The following thesis has been composed with the inspiration attained from PaulArdenne’s conception on Contextual Art. In Europe and in the United States, there is agroup of artists who emphasize in the importance of artist’s participation in social, political,economical, environmental and moral issues. Since the 1960’s, these artists have ponderedon Modernism’s ideas where art is contextually separated from humanly issues whereas themanners of such artists put on emphasis in the intent to participate in the real human socialand ethical issues. Forerunner in this field of art such as Wolfgang Leib display hybrid ormeta style in their work. His work displays a quadrilateral form of pollen which representsthe simultaneous blending of two mixed ideas such as the abstract from the real. Thus heterogeneous style and philosophy which includes a range of medias andtoday’s trend is observed in Contextual Art. Such art form is also found in landscapeswhere it is not seen as an observable object but rather an interactive object. It is correlatedto Arte Povera of the Italian Art Movement, Support-Surface of the French Art Movementand lastly to the Fluxus. Through these art movements, we find a mutual antipathy towardsputting art for sales in the capitalism market and reflect the social role of art in postmodernera.

This thesis examines contemporary Chinese painting after the CulturalRevolution(1966~76), focusing upon so-called “Chinese Pop art”, which I termed as“Socialist Pop art”. I considered the art of this period within the broader context of socialchanges especially after the Tienanmen incident of 1989.After the Cultural Revolution during which idolization of Chairman Mao was at itspeak, one of the major changes in communist China was that an anti-Mao wave wasgenerated in almost every social class. For example, novels that revealed the hardshipsduring the Cultural Revolution were published. Posters that openly criticized the Maoismwere also produced and displayed on the walls, and demand for democracy spurredwidespread activist movements among young generations. These broad social changeswere also reflected in art. A variety of art movements were introduced from the West toChina, and after a period of experimentation with the new imported styles, artists began toapply the new artistic idiom to their works in order to visualize their own social andpolitical realities they lived in. It was a shift from earlier Socialist Realism to a newexpression either directly or indirectly, “Socialist Pop”, an amalgam of Socialist Realism andPop art tradition. After the 1989 crackdown of Tienanmen Square protest, when communistgovernment quelled with brutal measures the students, workers, and ordinary people whorose for democracy, greater urge to protest the Deng Xiaoping regime emerged. This timecoincided with the gradual emergence of art using Pop art vocabulary to satirize the socialreality, the Socialist Pop art, along with many other art forms all with avant-garde spirit.One of the most frequent subjects of Chinese Pop art was visual images of ChairmanMao and his Cultural Revolution, and new China that was saturated with capitalism, whichtainted the Chinese way of life with a Western way of consumerism and commercialism.The reason for the popularity of Mao’s image was spurred by the “Mao Craze”in the early1990’s. People suddenly began to fall in a kind of nostalgia for the past, and once again,Mao Zedong was idolized as an entity who can heal the problems of modern China whohad been marching towards their ultimate destination, the economic development. But this time Chairman Mao was no more an idol but just a popular, commercial product. He is nomore an object of worship of almost religious nature but he has become an iconographysymbolizing the complex nature of present Chinese society. During this process ofdepicting the social reality, Chinese artists are making the authority and sanctity of Maoismineffective. Dealing with this new trend of contemporary Chinese art in view of “Socialist Popart”two manners of re-creating Pop art can be illustrated: one that incorporates thepropaganda posters of the Cultural Revolution; the other borrows from Chinese traditionalpopular imagery or mass media, such as photos taken during Mao era. What is worthmentioning is that these posters and photos of the Cultural Revolution can be identified as‘popular’media, as they were directed to educate the popular mass, thus combination ofthis ingenuous pop media with Western Pop art can be fully justified as a genre unique toChina. Through this genre, we can discover a new chapter of the Chinese contemporarypainting and its society, as their Pop art can be considered as self-portraits true to theirpresent appearances.

Nous obserbons dans le champs de l’art aujourd’hui, le changement radicalprovoquant étant donné que le pouvoir du marché de l’art s’augmente de plus en plus. C’est pour cela que le champ du discours de l’art n’est actuellement plus formé par desnotions esthètiques artistiques, mais par celles qui sont réservées au domaine de l’économie et du marché. Il n’est plus significatif de croire la valeur esthètique de l’oeuvred’art, puisque l’esthètique elle-même ne fonctionne plus. Par contre, le système de donnerle prix à l’oeuvre d’art fonctionne rigoureusement. En plus, cette situation s’aggrave étantdonné que la mondialisation du marché de l’art s’installe avec rapidité. Malgré lamondialisation de l’art, des gens qui habitent par exemple à Séoul ne peuvent pas s’approcher facilement de ce qui se passe à New York, le vrai centre de l’art contemporain.Dans cette situation, le champ de discours de l’art n’a pas d’autre solution de se rétrécirremaquablement et le sujet de discussion sur le grand art est remplacé par celui du successde l’art. Cette recherche est arrivée à remarquer que le système du foire internationale de l’art fonctionne comme une locomotive dans le marché de l’art qui est le vrai dominateur del’art contemporain. Aujourd’hui les grands clients du monde de l’art et les jeunesspéctateurs, les clients de l’avenir s’assemblent autour de quelques foires internationalesréputés qui ont de l’autorité. C’est ainsi que l’achat et la vante de l’oeuvres d’art estsuffisamment mondialisé et que le système local du marché est dérangé et s’éffondrégravement.Malgré la différence significative, la majorité des galeries d’art lacaux s’oblige desuivre à la suite du style du foire internationale de l’art. C’est la raison pour laquelle quecette recherche se fait une idée nette que la prospérité actuelle du marché de l’art n’est quela situation économique ou financière. A ce stade de la réflexion, cette recherche arrivera à poser une question primordialeci-dessous: “Si l’art qu’on à l’intention de proclamer ne serai plus possible de faire réfléchirsur la liberté et la solidarité humain, la dignité de l’homme, cet art n’est plus autre choseque l’insignifiance. Au lieu de parcourir divers phénomène du marché de l’art aujourd’hui, cetterecherche fixera son attention sur la réalité du foire internationales de l’art. Dans cecontext, cette recherche sera composée par trois chapitres donc le première essayera derépondre á la question de son influence extraodinairement puissante. Le deuxième chapitreessayera d’analiser la réalité et la source du pouvoir du foire internationale de l’art. Nousessayeront au troisième chapitre de configurer le point de vue critique qui permettra debien comprendre notre sujet.

The purpose of this study is to show that the reason behind the ambivalentcharacteristic displayed in Niki de Saint Phalle’s works is in her trauma and how suchcharacteristic can be extracted from her works. During her creative years, Saint Phalleworked on various materials from different genres such as assemblages, shooting paintings, aseries on Bride and Monster, ‘Nana’, ‘Tarot Garden’and public sculptures. Onecommonality found among her various works is the ambivalent characteristic that containscontrasting elements simultaneously. Saint Phalle suffered a terrible psychological damageinflicted by her parents during her childhood. Specifically, she was sexually assaulted by herfather and emotionally neglected by her mother, the trauma that affected her for the rest ofher life. As a result, she came to develop extreme love-hate relationships with her parentsand this became the main reason for the ambivalent characteristic displayed in her works. The love-hate relationship Saint Phalle developed can be identified through variousresearches done on the subject of the affect of sexual assault. It is common for incestvictims to develop ambivalent feelings towards the perpetrator and Saint Phalle was noexception.Dissociation disorder and a snake well explain the trauma from her father. It is agenerally accepted belief in the field of psychology that dissociation disorder commonly occursto children who experience incest. And dissociation disorder is similar to the characteristic ofambivalence in the sense that a single entity contains more than two contrasting elements at thesame time. In addition, the amputated doll objects used in her assemblages coincide with theexpression of body detachment of people with dissociation disorder. These facts clearly indicatethat the trauma from her father is showing through in her works.A snake is a subject matter that reflects the ambivalent tendency of Saint Phalle thatresulted from her trauma. She remembers her father’s rape as an image of a snake which is related to a phallic symbol in mythology or art reflecting her trauma. Moreover, shedisplays a similar pattern of ambivalent emotion like love and hate or fear towards a snakeand her father. This is also confirmed by her portrayal of a snake as a monster or reverselyas a creature with fundamental vitality in her works. The lack of affection from her mother can be explained by her mother’s maternaldeprivation. It appears that Saint Phalle’s mother possessed all the causes for maternaldeprivation such as maternal separation, personality disorder and inappropriate attitudetowards child rearing. Especially, a study that shows mother’s negative attitude towardschild breeding tends to increase dissociation experience of children is another importantevidence that supports Saint Phalle’s dissociation tendency. These traces of Saint Phalle’s trauma are clearly revealed in her assemblages andshooting paintings. The violent objects in her assemblages such as a hammer, razor, nailrepresent the rage and defensiveness towards her father. The objects such as fragments ofbroken plates of feminine patterns, pots and mirrors that her mother used symbolize theaffection towards her mother. On the other hand, the destructed objects can be interpretedas her hate and resentment towards her mother. Shooting paintings contain her extremefury and hate. Things such as acts of shooting and the image associated with blood aftershooting are blunt expressions of her bursts of emotions.I have tried to define and classify the ambivalent characteristics shown in herassemblages and shooting paintings as hate, rage, violence, calm, love and pleasureaccording to the frame ofThanatos and Eros. Out of the six, hate, rage, violence and clamare associated with Thanatos while love and pleasure are associated with Eros and theycorrespondingly form an ambivalent structure.These ambivalent characteristics can be found in her assemblages and shootingpaintings. The objects in her assemblages such as a razor, saw, hammer imply hate, rage,violence and the silence felt throughout her works represent calmness. And, as mentioned,the feminine objects can be seen as symbolizing love. In shooting paintings, hate, rage,violence can be found in the use of force and in the traces of watercolor after shooting,and a sense of pleasure in her feelings of catharsis after her shooting. Moreover, a shieldedcalmness can be found on the plywood all covered with plaster before the shooting. This study looked into the ambivalent characteristic of Saint Phalle’s works byexamining her trauma to find its correlation, and a meaning of this study can be found fromthe fact that it refocused the origin of Saint Phalle who is generally known as a feministartist. Additionally, a meaning of the study can be found also from the fact that it examinedthe ambivalent characteristics of her works through a frame of Thanatos and Eros.

An artist, Oh Yun(1946~86)’s theory of people’s art during his final period issummed up in his essay ‘Expansion of Artistic Imagination and World’(1985).Emphasizingthe mystic and traditional characteristics of Oh Yun’s artistic oeuvre during his final period,some critics focus on Oh Yun’s experience of medical treatment and shamanistic custom atJin Do island, and his belief in Jeung San Do, the dao of Jeung-san, the Ruler of theUniverse. However, they forget the practical intention and implication of his theory of artduring his final period, which aimed to overcome the contradiction of revelation itself. Oh Yun’s essay criticized the loss of artistic imagination and the ignorance oftraditional culture that resulted from the elevation of science to a religion, and insisted thatthe stereotyped idealism, scientism and elitism in art should be overcome in order torecover the full reality in realism and to continue traditional cultures. The essay iscomprised of 18 paragraphs. Oh Yun criticized monochromatic art, conceptual art, hyper-realistic art, objet d’art,and neo-dadaist art, saying that they were simply mechanical forms of modern art derivedfrom scientism and a fetishistic lens culture. In addition, he criticized naturalism in art,which had continued as a tendency in the development of western art, for the samereason. He pointed out that even the world of realism had been diminished by elitestereotypes and diagrams. He declared the need to overcome the imitation of shells orstereotyped propaganda, and recover full realism, which seems to have started with areflective examination of current problems in ‘Reality and Utterance’, in which heparticipated. Especially, he thought that universality and the extension of full realism could be achieved by building on the views of traditional cultures, which is meaningful. This logic issame as the theory of epic theatre that Bertolt Brecht(1898~1956)has developed under theancient Greek masque and Pieter Bruegel the Elder(1525~69)’s story-like picture style. Theuniversality of realism and the extension of acquisition to include incantation art,rather thanmove toward incantation art, is what Oh Yun intended to propose in ‘Artistic Imagination’.This attitude is same as Bertolt Brecht’s aesthetic viewpoint in the 1930s. But regrettably,Oh Yun’s style wording, which seems covert and far-sighted, is often misunderstood as‘mysticism’. In the flow of people’s art in the 1980s, Oh Yun was a traditionalist in a narrowsense, and an realist in a broad sense. However, his critical mind, which comprehendstradition and reality, was attempting to expand universality and extend full realism, and thisattempt found many sympathizers and had an influence on the next generation of people’sartists, such as 「Levee」which is field-centered, to which we should pay attention. Thismeans that while their works thought about ‘tradition’, we should be careful not to connectthem with‘aesthetic conservatism’or ‘classical art’. This is the why the meaning of Oh Yun’stheory of art during his final period should be closely examined again.

Artist-in-residence which gets chances to create by artists’moving and encounteringnew culture is heightening its level in 21th century. Under the circumstance that issue ofcultural diversity and the role of artists which is for city revitalization and sustainability areaffect residency program in the midst of highly proceeded globalization that internationalexchange. Therefore, in the aspect of creative city, a new model is creating by reuse ofabandoned industrial facilities and Asia or Eastern country become the subject in residencyprogram management, the issue of cultural diversity is getting more important, programsbased on project not just residence are managing. Furthermore, it has inter-countrycooperating system in the rage of cultural management. It means that artists’space ofcreating activity has a new, social role in spontaneously we need to approach to followingmodel in Korea, as well.

The 1960s is a decade that is marked by new concepts of art making and artappreciation. Starting from Fluxus, the new art in the 1960s such as Happenings andperformance art pursued the process of art making as an integral part of artistic experience. The traditional concept of art works that only appeal to vision soon became a site ofcontentious experiments and innovations in which the experience of seeing isaccompanied by other sensual encounters of sound, smell, touch, and taste. These attemptscan be seen as a revolutionary move to restore the sense of corporeality to the act ofseeing that has been disembodied by the way in which western art has built the unifying,homeogenous field of vision. This paper delves into the works of Fluxus artists—Daniel Spoerri, Ben Vautier,Alison Knowles, Ay-O, and Takako Saito—who were central figures in taking art into thenew age of post-ocularcentrism. Exploring the sense of smell, touch, and taste, these artistsled the viewer to participate in their art making with the incorporated vision.