“Parallels of Art and Life”: The Influence of Photography on New Brutalism Aesthetic
Keywords:
New Brutalism; Independent Group; Rayner Banham; Nigel Henderson; art of photography.Abstract
The article is about the influence of photography on the aesthetics of New Brutalism based on the material of the first exhibition of the “Independent Group” – “Parallels of Life and Art” (1953). The author analyzed the conceptual foundations of the exhibition – the idea of an “imaginary museum” by André Malraux and “new vision” by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Photography turns out to be a key medium for these texts, as well as for the essential category of New Brutalism – “As found”. Referring to photography, the artists of the “Independent Group” tried to reveal “the reality that is hidden behind the exterior”. Photography for post-war art has become an area of criticism of anthropocentrism and reflection on ideology and culture compromised by the Second World War. The arrival of photography for post-war art meant “the power of nature to portray itself independently”, outside the “human gaze”. Various forms of photographic fixation used in the exhibition tried to reveal the interrelationships between the “structures” and “surfaces” of the objects being photographed, which cannot be revealed by means of human “ordinary vision”. “Photographic”, as André Malraux noted, made it possible to unite these objects, finding in them “Parallels of life and art”. Summarizing the critical notes of contemporaries about the exhibition, as well as referring to the understanding of the method of New Brutalism by H. Foster, the author concluded that the “photographic” has become one of the main metaphors of New Brutalism.
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