NATURAL HISTORY
CONTENTS PROLOGUE THE CARNAL IMMANENCE OF POLITICAL REALISM REALISM MATERIALITY AND AGENCY1 INTRODUCTION NEW TAXIDERMY SURFACES IN CONTEMPORARY ART12 1 RECONFIGURING ANIMAL SKINS FRAGMENTED HISTORIES AND MANIPULATED SURFACES43 2 A NATURAL HISTORY PANOPTICON POWER REPRESENTATION AND ANIMAL OBJECTIFICATION71 3 DIORAMAS POWER REALISM AND DECORUM103 4 THE END OF THE DAYDREAM TAXIDERMY AND PHOTOGRAPHY136 5 FOLLOWING MATERIALITY FROM MEDIUM TO SURFACE MEDIUM SPECIFICITY AND ANIMAL VISIBILITY IN THE MODERN AGE161 6 THE ALLURE OF THE VENEER AESTHETICS OF SPECULATIVE TAXIDERMY191 7 THIS IS NOT A HORSE BIOPOWER AND ANIMAL SKINS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE221 CODA TOWARD NEW MYTHOLOGIES THE RITUAL THE SACRIFICE THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS244 PROLOGUE THE CARNAL IMMANENCE OF POLITICAL REALISM REALISM MATERIALITY AND AGENCY A KEY FEATURE OF THE NEW MATERIALISM IS ITS INSISTENCE ON THE RECALCITRANCE AND VITALITY OF MATTER AND THUS ON ITS ROLE IN CONSTRAINING AND ENGENDERING THE WAYS IT IS UNDERSTOOD AND HANDLED MATTER IS RECOGNIZED AS HAVING ITS OWN FORCES OF RESILIENCE RESISTANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY DIANE COOLE FROM WITHIN THE MIDST OF THINGS NEW SENSIBILITY NEW ALCHEMY AND THE RENEWAL OF CRITICAL THEORY WHAT I SAY INSTEAD IS THAT ARTWORKS PRODUCE THEIR OWN REAL OBJECTS RATHER THAN IMITATING PRE EXISTING ONES GRAHAM HARMAN ART AND OBJECTHOOD I N APRIL 1881 THE PARISIAN ARTWORLD WAS ROCKED TO ITS CORE BY A WORK OF ART EXHIBITED AT THE SIXTH IMPRESSIONIST EXHIBITION THIS ONE LIKE THE FIRST IN 1874 WAS STAGED AT THE STUDIO OF RENOWNED PIONEERING PHOTOG RAPHER NADAR THE EXHIBITION INCLUDED WORKS BY MORISOT CASSATT GAUGUIN AND PISSARRO AMONG OTHERS BUT DEGAS S LITTLE DANCER AGED FOURTEEN PLATE 1 CAPTURED MORE ATTENTION THAN ANY OTHER WORK IN THE SHOW IT WAS NOT A PAINTING BUT SURPRISINGLY FOR THE ESTABLISHED IMPRES SIONIST CANON A DIMINUTIVE WAX SCULPTURE OF A YOUNG GIRL TODAY THE WORK HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE AND CHERISHED PIECES OF IMPRES SIONISM BUT ITS 1874 RECEPTION REVEALS A MORE COMPLEX PICTURE UPON ITS UNVEILING THE SCULPTURE QUICKLY BECAME THE TARGET OF EXTREMELY NEGATIVE COMMENTARIES WITH CRITICS LABELING IT REPULSIVE VICIOUS FRIGHTFUL AND A THREAT TO SOCIETY FAMOUSLY ART CRITIC ELIE DE MONT SAID I DON T ASK THAT ART SHOULD ALWAYS BE ELEGANT BUT I DON T BELIEVE THAT ITS ROLE IS TO CHAMPION THE CAUSE OF UGLINESS WHILE A CORRESPONDENT FROM THE ENGLISH JOURNAL ARTIST BLUNTLY ASKED CAN ART DESCEND LOWER 1 THESE SURPRISING RESPONSES ARE INDICATIVE OF THE SOCIAL ROLE THAT SCULPTURE WAS EXPECTED TO PLAY AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES NEEDLESS TO SAY MATTERS HAVE CHANGED A GREAT DEAL SINCE AFTER ALL OUR GENERATION IS MORE OR LESS AT EASE WITH THE NOTION THAT A TIPPED OVER URI NAL IS THE REAL CONCEPTUAL MATRIX OF MUCH CONTEMPORARY ART THIS IS THE UNIVERSAL PREMISE UPON WHICH WE CAN ACCEPT DEAD SHARKS IN FORMALDE HYDE AN UNMADE BED SURROUNDED WITH LITTER AND A PHOTOGRAPH OF A CRU CIFIX SUSPENDED IN URINE AS ART THE CUTENESS OF DEGAS S LITTLE DANCER IS THE RESULT OF OUR CHANGED PERSPECTIVE SO WHY DID HER APPEARANCE UNSETTLE FIN DE SI CLE PARISIANS AND HOW COULD SHE BE POSSIBLY RELEVANT TO THE PRES ENCE OF TAXIDERMY IN CONTEMPORARY ART FIRST OF ALL IN POPULAR CULTURE IMPRESSIONISM HAS BEEN MOLLIFIED TO FA CILITATE A CONSUMPTIVE MODE OF CAPITALIST IMAGING THAT HAS STRIPPED THE MOVEMENT OF ITS POLITICAL EDGE SUBSTANTIALLY CASTRATED IMPRESSIONISM HAS BECOME THE BOURGEOIS MODE OF THE UNPROBLEMATICALLY PRETTY THE POST CARD THE CALENDAR AND THE CHOCOLATE BOX LID ARE ITS MOST READILY AVAILABLE MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION DISPLAY FORMATS YET IMPRESSIONISM MEANT MUCH MORE TO THE DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES OF CLASSICAL ART THAT DOMINATED THE NINETEENTH CENTURY THE MOVEMENT S DEFIANCE OF THE CLASSICAL CANON WAS INFORMED BY THE TEMPORARY RISE TO POWER OF WORKERS DURING THE ES TABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIALIST PARIS COMMUNE IN 1871 ITS TIES TO REALISM THE MOVEMENT THAT IN THE 1850S BROUGHT ARTISTS TO PAINT THE PRESENT IN WHICH THEY LIVED RATHER THAN IDEALIZED IMAGES OF IDEALIZED PASTS IS VISIBLE IN MANET S INFLUENCE ON THE GROUP PAINTINGS LIKE OLYMPIA 1863 AND A BAR AT THE FOLIES BERG RE 1882 DELIBERATELY AND ABRUPTLY YANKED THE UTOPIA NISM OF CLASSICAL ART FROM WITHIN OLYMPIA ASSAULTED CLASSICAL ART FROM A CONTEXTUAL STANDPOINT IT LIFTED THE VEIL OF DECORUM TO REVEAL THE PROSTI TUTE BEHIND THE VENUS THE HONESTY AND SIMPLICITY OF THIS SHOCKING OP ERATION UPSET PARISIANS BECAUSE IT EXPOSED THE HYPOCRISY EMBEDDED IN THE DEEP STRATIFICATIONS OF NATURALIZED GENDER AND SOCIAL HIERARCHIES A BAR AT THE FOLIES BERG RE FIG P 2 MINED THE FOUNDATION OF CLASSICAL REALISM CHAL 2 LENGING THE THREE DIMENSIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE DEVISED BY OPTICAL PERSPECTIVE THROUGH AN AMBIGUOUS PLAY OF REFLECTIONS MANET FRAGMENTED CENTURIES OF SOLID SPATIAL REPRESENTATION ON CANVAS DESTABILIZING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE VIEWER AND AT THE SAME TIME EXPOSING THE GRIM SOCIAL REALITIES OF ALIENATION AT THE MARGIN OF THE BURGEONING ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IN PARIS MANET MADE PAINTING PAINFUL HE TURNED THE CLASSICAL TRADITION OF REPRESENTATIONAL AFFIRMATION ON ITS HEAD RECONFIGURING THE MEDIUM AS A QUESTIONING ENTITY THIS IS WHERE MODERN ART BEGINS BUT NOT ALL IMPRESSIONIST ARTISTS ASSIMILATED MANET S LESSON TO THE SAME EXTENT OF COURSE IN A SENSE IMPRESSIONISM WAS A BOURGEOIS AFFAIR MOST OF ITS EXPONENTS WERE OF MIDDLE OR UPPER CLASS EXTRACTION WITH THE EXCEP TION OF MARY CASSATT AND BERTHE MORISOT THEY WERE ALL WHITE MEN AND SOME ARTISTS COURTED PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS BY PAINTING THE EVERYDAY LIVES OF THOSE WHO COULD AFFORD TO PAY FOR THEIR WORKS INDEED MONET S BODY OF WORK ALTHOUGH GROUNDBREAKING IN MANY OTHER WAYS NEVER QUITE EMBODIED FIGURE P 2?EDOUARD MANET A BAR AT THE FOLIES BERG RE 1882 OIL ON CANVAS 96 130 CM THE COURTAULD GALLERY LONDON THE SAMUEL COURTAULD TRUST 3