Abstract

Robert Rauschenberg is not usually thought to have had much contact with Surrealism and even spoke openly about his disdain for the movement on some occasions. However, through the period 1958–69, the Surrealists showed great enthusiasm for the ‘poetic’, ‘metaphorical’ resonance of Rauschenberg’s work, a positive response that has since largely been lost. In place of that history, the interpretation of Rauschenberg by John Cage as a ‘literalist’ or ‘factualist’ gained ground and even came to define the artist’s œuvre in some quarters, a reading that Rauschenberg himself approved. Caught in the middle of these two versions of Rauschenberg are the largely untranslated texts of French poet, critic, and ex-Surrealist Alain Jouffroy (1928–2015), which form the substance of this article. Jouffroy pioneered the positive critical reception of Rauschenberg in France from 1961 while he continued to be influenced by his Surrealist past, to the point that his writings on Rauschenberg reveal consistent contradiction under close reading. The highest point of tension was reached across 1963–64 when Jouffroy wrote eulogistic poems devoted to Rauschenberg’s massive silkscreen painting Barge (1962–63) and to Surrealism in L’Antichambre de la nature (1966, written in 1964), alongside key texts of art criticism on Rauschenberg. Culminating in an analysis of the silkscreen and poems, this article argues that while Jouffroy’s writings seem ostensibly to further the Cagean interpretation of the artist, they are riven by an awkward dual loyalty that can be read in support of a ‘poetic’ ‘Surrealist Rauschenberg’.

摘要

人们通常认为罗伯特·劳森伯格与超现实主义没有太多接触，甚至在某些场合公开表达了他对超现实主义运动的蔑视。然而，在 1958-69 年期间，超现实主义者对劳森伯格作品中的“诗意”、“隐喻”共鸣表现出了极大的热情，这种积极的回应后来基本上消失了。约翰·凯奇将劳森伯格解释为“现实主义者”或“现实主义者”，取代了这段历史，并获得了广泛的认可，甚至定义了艺术家的作品在某些方面，劳森伯格本人也认可这种解读。劳森伯格的这两个版本中间夹杂着法国诗人、批评家和前超现实主义者阿兰·朱弗罗伊（Alain Jouffroy，1928-2015）的大部分未翻译文本，它们构成了本文的实质内容。朱弗鲁瓦自1961年起在法国率先对劳森伯格进行了积极的批评，同时他继续受到超现实主义过去的影响，以致于他关于劳森伯格的著作在仔细阅读时揭示出一贯的矛盾。1963-64 年，矛盾达到了最高点，朱弗鲁瓦为劳森伯格的巨幅丝网画《驳船》（1962-63）和《自然的前厅》中的超现实主义写了颂歌。（1966 年，写于 1964 年），以及劳森伯格艺术批评的关键文本。本文最后对丝网印刷和诗歌进行了分析，认为虽然朱弗鲁瓦的作品表面上似乎是为了进一步对艺术家进行凯吉式解释，但它们却被一种尴尬的双重忠诚所撕裂，这种忠诚可以被解读为支持“诗意的”“超现实主义劳森伯格”。 '。