The Return of the Real: The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century

October Books

by Hal Foster

In The Return of the Real Hal Foster discusses the development of art and theory since 1960, and reorders the relation between prewar and postwar avant-gardes. Opposed to the assumption that contemporary art is somehow belated, he argues that the avant-garde returns to us from the future, repositioned by innovative practice in the present. And he poses this retroactive model of art and theory against the reactionary undoing of progressive culture that is pervasive today.

After the models of art-as-text in the 1970s and art-as-simulacrum in the 1980s; Foster suggests that we are now witness to a return to the real—to art and theory grounded in the materiality of actual bodies and social If The Return of the Real begins with a new narrative of the historical avant-garde; it concludes with an original reading of this contemporary situation—and what it portends for future practices of art and theory, culture and politics.

Genres: Art, Theory, Nonfiction, Art History, Criticism, Philosophy, Academia

376 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 1996

About the author

Hal Foster is a Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University specializing in 20th century art.

Note: for the comic book artist, see Harold "Hal" Foster.

Reviews

[Àngels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goes through art from the 60's to the 90's with in-depth philosophical and critical histories surrounding the practices. Posits minimalism as the point of departure of many future art forms and goes through the critical texts which formulated the role of the theorist and artist.

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

just like in the book: "we can make value judgments that, in Nitzschean terms, are not only reactive but active, or in non-Nietzschean terms, not only distinctive but useful.

this book is good, especially for those who wish to see the extreme possibilities lying between the two extreme points of art, if not points that are very sketchily drawn: art's sake and man's sake. this book is good because it reveals that the extreme possibilities lying between the two extremes are always more productive and vibrant and sexy and interesting and charming and refreshing.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating and extremely readable. He admittedly presents his theory of the real following the trajectory with minimalism as its root, but does not exclude other or previous movements as sources. I highly reccommend this to anyone looking for a contemporary reading of theory.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapter on Minimalism. Very good.

[Marta D'Agord · Rating 5 out of 5]

O autor analisa a relação entre três grandes períodos da arte de vanguarda: 1930, 1960 e 1980, sempre incluindo uma leitura política do que estava em questão em cada um desses movimentos, seja o cubismo, o minimalismo, pop arte. Com o conceito de paralaxe, o autor sabe que suas elaborações sobre o passado dependem de sua posição no presente (1995), e que essa posição no presente é definida por meio de tais elaborações sobre o passado. Ainda nessa circularidade temporal, Foster convoca o modelo freudiano do só-depois (nachträglich), e acaba também por se referir, mesmo que en passant, à concepção borgiana de precursores. Ambas, paralaxe e nachtraglich, indicam algo que escapa da percepção, da consciência, do presente. Para analisar a repetição na obra de Warhol o autor recorre ao modelo teórico lacaniano do traumático como encontro faltoso com o Real. Pois as repetições em Warhol não são restauradoras de sentido. Na condição de faltoso, o real não pode ser representado, só pode ser repetido. A repetição, antes, serve para proteger do real. Freud, Lacan, Borges como autores de modelos teóricos do Real. Da seleção de Foster há uma multiplicidade de obras e artistas desse curto período de 60 anos. Se o livro fosse editado mais recentemente, viria acompanhado de links para as obras.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This text's main art-historical contention—that late 20th-century art's fixation on abject matter and contingent site-specificity inaugurates the renewal of an avant-garde subjectivity—comes across as a rather untimely meditation in our post-Internet age, as the millennium shift in cultural production is now retrospectively marked by the profusion of immaterial, globalized (which is to say, siteless) media artifacts, to which this book's exemplary artists may now be read as the minor obverse and not status quo. However, this fate only serves to further Foster's less tangible cultural-theoretical thesis (derived in part from Walter Benjamin): that history only arrives through its deferred recovery.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this about 15 years ago, so too long ago to write a proper review. Foster does raise some important points to ponder when considering contemporary art, so a good read for students of art and art history/criticism.

[Toti Posse Emiliani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artist as an etnographer is an important essay on contemporary art and the representations of the so called "other".

[Emannuel K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hal Foster faz um panorama da crítica artística desde as vanguardas até a década de 90 de forma magistral. Ele nos apresenta as questões fundamentais para pensar a arte nesse período e o faz de forma que deixa evidentes suas filiações ideológicas (Walter Benjamin é presença constante no pensamento dele em relação a quase tudo), mas sem sacrificar uma amplitude de temas, visões e obras observadas. Não chego nem perto de concordar com ele sobre tudo, sou particularmente relutante com a visão dele sobre a arte minimalista, que me parece ser particularmente inflada em importância na sua teoria, incorrendo num erro similar àquele que Foster aponta em Peter Burger e sua visão das vanguardas. Ainda assim, me parece importante entrar em contato com essas ideias, e a forma que Foster une teoria e historicização da arte é muito boa. Em alguns momentos, no entanto, a linguagem fica demasiado técnica, podendo eludir a compreensão. A tradução, a meu ver, também tem parte nesse problema. Esse, no entanto, me parece ser o único defeito real do livro. Assim que acabei me vi já cogitando uma releitura, seja para melhor compreender as partes mais complexas ou para ter uma visão mais completa do percurso crítico. No entanto, acredito que vou antes ler o livro mais recente do autor, que, segundo ele mesmo, é uma atualização desse para os desenrolares contemporâneos da arte. E, imagino, também da crítica, já que as duas coisas são tão interligadas na argumentação de Foster.

[E. C. Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inasmuch as this takes the fine arts (as opposed to literature) as its subject matter, I was left somewhat at sea with respect to following the trajectory of the movements and artists under discussion here. That said, in The Return of the Real Foster performs a rigorous examination of avant-garde art from the sixties to the nineties (when this was published) drawing from myriad theory texts from philosophies as disparate as poststructuralism to psychoanalysis to Marxism. Despite this rigor and these citations, the unity of his argument(s) was not, by me, felt very strongly (this is where my lack of facility with these art forms/movements may come in). The thrust seems to be that since the avant-garde is never recognized as such in the present (as in, the recognition does not occur when the work is being produced) but only in the future, in order to recognize avant-garde work as such in the present our perspective has to come from the future, meaning that in the present we need to innovate new ways of thinking about art. Or something like that. There’s a lot of discussion her about Duchamp and Warhol and art history and the evolution of art movements, which alone is fine, but that I think distracts from, rather than enhances or illustrates, Foster’s motivating claims. If contemporary fine art is your thing, then this is certainly thoroughly versed in the discourse.

[R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contradicciones y visiones enfundadas en fuentes desconocidas para un europeo de 18 años de edad. Quizás el problema es mío, seguramente. Ensayo pesado aunque no aburrido. Buen archivo fotográfico. No lo terminé, volveré a él si algún día gozo de referentes americanos en el ensayístico artístico.

[ayushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

moved and changed…by a book alone

[Weronika · Rating 1 out of 5]

powiedziałem co wiedziałem i w sumie wszystko po innych powtórzyłem

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this more stars because i think hal foster is a good writer. but i can't really tell what writing like this is trying to do nor why a subtle manifesto is disguising itself as 'Theory' with a capital t. its anyways interesting to see how foster lived a long life woke up to find the mythical avate garde at his doorstep.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how many stars to give this book. I felt like a spectacular failure when attempting to read it. I guess it should get 5 stars for defeating me. Hal Foster = 5 Stars, Anna = 0 Stars.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good ol Hal Foster.

[S. Efraim Lindbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Used this in my dissertation, very helpful perspectives and angles on f.ex. Benjamin