Street Art in Galleries: Aura, Authenticity, and The Postmodern Condition

• Název práce v češtině: Street Art v galeriích: aura, autenticita a postmoderní situace
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Street Art in Galleries: Aura, Authenticity, and The Postmodern Condition
• Klíčová slova: aura, autenticita, postmoderní stav, Walter Benjamin, podívaná společnost, Warhol, serialita, ikonografie
• Klíčová slova anglicky: aura, authenticity, postmodern condition, Walter Benjamin, spectacle society, Warhol, seriality, iconography
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2011/2012
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Louis Armand, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 25.04.2012
• Datum zadání: 25.04.2012
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 09.05.2012
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 04.06.2014 08:30
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 05.05.2014
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 04.06.2014
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: Mgr. David Vichnar, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

The exhibition of street art in galleries is an implicitly contradictory concept whose acceptance is illustrative of the state of contemporary society and its views on art. At the same time this phenomenon can be examined as a symptom of the postmodern condition and evaluated through the use of a variety of modern and postmodern texts by theoreticians who continue to or had struggled with determining the era as either modern or postmodern. These theoreticians include Fredric Jameson, Zygmunt Bauman, Jean Francois Lyotard, and Jurgen Habermas. Using the occurrence of street art in galleries as a symptom of the postmodern condition one can examine the state of contemporary society allowing for the acceptance of an essentially contradictory concept within which problems of the organic versus the institutional, mechanical reproduction, and either the maintenance or disappearance of aura and authenticity are implicated. These implications not only serve to demonstrate contemporary views on art, but can also be applied in order to understand the state of contemporary society.
An argument for the phenomenon of street art’s exhibition in galleries as a symptom of the postmodern condition will be addressed in the final portion of this work. Prior to this, artists, namely Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, who initialized street art’s process of art-world validation will be examined in terms of their connection with street art. Likewise it will be important to examine concepts of aura and authenticity in relation to not only these artists but also within the original, illicit street art scene. Furthermore the first part of this work will examine Andy Warhol as an inspiration to not only those artists who initialized the acceptance of street art in galleries but also as a lasting influence in the contemporary art world, particularly in popular culture and street art. An inquiry into Warhol as both an inspiration and influence will also entail an examination of concepts experimented with by Warhol. These include iconography, seriality, and the conception and creation of Warhol’s Art Factory, concepts which address and challenge notions of aura and authenticity and can be found in contemporary street art.
In the second portion of this work contemporary street artists who have been validated as “real” artists through their exhibition in galleries will be examined. Such artists include Banksy, Mr. Brainwash, Shepherd Fairey, Blek le Rat, and Blu. In contrast to the past in which street art as well as graffiti was localized to a particular scene such as New York or London, street art today has the world as its scene as represented by the variety of street artists from all over the world creating street art in a wealth of locations across the globe.
This work does not mean to criticize street artists who have made a move from the street to the gallery. Nor is it this work’s intention to suggest that the phenomenon of street art in its original, illegal and quintessentially rebellious form is dead. Rather than provide a criticism or imply an extinction, this work simply aims to examine the phenomenon of street art and graffiti’s entrance into galleries as a valid art. In doing so not only aura and authenticity can be examined, but also the function of street art as a commodity and the extent to which its existence as such relates to spectacle. Likewise the commoditization of street art and its function within spectacle can be related to a condition of post-modernity. Taken together all of these elements are illustrative of contemporary society and provide a picture of its values and components.

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