joint research unit 7172
Theory and history of the arts
and literature of modernity
19th–21st century

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Les retours compulsifs des artistes contemporains aux images ready-made

Auteur : Danièle Méaux

Journal : L'esprit créateur

There are many artists today who appropriate – in a repetitive, or even obsessional manner – preexisting visual documents. This growing recourse to ‟already there” representations has often been linked to the current plethora of images, fostering a desire to avoid producing new objects. But this attraction for ready-made images reflects above all an awareness of the agency of images, contributing to the construction of a collective imagination. It also conveys a singular rapport with time: utopias are no longer relevant today; the present, arousing incomprehension, creates concern; it seems therefore that traces of the past should be infinitely re-examined, so as to understand ‟where we are”.

Keywords : Photography

Updated on 15/07/2021