Brutal Aesthetics: Dubuffet, Bataille, Jorn, Paolozzi

After World War II, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb, artists sought a new foundation of culture through a "brutal aesthetics" inspired by the idea that modernist art can teach us how to survive a barbaric civilization. Hal Foster's book explores how key figures from the early 1940s to the early 1960s developed this aesthetic, focusing on philosophers Georges Bataille, Jean Dubuffet, Asger Jorn, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Claes Oldenburg.

Format: Hardback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 17 November 2020
Publisher: Princeton University Press

In the aftermath of World War II, the Holocaust, and the atomic bomb, artists and writers sought a new foundation for culture amidst the immense devastation. Drawing inspiration from the notion that modernist art could teach us how to survive in a barbaric civilization, art historian Hal Foster delves into the diverse ways in which key figures from the early 1940s to the early 1960s endeavored to establish a "brutal aesthetics" that could adequately respond to the destruction surrounding them. Foster's study focuses on philosophers Georges Bataille, painters Jean Dubuffet and Asger Jorn, and sculptors Eduardo Paolozzi and Claes Oldenburg, exploring their profound move to strip art down or reveal it as already bare, in order to begin anew.

Through his exploration of Bataille's fascination with prehistoric cave paintings in Lascaux, Dubuffet's concept of "art brut," Jorn's portrayal of "human animals" in his paintings, Paolozzi's creation of monstrous figures assembled from industrial debris, and Oldenburg's remaking of everyday products from urban scrap, Foster offers an intriguing account of a challenging era in twentieth-century culture. This study, published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, holds significant implications for our own times.

Weight: 1230g
Dimension: 201 x 270 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691202600