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The Animate Object of Kinetic Art, 1955-1968

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The Animate Object of Kinetic Art, 1955-1968 University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 The Animate Object Of Kinetic Art, 1955-1968 Marina C. Isgro University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Isgro, Marina C., "The Animate Object Of Kinetic Art, 1955-1968" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2353. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2353 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2353 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Animate Object Of Kinetic Art, 1955-1968 Abstract This dissertation examines the development of kinetic art—a genre comprising motorized, manipulable, and otherwise transformable objects—in Europe and the United States from 1955 to 1968. Despite kinetic art’s popularity in its moment, existing scholarly narratives often treat the movement as a positivist affirmation of postwar technology or an art of mere entertainment. This dissertation is the first comprehensive scholarly project to resituate the movement within the history of performance and “live” art forms, by looking closely at how artists created objects that behaved in complex, often unpredictable ways in real time. It argues that the critical debates concerning agency and intention that surrounded moving artworks should be understood within broader aesthetic and social concerns in the postwar period—from artists’ attempts to grapple with the legacy of modernist abstraction, to popular attitudes toward the rise of automated labor and cybernetics. It further draws from contemporaneous phenomenological discourses to consider the ways kinetic artworks modulated viewers’ experiences of artistic duration. Structured around case studies of four artists, the chapters draw from archival material and close examinations of artworks to elucidate diverse approaches to the kinetic. Chapter One examines Jean Tinguely’s early motorized reliefs, modeled on the paintings of the historical avant-garde, and argues that their shifting compositions enact an intensifying doubt about the principles of abstract composition. Chapter Two addresses Pol Bury’s exploration of perception in his slow-moving objects, linking the intense experiences of anticipation and suspense they generate to their Cold War context. Chapter Three treats Gianni Colombo’s flexible rubber and Styrofoam artworks, connecting them to the burgeoning field of Italian design and Umberto Eco’s nascent concept of the “open work.” Finally, Chapter Four investigates Robert Breer’s Float sculptures, and demonstrates how these works parody Minimalist principles while also intervening into cybernetic debates about behavior and intentionality in self-driven objects. While grounded in the postwar period, this project intersects with contemporary scholarly interests in performance, animation, and materiality. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History of Art First Advisor Christine Poggi Keywords Gianni Colombo, Jean Tinguely, Kinetic art, Pol Bury, Robert Breer Subject Categories History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2353 THE ANIMATE OBJECT OF KINETIC ART, 1955-1968 COPYRIGHT 2017 Marina C. Isgro ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation benefitted tremendously from the support, encouragement, and generosity of numerous colleagues and friends. I would first like to thank my advisor, Christine Poggi, who read this manuscript with an exceptionally attentive eye, offering insights that helped me expand and strengthen my arguments. I am continually inspired by her sweeping knowledge of twentieth-century art and her incomparable close readings of artworks. Kaja Silverman inspired my interest in phenomenology and the ethical potential of art history, and has provided great support since my first semester at Penn. I discovered my love for archival work in an early seminar with Michael Leja, and his calm guidance has been a continued reassurance. My thinking on issues of animacy began in Karen Redrobe’s excellent seminar on filmic animation. In the early stages of this project, André Dombrowski helped me to deepen the stakes of my argument. I owe many thanks as well to Darlene Jackson, Libby Saylor, and Ian Verstegen. Support from several institutions has made this dissertation possible. A Fulbright Fellowship funded my initial research on Gianni Colombo and Gruppo T in Milan, Italy. A Philadelphia Museum of Art/Penn Mellon Graduate Fellowship granted me an additional year of research and writing; it also allowed me to work with kinetic art in the Museum’s collection and to benefit from the helpful guidance of Carlos Basualdo and Erica Battle. At Penn, the Salvatori Research Award from the Center for Italian Studies and the Penfield Fellowship funded additional research trips. I would also like to thank Vivien Greene for taking me on as a curatorial intern in the lead-up to her Guggenheim exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909-1944, which sparked my initial interest in many of the themes of this dissertation. I am grateful for her continued support. iii My fellow graduate students in the History of Art provided an incredibly encouraging writing community. I am particularly thankful to have benefitted from the friendship and advice of Alex Kauffman and Larisa Grollemond—my first writing partners—as well as Juliana Barton, Megan Boomer, Iggy Cortez, Jeanne Dreskin, Roksana Filipowska, Stephanie Hagan, Heather Hughes, Charlotte Ickes, Liz Lastra, Juliet Sperling, and Laura Tillery. I would like to thank Mark Arpels Amez-Droz for his patience and thoughtfulness, and for reviewing several of my French translations. I am indebted to many individuals for assistance in archives abroad. In Milan, Giovanni Anceschi and Grazia Varisco generously shared their recollections over the course of several conversations; Alberto Biasi and Matteo Devecchi graciously answered questions; and Roberto Casiraghi of the Archivio Gianni Colombo assisted me greatly with archival materials and his own insights. In Italy, I would also like to thank Manuela Cirino and Isabella Di Pietro of the Fondazione Jacqueline Vodoz e Bruno Danese; Lucia Alberton and the staff of the Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti; Duccio Dogheria at the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto; Ginevra Bria of the Istituto Internazionale di Studi sul Futurismo; and the staff of the Museo del Novecento, the Triennale di Milano, and the Venice Biennale Archives. Sharon Hecker and Giovanna Ginex were of great help during my transition to living and working in Milan. In Basel, Claire Beltz-Wüest was a superb guide to the archives of the Museum Tinguely. In Paris, Nathalie Boutin of GB Agency provided me with valuable materials on Robert Breer’s work. The staff of the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine patiently guided me through Pol Bury’s papers; Velma Bury and Pascal Gillard kindly enabled my use of the archive. In the late stages of my project, Gilles Marquenie of iv Patrick Derom Gallery answered lingering questions on Bury. Laurence Le Poupon at the Archives de la critique d’art and the staff of the Bibliothèque Kandinsky facilitated my work at those institutions. In the United States, I benefitted from the assistance of John Klacsmann at Anthology Films; Marisa Bourgoin at the Archives of American Art; Jennifer Tobias at the Museum of Modern Art Library; and Francine Snyder at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Exchanges with scholars helped shape my project in important ways. I presented dissertation material on Meredith Malone’s panel on kinetic art at the Midwest Art History Society conference in 2014 and on Andrew Uroskie’s panel on the “kinetic imaginary” at the College Art Association’s 2017 conference, and I am thankful for the feedback I received on those occasions. More recently, an invitation to contribute to Meredith’s project on Daniel Spoerri’s Edition MAT at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum pushed me to think further about the importance of kinetic multiples. My participation in the Summer Institute in Technical Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts in 2013 sparked my interest in the material aspects of kinetic art. I would especially like to thank Reinhard Bek, who provided invaluable guidance on technical questions. My family has been my greatest support during the writing of this dissertation. My sister, Angelica, served as a helpful sounding board for ideas. My father, Francesco, instilled in me a love of learning and discovery that continues to motivate my work. My mother, Anna, read many iterations of this project; I am incredibly grateful for her keen editorial eye, emotional support, and unending patience. v ABSTRACT THE ANIMATE OBJECT OF KINETIC ART, 1955-1968 Marina C. Isgro Christine Poggi This dissertation examines the development of kinetic art—a genre comprising motorized, manipulable, and otherwise transformable objects—in Europe and the United States from 1955 to 1968. Despite kinetic art’s popularity in its moment, existing scholarly narratives often treat the movement as a positivist affirmation of postwar technology or an art of mere entertainment. This dissertation is the first comprehensive scholarly project to resituate the movement within the history of performance and “live” art forms, by looking
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