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Art in Advertising
| Article
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18892 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1991 |
1,596 Words |
| Author
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Michael Gibson
Michael Gibson, author of a number of books on art, is the
Paris art critic for the International Herald Tribune and a
frequent contributor to publications in Europe and the United
States. |
The Centre Pompidou's large, ambitious, and often entertaining exhibition entitled Art & Publicite 1890-1990 (Art and advertising), is a show that, curators say, only coincidentally happened to be running at the same time as High and Low at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which deals with roughly the same subject.
The French exhibition is elegantly mounted, effectively tracing the development of advertising over the past hundred years, in relation to high art. The show attempts to come to grips with the awkward paradoxes arising out of the symbiosis of these two realms, which has become so prominent today.
Imagery and Slogans
The subject, while exceedingly elusive, is highly relevant, considering how the imagery and slogans of advertising have managed to grip the popular imagination over the past hundred-odd years. But, as the French show demonstrates, this extraordinary mutation of our public space was brought about with the willing assistance of the artists themselves.
The twelve-hundred item Paris exhibition is in the same multidisciplinary vein as some earlier ventures conceived by the curators of the Centre Pompidou. It strives to cover every aspect of the subject: packaging, neon signs, merchandising, architecture, press, radio, cinema, and TV commercials.
Numerous banks of TV screens loop some of the best television commercials of recent years. Bill Bernbach's splendid Volkswagen commercials for the United States, and the inspired choreography of Jean-Paul Goude's work in France are among those that can be seen. Their commercials follow Goude's own definition of advertising as "a simplistic gag presented in a sophisticated form." Goude's work often takes on the appearance of a superior form of clowning that elicits sympathy for the product represented. Even artfully done, this approach alone does not suffice to make them "art." The sales pitch, no matter how entertainingly disguised, is still lurking in the background, drawing our attention to practical concerns.
But then again, much of what is passed off as "art" today seems to be in the same vein. It may not be making a sales pitch, but it remains quite as topical as any advertisement. Clever, pertinent, occasionally amusing, so much of contemporary art lacks that touch of the poetic which alone can heighten the viewer's
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