It is true that objects classed as popular imagery is usually ephemeral, meaning it is short lived. But while that is true of individual images, it is not true of their archetypes. For example, the American cowboy is an archetype that is reflected in countless specific images and even it has antecedents stretching back into antiquity. In modernism, popular images more often than not the source imagery, regardless of the "high art" contexts containing it. These archetypes seep into memory to form something like shadow images that structure specific objects in mass culture. For example, few Americans have ever seen Norman Rockwell's many illustrations but almost anyone can describe his sort of image and content based on other descriptions and their "shadows" so ubiquitous in American culture. So too with the "Indian" image.
Here's another I just came across the other day. It was a first hand account of pioneers heading west in covered wagons in the years after the Civil War. Unlike the archetypical images of wagon trains bravely andsnaking across the empty plains, many folks did indeed trudge with wagons, but they also put them on trains when they could, stayed in nice hotels when they could, and had to share the crowded westward trails with as many others heading back east as went west. Thus the long-lasting archetype and the constant flow of ephemeral imagery it generates, is rarely a reflection of real life. The Norman Rockwell image is unreal. The Indian image is unreal. The Pioneer adventure is unreal. But they all appear over and over in countless specific objects, becoming for many, if not most, the images of the real. The popular image is like the carefully bred ephemeral flower that blooms and dies, blooms and dies, over and over. Each bloom is different yet each springs from the same root. The role of "popular" imagery in art is a very fascinating topic. It is not at all limited to the "low art" distinction but in fact may underlie most art of all eras, everywhere. WC --- On Tue, 11/4/08, Chris Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Chris Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: The Long Life of popular art? > To: [email protected] > Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 9:38 AM > What would be some examples of such longevity ? > > *Popular fiction from the 19th C. -- but anything earlier > than 1800 ? (the > problem being -- literacy itself was not a popular > activity) > There are three classics of Chinese popular fiction that > go back about 800 > years -- but again -- you could almost say that anyone who > could read was from > a special class. > > *Popular music ? Is any popular music written before 1800 > still played -- > other than hymns ? > > *Popular visual art? Perhaps those small terracotta > figures from ancient, > western Mexico would qualify -- they seem to be as popular > today as when they > were made -- but anything else ? > > Of course -- this is a tough question. How can we measure > the popularity of > something made in earlier centuries -- and how can we > measure it now? I'm > saying that those Mexican figures are popular in our time > because some people > pay high prices for them and they get shown in many art > museums -- but still > that audience is minuscule compared to the audience for > Britney Spears or > Madonna. > > > _____________________________________________________________ > Find precision scales that can weigh anything. Click now! > http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2211/fc/Ioyw6ijlkQJKZ1LWCrDLFIOOZuFVzN > DSBN23h5QS21I4Y5cZpDq6OY/?count=1234567890
