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The Reception of Video Art in the Swedish Daily Press, 1985–1991

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The Reception of Video Art in the Swedish Daily Press, 1985–1991 Journal of Aesthetics & Culture ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/zjac20 Art criticism and the newness of video art: the reception of video art in the Swedish daily press, 1985–1991 Anna Orrghen To cite this article: Anna Orrghen (2020) Art criticism and the newness of video art: the reception of video art in the Swedish daily press, 1985–1991, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 12:1, 1729539, DOI: 10.1080/20004214.2020.1729539 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2020.1729539 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Published online: 27 May 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 546 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=zjac20 JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS & CULTURE 2020, VOL. 12, 1729539 https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2020.1729539 Art criticism and the newness of video art: the reception of video art in the Swedish daily press, 1985–1991 Anna Orrghen Department of Art History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The aim of this article is to present and examine how art criticism in the Swedish daily press Art criticism; video art; new has dealt with video art as a new art form. The article argues that art criticism is challenged by media; medium specificity; having to deal with video art as a new art form. By paying attention to how the “identity Sweden the 1980s and crisis” of video art is represented in art criticism covering the four exhibitions Video/Art/Video, 1990s U-media, Japan nu/Sverige nu and Interface, as well as how the inherent properties of the printed press are used in this negotiation, this article shows that the art criticism contains a range of journalistic genres, makes use of art-historical and technological references and investigates the inherent properties of video art. The article further shows that the art criticism is primarily concerned with formal aspects of video art and that the medium specificity of the printed press is particularly salient. By comparing the specific Swedish situation with the international reception of video art as a new art form, I show that, in spite of the difference in date, they are indeed similar. Finally, by relating the reception of video art as a new art form to that of photography during the mid 19th century and digital art at beginning of the 21st century, I further show that the identity crisis of video art is similar to earlier as well as later identity crises of new technological art forms. “The images merge, double project, disintegrate, identity crisis of the new medium is thus charac- reunite, dissolve, pulsate” (von Malmborg 1985a), terised by negotiations. Actually, the relationship claims the journalist Ingvar von Malmborg as he sum- between the new medium and older media as well marises his impressions of the exhibition Video/Art/ as the inherent properties of the new medium are Video that took place at Kulturhuset in Stockholm in particularly emphasised during this phase. Given 1985. The exhibition was one of the first larger that art-historical developments are claimed to chal- attempts to introduce video art to a broader audience lenge art criticism,1 it is reasonable to assume that in Sweden and the article was published in the Swedish these negotiations are reflected by the art criticism daily newspaper Aftonbladet. In the article, von concerned. Hence, in this article I argue that art Malmborg further describes one of the video installa- criticism is challenged by having to deal with video tions by comparing it to what “the surrealists once did art as a new art form. in painting” (von Malmborg 1985a). From a historical perspective, the art historian Mary Video/Art/Video took place during what the art his- Warner Marien (1997) shows that this was very much torian Malin Hedlin Hayden identifies as “the legitimiz- the case regarding the reception of the advent of photo- ing period of video art”, referring to “the 1960s and into graphy around the mid-nineteenth century. Although the 1990s especially” (Hedlin Hayden 2015, 2). During Marien does not use the term “identity crisis”,herargu- this period, video art was seeking its identity as an art ment aligns with Gitelman and Pingree’s understanding form. Among other things, this suggests negotiations of the process of an identity crisis. Marien claims that concerning issues such as the expectations of video as “the idea of photography proved to be impressively elas- a medium, its relation to art history, as well as the tic” during this period and shows how photography was formation of a canon of video art. negotiated in the contemporary sphere of art criticism as From the perspective of the media historians Lisa it was seeking its identity as a medium and as an art form Gitelman and Geoffrey B. Pingree (2003), the legit- (Marien 1997, xiii–xiv). Marien argues: “During the imizing period of video art identified by Hedlin nineteenth century, photography was judged against Hayden bears similarities to the identity crisis that, painting, printmaking, and more subtly, literature and they argue, each new medium experiences before it moral philosophy. Photographs were reckoned to be becomes established. Due to its uncertain status in inferior to or better than engraved views of nature or of relation to established media and their functions, the works of art” (Marien 1997, 101). Hence, in a similar way CONTACT Anna Orrghen [email protected] Department of Art History, Uppsala University, Box 630, Uppsala 751 26, Sweden © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 2 A. ORRGHEN to Gitelman and Pingree’s argument, Marien shows that As I will elaborate on later on in this article, von during these negotiations attention was paid to the rela- Malmborg’s introductory quotations illustrate both tionship between photography and older printing tech- how art criticism establishes a relationship with an niques and art forms, as well as to the inherent properties older art form such as painting, and how art criticism of photography itself. seeks to characterise the inherent properties of video As several scholars have observed, the relationship art during a period when video art was a new phe- with older media is both a method of emphasising the nomenon. Thus, following Hedlin Hayden and particularity of the new medium and a way of gaining Gitelman and Pingree, von Malmborg’s quotations authority. For example, the film historian Paul Young are illustrative examples of how art criticism deals (2003, 230) argues that the use of older media, such as with the newness of video art. the telegraph and the telephone, in early cinema during The aim of this article is to present and examine how the late 19th and early 20th centuries became a link art criticism in the Swedish daily press has dealt with between the new medium and the audience, as the new video art as a new art form. Understanding video art as medium used familiar items. Marien (1997, 96) shows a new art form implies both a theoretical approach that this was, indeed, also the case concerning how towards new media as a historical concept and a focus various references to painting were paid attention to on the newness of new media. in art criticism covering the advent of photography. In From an international perspective, video art emerges a study on the introduction of scrapbooks, for instance, during the mid 1960s. Several scholars have paid atten- the cultural historian Ellen Gruber Garvey (2003,225) tion to video art as a time-based art form belonging to an shows that the scrapbook gained authority as a new art-historical as well as a technological background.5 medium by literally using material from older media Thus, the hybrid nature of video art has been emphasised such as periodicals and old books.2 Furthermore, the further.6 This, in turn, implies that video art is an art relationship with older media is a way of emphasising form that builds on several art-historical traditions in the supersession of the new medium in relation to its general and, in particular, on art-historical traditions predecessors (Gitelman and Pingree 2003, xiii) and, in and artists during the 20th century. During the early order to do so, the inherent properties of the new years of video art, artists who used video were, to medium are particularly emphasised. This is expressed a considerable extent, exploring its inherent properties in the above quotation by Marien, as well as being (Sturken 1990, 117).7 Thus, by paying particular atten- pointed out by Gitelman and Pingree. The advent of tion to inherent properties of the video image such as film is an illustrative example of this process. The film flickering and graininess, early video art was concerned historian Tom Gunning ([1990] 1997) shows that early with distinguishing video from other art forms such as cinema, for which he has coined the term “cinema of painting, sculpture, film and performance (Sturken 1990, attractions”, was characterised by a focus on using, and 116).8 As the visual studies scholar Marita Sturken (1990, showing, the attractiveness of the new visual technol- 117) argues, this implied a focus on the image instead of ogy.
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