom bad weny-firs cenury insallaion ar

3 Art and Relations

I is well known ha Greenberg was an opinionaed mancapable o swif and harsh judgmens or his reason i can be emping o dismiss him as cranky and arrogan his views

no worh aking seriously Bu his would be a misake Green- bergrsquos dismissal o ariss we migh happen o like is based onhis adopion o cerain underlying aesheic principles and iis beter o reflec on and possibly challenge hose principleshan o condemn Greenberg or being heir messenger

There was no more vehemen deender o modernism hanGreenberg who viewed he modern no as a break wih hepas bu as an atemp o mainain he qualit o he pas by




265

prevening is degeneraion ino a series o mechanically re-peaed academic gesures His definiion o he academic wehave seen is ldquoar ha akes is medium oo much or granedrdquoand we have linked his claim wih cerain insighs in hemedia heory o McLuhan and he philosophy o Heidegger29 I academic ar is he kind ha akes is medium oo muchor graned we can undersand why Greenberg objeced oDaliacute and oher surrealiss as academic There seems o be noinnovaion as o medium in he case o surrealis painingIndeed Greenberg hinks he surrealiss deliberaely reainedhe realis and perspecival convenions o academic pain-ing in order o keep everyonersquos ocus on he sarling content

o heir works Though i may seem difficul o call Daliacute anldquoacademic arisrdquo wih a sraigh ace he charge is under-sandable i we accep Greenbergrsquos definiion o he academic

Bu wih Duchamp i seems almos impossible o use hisdesignaion We have seen ha Greenberg acually makes sixseparae criiques o Duchamp wih academicism being onlyone o hem The ohers were Duchamprsquos apparen rejecion oqualiy as a sandard his overesimaion o he value o shockin ar his endency o shock no hrough aesheic means

bu hrough breaches o social expecaion his overrelianceon ransparen conceps raher han he uncerainy o aes-heic sruggle and surprise and finally his excessive claimso breaking radically wih he pas Bu le us ocus on he

ldquoacademicismrdquo charge Daliacute can easily (i conroversially) bereaed as an academic aris simply on he basis o Greenbergrsquosdefiniion o he erm academic ar as insufficienly awareo is medium In Duchamprsquos case a more oblique argumenis needed given ha Duchamp is widely considered as he

shining example o someone who challenges our expeca-ions o wha an arisic medium should be

Greenbergrsquos poin seems o be ha Duchamp was so deeplyacademic in oulook (o judge rom his insufficienly brillianearly effors a auvism and cubism) ha he became rusraed

by his limiaions and misinerpreed cubism as primarily a

29 GreenbergLae Wriings 28



Speculations V

266

brazen shock o socieal expecaions He hen ried o oudoeven he cubiss in his respec by exhibiing he mos banalobjecs as i hey were arworks a bicycle wheel a botle racka urinal In oher words he sole choice or Duchamp is one

beween academic ar and provocaive gesures and Duchampwrongly hough he was ollowing Picasso and all oher mod-erniss in pursuing a dazzling career o provocaive gesuresThis explains Greenbergrsquos oher complains abou Duchampas well For once ar is conceived merely as a shocking ges-ure hen qualiy as a sandard o measuremen no longermaters New and provocaive conceps o wha migh counas an arwork replace paien aesheic sruggle wihin a se

o plausible ground rules And finally by puting ever moreironic quoaion marks around he arisic enerprise hananyone beore him Duchamp migh easily hink o himselas making he mos radical break wih he hisory o ar

Surrealism and Dada will orever be linked in he hisory oar and he wo movemens do share some overlapping mem-

bership he use o humorous or incongruous iles or heirworks and he deploymen o irreveren public personaliiesBu rom a Greenbergian sandpoin hey acually work in

conrary direcions like wo scieniss perorming experi-mens wih opposie conrols Daliacute adops he already banalconvenions o hree-dimensional illusionisic oil paining allhe beter o le he srangeness o he conen shine hroughDuchamp works in reverse choosing he mos uterly banalconen all he beter o shock our expecaions abou whamigh coun as an arisic medium I he wo ariss had noperormed hese respecive conrols he resul would have

been massive conusion Imagine ha Daliacute had pained his

classics Te Ghost o Vemee o Delf Which Can Also Be Used as aable or Gala and ldquoTe Angelusrdquo o Millet Peceding the Imminent

Aival o the Conic Anamophoses no in wha Greenberg callsacademic illusionisic syle bu broken up ino planes in hemanner o high analyic cubism

Such a chaos o innovaion would surprise he viewer romoo many direcions a once I is hardly accidenal ha Pi-casso and Braque chose such simple subjec mater or heir




267

cubis maserpiecesmdashViolin and Candlestick Fuitdish and GlassPotait o Daniel-Henr Kahnweile mdashsince hese banal hemesenable our undivided atenion o innovaions in echniqueLikewise Duchamprsquos readymades would have angled hingsoo badly i he had chosen o display no simple and recog-nisable everyday objecs bu more complicaed esoeric orambiguous hings In any case we can conclude rom hisha neiher Daliacute nor Duchamp can plausibly be reaed as anacademic aris Daliacute does no ldquoake his medium or granedrdquo

bu delibeately suspends innovaion o medium in order oopen up innovaion o subjec mater Meanwhile Duchampa leas in his readymade pieces neiher akes his medium

or graned nor suspends innovaion o i bu innovaes hismedia o such a degree ha Greenberg can view hem onlyas shocks o fine ar decorum as in his ollowersrsquo use o

a row o boxes hellip a mere rod hellip a pile o liter hellip projecs or Cyclopean

landscape archiecure hellip he plan or a rench dug in a sraigh line

or hundreds o miles hellip a hal-open door hellip he cross-secion o a

mounain hellip saing imaginary relaions beween real poins in real

places hellip a blank wall and so orh30

Such sraegies can reach he poin o academic banaliyas much as any oher and perhaps he ars in 2014 havelong since reached ha poin Bu here is no reason o as-sume ha no disincions o qualiy are possible wihin hemedium-sreching genres o recen ar ha such ar reallyflous gradaions in qualiy in any sweeping sense or ha iexiss solely o provide shocks o social decorum We shouldalso consider Greenbergrsquos uneven rack record as a predic-

or o greaness For while he deserves much credi or hisearly deence o Jackson Pollock i is by no means clear hahisory will join him in preerring Gotlieb Morris Nolandand Oliski o surrealism Duchamp Warhol and Beuys Inac he opposie now seems more likely

A Greenberg oe migh say ha he simply uses he erm

30 Greenberg Te Collected Essays and Citicism Modenism with a Vengeance 302



Speculations V

268

ldquoacademicrdquo or anyhing ha he happens no o like Bu hiswould no be quie air Greenbergrsquos criical vocabulary ismore versaile han ha For insance anoher amous argeo Greenbergrsquos harshness is Wassily Kandinsky A monh aferhe Russian arisrsquos December 1944 deah in liberaed ParisGreenberg offered a dismissal o Kandinskyrsquos career ha wascold and brazen bu also raher ascinaing I would be di-ficul o describe a lae-blooming innovaor like Kandinskyas an ldquoacademic arisrdquo and Greenberg does no ry o do soInsead he classifies Kandinsky as a ldquoprovincialrdquo aris Hisobiuary review opens as ollows

There are wo sors o provincialism in ar The exponen o one is hearis academic or oherwise who works in an oumoded syle or in a

vein disregarded by he meropolian cenermdashParis Rome or Ahens

The oher sor o provincialism is ha o he arismdashgenerally rom an

oulying counrymdashwho in all earnes and admiraion devoes himsel

o he syle being currenly developed in he meropolian cener ye

ails in one way or anoher really o undersand wha i is abou hellip

The Russian Wassily Kandinsky [was a provincial o his later sor]31

For Greenberg he provincial Kandinsky was no naiumlve simple-on bu a quick-wited observer o advanced ar

Like many a newcomer o a siuaion seeing i rom he ouside and

hus more compleely Kandinsky was very quick o perceive one o

he mos basic implicaions o he revoluion cubism had effeced in

Wesern paining Picorial ar was a las able o ree isel compleely

rom he objecmdashhe eideic imagemdashand ake or is sole posiive mater

he sensuous acs o is own medium reducing isel o a quesion hellip

o non-figuraive shapes and colors Paining would become like musican ar conained in is own orm and hus capable o infiniely more

variey han beore32

31 Clemen Greenberg Te Collected Essays and Citicism Aogant Pupose 983089983097983092983093-983089983097983092983097 vol 2 ed John OrsquoBrian (Chicago Universiy o Chicago Press 1986) 3-432 Ibid 4




269

Bu in his way Kandinsky repeas Duchamprsquos supposed er-ror o hinking he can make a clean break wih he hisory oar Greenberg makes oher objecions ha seem even moredecisive or his verdic on Kandinsky who in his view ldquoor arelaively shor ime was a grea painerrdquo namely in his earlierperiod33 Greenbergrsquos bigges complain is ha Kandinskywas oo ocused on he absraion o cubism while missinga more imporan aspec o ha syle As he pus i in hesame obiuary review

[Kandinsky] rejeced wha o my mind is a prior and perhaps even

more essenial achievemen o avan-garde ar han is deliverance o

paining rom represenaion is recapure o he lieral realizaiono he physical limiaions and condiions o he medium and o he

posiive advanages o be gained rom he exploiaion o hese very

limiaions34

Alhough i migh seem as i Kandinsky is ully aware o heflaness o he picure surace ldquohe came o conceive o hepicure hellip as an aggregae o discree shapes he color sizeand spacing o hese he relaed so insensiively o he space

surrounding hem hellip ha his [space] remained inaciveand meaningless he sense o a coninuous surace was losand he space became pocked wih lsquoholesrsquordquo35 Aside rom hispurely echnical shorcoming Greenberg sees one clear signo relapse by Kandinsky ino academic ar or ldquohaving be-gun by acceping he absolue flaness o he picure suraceKandinsky would go on o allude o illusionisic deph bya use o color line and perspecive ha were plasically ir-relevan Academic reminiscences crep ino [Kandinskyrsquos

painings] a almos every poin oher han ha o wha heylsquorepresenedrsquordquo36

In anoher accusaion o insensiiviy o medium Greenberg

33 GreenbergTe Colleed Essays and Criiism Arrogan Purpose 634 Ibid 535 Ibid36 Ibid



Speculations V

270

complains ha ldquohe consisency o [Kandinskyrsquos] pain suraceand he geomerical exacness o his line seem more appro-priae o sone or meal han o he porous abric o canvasrdquo37 Finally his supposed ailure o maser wha he avan-gardewas really all abou led Kandinsky o become an insecureand eclecic sylis As Greenberg pus i ldquohe sylisic andhemaic ingrediens o Kandinskyrsquos laer work are as diverseas he colors o Josephrsquos coa peasan ancien and Orienalar much Klee some Picasso surrealis prooplasma maps

blueprins musical noaion ec ecrdquo38 Greenberg concludeswih a ew concessions and a single crowning damnaion

[Kandinsky] was and will remain a large and revoluionary phenom-enonmdashhe mus be aken ino accoun always ye he says apar rom he

mainsream and in he las analysis remains a provincial The example

o his work is dangerous o younger painers39

Bu Greenbergrsquos descripion o he dangers o Kandinsky seemso hinge oo much on a single debaable poin He cauions haKandinskyrsquos exac line would be more appropriae or sone ormeal han canvas ye he immediaely concedes ha he same

is rue o Mondrian whom Greenberg regards as a ruly greaaris despie ha sony-meallic exac line He also ries owarn us ha ldquoacademic reminiscencesrdquo creep ino Kandinskywhich should mean ha Kandinsky has a lingering endencyo ake his medium or graned Bu even i his urned ouo be sweepingly rue or he whole o Kandinskyrsquos work iwould no ollow ha i must be rue or any ar ha adops heabsracions o cubism while downplaying is relaion o heflaness o he medium Revoluions are ofen uelled when

heirs adop only one porion o heir orerunnersrsquo legacieswhile reusing he ohers As Greenberg himsel repeaedlyadmis here is no jus one way o make grea ar and whasucceeds in one era will ail in ohersmdashprecisely because he

37 GreenbergTe Colleed Essays and Criiism Arrogan Purpose 538 Ibid39 Ibid 6




271

same echniques are resh a one momen and banal in henex He even makes he surprising admission ha Duchampwas righ o be ldquowildrdquo early on as a way o escaping he ldquocubisviserdquo which suggess Greenbergrsquos firm awareness ha evenhe greaes syles can become suffocaing prisons Jus like he Renaissance-era growh o perspecival illu-

sionis paining he reverse movemen owards paining haexplois he limitations o he fla canvas can reach a poino decaden banaliy Were Duchamp surrealism and Kan-dinsky ruly relapses rom cubism in he way ha Greenbergclaims Or were hey no insead more like probes seekinga new plane quie apar rom he quesion o wheher hey

succeeded in finding i Noneheless i is dangerous o callGreenberg ldquoold-ashionedrdquo as many o his opponens do Hiskeen inelligence deserves more han ha as does his lierary brilliance For his criical work and his spiriual guidance ohe shif in avan-garde ar rom Paris o New York Green-

berg is no doub one o he hal-dozen or so mos imporaninellecual figures he Unied Saes has produced Moreovereverone becomes old-ashioned someday and hose whodance on Greenbergrsquos omb will evenually be danced upon

in urn viewed as oudaed in heir own righWha will i look like when his happens Le us assume

or he sake o argumen ha surrealism produces no ur-her avan-garde revoluion since is basic principles have

been horoughly explored The same holds or absraciona known quaniy or jus as long even i is liespan waslonger Duchamprsquos wager o coninually quesioning whacouns as ar may have a ew years o lie lef in i and hencewe are sill prepared o be impressed by ldquoa row o boxes hellip a

mere rod hellip a pile o liter hellip projecs or Cyclopean landscapearchiecure hellip he plan or a rench dug in a sraigh line orhundreds o miles hellip a hal-open door hellip he cross-seciono a mounain hellip saing imaginary relaions beween realpoins in real places hellip a blank wall and so orhrdquo40 Bu hisoo will evenually become old and ired i i is no already so




Speculations V

272

and somehing differen will need o awaken o surprise usWha will his new hing be We have already considered

he ldquoacademicismrdquo o Duchamp and surrealism and heldquoprovincialismrdquo o Kandinsky and have sipulaed a uurein which all are spen orces along wih Greenbergrsquos Schoolo Flaness Wha else is lef I could be many hings bu wehave only encounered one oher possibiliy in he courseo our discussions he firs kind o provincialism differenrom Kandinskyrsquos second kind To reresh our memoriesKandinskyrsquos sor o provincialism was said o be ldquoha o hearismdashgenerally rom an oulying counrymdashwho in all earnesand admiraion devoes himsel o he syle being currenly

developed in he meropolian cener ye ails in one way oranoher really o undersand wha i is abourdquo41 The oher kindo provincialism which we have no ye discussed is ha o

ldquohe aris academic or oherwise who works in an oumodedsyle or in a vein disregarded by he meropolian cenerrdquo42

A firs i migh sound as i his sor o aris canno be acandidae or cuting-edge saus since he word ldquooumodedrdquosuggess oherwise Bu Greenberg already gives us an exampleo one such ldquooumodedrdquo aris working in a vein disregarded

by he meropolian cenre and indeed one o he greaesariss Paul Ceacutezanne whom he considers in a beauiul 1951essay eniled ldquoCeacutezanne and he Uniy o Modern Painingrdquo43 The opening claim o ha essay is ha he apparen eclec-icism o avan-garde ar in 1951 is merely an appearanceGrea figures do no exhausively accomplish wha hey aimo achieve and always leave behind a angle o loose hreadsor heir successors o ie ogeher Greenberg views he laenineeenh cenury and Ceacutezanne in paricular as he origin

o hese hreads Even as grea a movemen as cubism wasable o benefi speedily rom he unied hreads o Ceacutezanne

41 Greenberg Te Collected Essays and Citicism Modenism with a Vengeance 3-442 Ibid43 Clemen GreenbergTe Collected Essays and Citicism Affimations andRefusals 983089983097983093983088-983089983097983093983094 vol 3 ed John OrsquoBrian (Chicago Universiy o ChicagoPress 1993) 82-91




273

Picassorsquos and Braquersquos Cubism and Leacutegerrsquos compleed wha Ceacutezanne

had begun by heir successes divesing his means o whaever had

remained problemaical abou hem and finding hem heir mos

appropriae ends These means hey ook rom Ceacutezanne pracically

ready-made and were able o adap hem o heir purposes afer only

a relaively ew rial exercises44

Bu he ruly ineresing opic o Greenbergrsquos essay on Ceacute-zanne is he opposie opic no Ceacutezanne as he ar-seeinggrandaher o laer rends bu as he sruggling admirero he classical painers beore him I is he sory o hearis who does no simply exrapolae rom he hreads o

his immediae orerunners bu who atemps o bring backsomehing imporan ha recen revoluions had premaurelylef behind So i was wih Ceacutezanne and he ImpressionissAs Greenberg unorgetably pus i

[Ceacutezanne] was making he firsmdashand lasmdashpondered effor o save

he inrinsic principle o he Wesern radiion o paining is con-

cern wih an ample and lieral rendiion o he illusion o he hird

dimension He had noed he Impressionissrsquo inadveren siling up

o picorial deph And i is because he ried so hard o re-excavaeha deph wihou abandoning Impressionis color and because his

atemp while vain was so prooundly conceived ha i became he

urning poin i did hellip Like Mane and wih almos as litle appeie

or he role o revoluionary he changed he course o ar ou o he

very effor o reurn i by new pahs o is old ways45

The danger aced by all modernisers is he danger o roboicexrapolaion They assume ha he previous revoluion

perormed innovaion X and hereore he nex revoluionmus perorm double-X or riple-X since he Enlighenmenadvanced by denouncing supersiion and deending reasonhe nex phase o hisory requires a campaign o uter persecu-ion agains all ldquoirraionalrdquo people and so orh Exrapolaion

44 GreenbergTe Colleed Essays and Criiism Affirmaions and Refusals 9045 Ibid 83-84



Speculations V

274

has is hisorical momens and hose lucky enough o live insuch momens can complee heir work rapidly a a youngage hanks o sruggling prior menors as did Picasso andBraque in heir analyic cubis period Ohers mus sruggleslowly like Ceacutezanne (or Kan) o find he new principle o anage painsakingly rerieving he old while no abandoningwha is new and perhaps dangling dozens o loose hreadsha ohers in he ollowing generaion can ie ogeher as heyplease I we ollow Greenberg in reaing ar since 1960 ashe reign o Neo-Dada hen wha is mos valuable in he pasha his period sacrificed and lef behind Wha oumodedprovincial migh emerge as he Ceacutezanne o he coming era



Speculations V

252

o Picasso in he eyes o ar hisorians ariss and Duchamprsquosadmirers alikerdquo2

Over he pas decade here has been a growing sense haGreenberg is becoming readable once again while Duchamprsquoslegacy was perhaps on he verge o becoming overexploiedMy hope is ha by re-examining Greenbergrsquos complainsabou Duchamp by weighing he srenghs and weaknesseso hose complains we migh gain a resh sense o whaavenues migh sill be open o ar criicism and perhaps ohe ars hemselves

1 Greenbergrsquos Critique of Duchamp

From he dawn o his career in 1939 hrough May 1968 ClemenGreenberg published a oal o 333 essays aricles and reviewsAs ar as I can deermine all o his writen oupu conains jus wo reerences o Marcel Duchamp In January 1943 hereis a passing reerence o some pieces by Duchamp in PeggyGuggenheimrsquos new gallery which Greenberg el were unsuc-cessully displayed3 Almos a quarer cenury laer in April1967 Greenberg ells us ha minimalism commis isel o

he hird dimension because his is where ar inersecs wihnon-ar and he credis Duchamp and he Dadaiss wih hisdiscovery4 Jus wo reerences in weny-eigh years ha is all

Bu beginning wih Greenbergrsquos May 1968 lecure in Sydneypublished he ollowing year Duchamp becomes a more cenralopponen Though he reerences become only slighly morenumerous hey become more vehemenly negaive as wellas more cenral o Greenbergrsquos deence o his own aesheicviews The ables had urned Greenberg was now an inel-

lecual exile raher han a king while Duchamp had been

2 Gavin ParkinsonTe Duhamp Book (London Tae Publishing 2008) 63 Clemen GreenbergTe Collected Essays and Citicism Peceptions and Judg-ments 983089983097983091983097-983089983097983092983092 vol 1 ed John OrsquoBrian (Chicago Universiy o ChicagoPress 1986) 1414 Clemen GreenbergTe Collected Essays and Citicism Modenism with aVengeance 983089983097983093983095-983089983097983094983097 vol 4 ed John OrsquoBrian (Chicago Universiy o ChicagoPress 1993) 253




253




















Speculations V

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255














Speculations V

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as i has hereoore18







257












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261












Speculations V

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263









Speculations V

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3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












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253




















Speculations V

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255














Speculations V

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as i has hereoore18







257












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Speculations V

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Speculations V

264





3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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Speculations V

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255














Speculations V

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as i has hereoore18







257












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Speculations V

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Speculations V

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3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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255














Speculations V

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as i has hereoore18







257












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261












Speculations V

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263









Speculations V

264





3 Art and Relations







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Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












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Speculations V

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as i has hereoore18







257












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3 Art and Relations







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Speculations V

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variey han beore32





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limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












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257












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3 Art and Relations







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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












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259

















261












Speculations V

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263









Speculations V

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3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












Speculations V

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Speculations V

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261












Speculations V

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263









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3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












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Speculations V

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Speculations V

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Speculations V

264





3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












Speculations V

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273























Speculations V

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263









Speculations V

264





3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












Speculations V

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273























Speculations V

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Speculations V

264





3 Art and Relations







265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





269






limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












Speculations V

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265












Speculations V

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variey han beore32





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limiaions34








Speculations V

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variey han beore32





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limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












Speculations V

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Speculations V

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267















Speculations V

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variey han beore32





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limiaions34








Speculations V

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271












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Speculations V

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Speculations V

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variey han beore32





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limiaions34








Speculations V

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Speculations V

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limiaions34








Speculations V

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Speculations V

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HARMAN, Graham. Greenberg McLuhan and the Next Avant Garde

Documents

Transcript of HARMAN, Graham. Greenberg McLuhan and the Next Avant Garde