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Critical Beauty: the Decorative, the Grotesque and the Explicit in the Work of Aubrey Beardsley and Kara Walker

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Critical Beauty: the Decorative, the Grotesque and the Explicit in the Work of Aubrey Beardsley and Kara Walker Critical Beauty: The Decorative, the Grotesque and the Explicit in the work of Aubrey Beardsley and Kara Walker Natalya Hughes School of Art Theory/ Art History College of Fine Arts University of New South Wales STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORISHIP ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date …………………………………………….............. ii ABSTRACT This research project centres on a representative mode in the visual arts marked by seemingly contradictory operations. Made through a particular use of decorative form, this mode combines the operations of aesthetic pleasure and a more challenging or destabilising affect. It co-implicates formal beauty and a critical content usually associated with so-called anti-aesthetic art practices. The written component analyses the occurrence of this contradictory logic of representation in the work of late Victorian artist Aubrey Beardsley, and contemporary African American artist Kara Walker. Here I argue that while existing criticism on Beardsley and Walker points to the co-existence of these seemingly contradictory operations, it consistently privileges one term (i.e. beautiful form or critical content) over the other. As such, this criticism has failed to properly account for the formal and conceptual strategies of these artists’ work. Examining relations between the decorative, the grotesque and the sexually explicit in the art of Walker and Beardsley, and utilising Kantian and psychoanalytic theories, I examine reasons for this failure and interpret the work of each artist in a way demonstrates the critical fecundity of their dismantling of given oppositions been formal beauty and socio- political criticism. The practice component of this PhD engages with this contradictory logic in the medium of painting. It is similarly geared towards an exploration of grotesque and sexually explicit dimensions articulated in and through decorative form. It does so through the appropriation and manipulation of graphic traditions: mainly the Japanese tradition of Ukiyo-e, and the work of Aubrey Beardsley. Like the written component, the practice component of the project seeks a means of accommodating a critical position within the aesthetic of beauty. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The period of my PhD candidature has been more than eventful. In bringing the project to completion a number of people have played an indispensible role. No written acknowledgement can do justice to the time and energy that Dr Toni Ross has put into this project. Her theoretical rigour, her support and her unending conviction that the project be completed, no matter the obstacles, have not gone unnoticed. For these things I cannot thank her enough. A number of friends have also provided considerable support and encouragement. First and foremost, Dr Grant Stevens has been a touchstone for all my ideas and has provided a PhD student model to aspire to. Sally Brand and Carl Flannagan gave me a home and so much more when the writing heat was on. I would like to thank Romy Ash for talking through the death drive with me and for saying the words “keep going” over and over again. Thankyou to Jim Byrne for pushing me forward on a day to day basis. Thanks also to Amanda Rowell, Stephen Gilchrist, Angela Goddard, Jess Dudgeon, Gen Griffiths, Murray Barker, Tony Albert, Craig Dermody, Dr Esther Faye and Caro Cooper for their enthusiasm, encouragement and support. I would like to express my gratitude to Josh Milani, Peter Bellas and Hamish Sawyer at Milani Gallery (previously Bellas Milani Gallery) for their patience and ongoing support of my practice. Finally, I would like to thank my family whose high academic expectations are largely responsible for my embarking on this project. The competitive spirit of my brothers Anton and Soren gave me extra reasons to complete the project within a given timeframe. To my mother Desma Hughes, I owe everything. Finally, I would like to thank my father Robert Hughes, who I lost to cancer during the course of this project but seemed to inform it every stage. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Original Authorship..........................................................................ii Abstract.................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements...............................................................................................iv Table of Contents...................................................................................................v List of Illustrations................................................................................................vi Introduction............................................................................................................1 Chapter One: The Decorative..............................................................................14 Chapter Two: The Grotesque...............................................................................53 Chapter Three: The Explicit................................................................................90 Chapter Four: Sublimation................................................................................124 Conclusion.........................................................................................................151 Bibliography......................................................................................................155 Appendix 1: Back and Forth.............................................................................163 Appendix 2: List of Visual Documentation…………………………………...182 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1-1: Faux Rococo jewellery piece, twentieth century....……..................…..30 Figure 1-2: Ornamental marquetry design, seventeenth-century…….....…..............30 Figure 1-3: Kara Walker, Slavery! Slavery, 1997…...………........…………...........34 Figure 1-4: Eastman Johnson, Old Kentucky Home, 1859…………………….........35 Figure 1-5: Kara Walker, installation detail from Slavery! Slavery!, 1997...…........35 Figure 1-6: Kara Walker, installation detail from The Emancipation Approximation, 1999-2000………….........................................................................41 Figure 1-7: Kara Walker, installation detail from An Abbreviated Emancipation, 2002....................................................................................................41 Figure 1-8: Kara Walker, detail from World’s Exposition, cut paper and adhesive on wall, 3 x 4.9 metres, 1997.......................................................................42 Figure 1-9: Kara Walker, Cut, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, 2.2m x 1.4 metres, 1998..............................................................................................42 Figure 1-10: Aubrey Beardsley, Headpiece for the title page of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, c.1893................................................................................48 Figure 1-11: Aubrey Beardsley, La Beale Isoud at Joyous Guard, illustration for Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, c.1894...............................48 Figure 1-12: Aubrey Beardsley, A Suggested Reform in Ballet Costume, Illustration for the Justin McCarthy poem At A Distance,1895..................................49 Figure 1-13: Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt, Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s Salome, 1894.......................................................................................49 Figure 1-14: Aubrey Beardsley, How Sir Tristam Drank of the Love Drink, Illustration for Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, c.1893...............................52 Figure 2-1: Frederick Evans, Photograph of Aubrey Beardsley, 1895......................52 Figure 2-2: Aubrey Beardsley, Self-Portrait, c.1892.................................................54 Figure 2-3: Aubrey Beardsley, Silhouette of Aubrey Beardsley, date unknown..............................................................................................................54 Figure 2-4: Nicholas Ponce, engraving from Domus Aurea designs, in Descriptions des bains de Tituts, 1786...................................................................54 Figure 2-5: Marcel Ferraro, engraving of pilasta in Raphael’s Vatican Loggia (detail), in Les Ornaments de Raphael, 1860............................................................. 61 Figure 2-6: Christopher Jamnitzer, ornamental engraving, 1610..............................62 vi Figure 2-7: Lucas Kilian, ornamental engraving, 1630.............................................64 Figure 2-8: Jan Lutma the Elder, One sheet from the series Veelderhande Nieuwe Compartemente, copperplate engraving, 1653..............................................64 Figure 2-9: Aubrey Beardsley, vignette on page 26 of Sydney Smith and R. Brinsley Sheridan’s Bon Mots, 1893..........................................................................66
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