바타이유의 비정형(formless): 비형상에 대한 현대미술이론의 고찰과 한계

Abstract

Georges Bataille is a well-known surrealist and thinker. After a break up with Andre Brèton in 1929, he published <Documents> in which his unique ideas on materials, religions, languages and forms were announced. Bataille's reverse thinking has influenced other philosophers such as Derrida, who formed de-constructivism. Bataille suggested that the idealistic aesthetics is hidden under the structural dichotomy and the materialism. Even though scholars study materials, without developing it into metaphysical status, the materials are comprised and united by the conceptual meanings. Bataille criticized this as the simplified monism and the hierarchical understanding. Clement Greenberg asserted that the abstract style with the flat surface is the pursuit of the modern art. He insisted that it comes from the painting's basic components, such as the canvas and the pigments, and they conform the nature and essence of the painting. Based upon Kant's criticism, Greenberg believed that the essence of the object comes from the materiality leading to the ideal form. In paintings, Greenberg found a clear development towards the flat surfaced abstract painting as the truth of the painting which leads to the art's autonomy. Greenberg's idea is comprised of aesthetic idealism and binary materialism. Bataille's 'base materialism' could encounter Greenberg's modernism, dealing with low and abject materials, such as saliva, faces, sputum, and urine. Bataille suggested, that those materials are ignored yet exist, demonstrating the blind spot of our understanding of materials. Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois were fascinated by Bataille's 'informe', considering it could provide deconstructive model for Greenberg's modernist agenda. They organized an exhibition 《L'informe》 and attempted to challenge the 4 categories of the modern art; the pure visuality, the verticality, the eternity, and the sublime. They consider the base materialism, the horizontality, the pulse, the entropy as the new criteria, and discuss art works under each category. Krauss and Bois criticizes Greenberg's theorem as having many blind sides; however, their efforts also follow the predecessor's position, the simple dichotomy. Greenberg's suggestion saying abstract art is reflecting the material's essence came from belief that there exist the transparent and lucid analogy between the material and the form. Krauss and Bois also follows the Greenberg's debates on binary structure and clear categorization. They dissolve the conventional interpretation and impose another meaning to their selected art artworks with clear categorization. L’informe and formless is the anti-theme to reverse the empowered debates of the form. For example, Robert Rauschenberg's <Erased De Kooning> dismiss the power of form. He erased the drawing of De Kooning, and he annuls the meaning of the existence of the artistic presence. Not only drawings, traces, lines and expression but also the mythical status of the Abstract expressionism and the aura of the artist has been erased. Rauschenberg's work expresses the 'formless,' presented by its' dirty canvas and its ambiguous connection between the signifier and the signified to the blank canvas. Form remains with no meanings, looking like an abstract painting. Containing several layers of 'formless', <Erased De Kooning> could represent the Bataille's idea on the form and formless, which never reach to the certain fixed formality.