Recognition and Reportage

Abstract

In this text, Maurizio Calvesi, a leading interpreter in the 1960s of contemporary American Pop art for the Italian audience, challenges the common European reading of Pop art as a negative critique of US capitalist society. He argues that Pop art does not represent a “true” reality, but rather mimics a new process of image production. For this reason, he refers particularly to transactional psychology in order to explain the works of Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein, and proposes a positive alternative to the usual focus on the consumerist iconography of Pop art.

Keywords:

• American art
• Pop art
• Neo-Dada
• Nouveau Réalisme
• image production
• transactional psychology
• Lawrence Alloway
• Jasper Johns
• Jim Dine
• Robert Rauschenberg
• Pop art

Notes

1 Translator’s note: In Alloway’s 1963 article, Six Painters and the Object, he writes: “‘Neo Dada’: The term over-emphasizes the connections with Dada that do exist, but the comparison is usually vitiated by inadequate definitions of what the original Europeans were in fact doing.”

2 Translator’s note: ‘bruciarsi in immagini al lampo di magnesio’ hints both at the speed with which art movements can fade (in a flash) as well as referencing contemporary photography techniques with the mention of magnesium bulbs. Hence the attempt to incorporate both literal and figurative meanings in English with a playful use of hyphens.

3 Translator’s note: ‘choc’ has been left in the original French because its onomatopoeic nature recalls the English equivalent (‘shock’) whilst simultaeously underlining the American/European dichotomy highlighted throughout the original text.

4 Translator’s note: The emphatic use of the term ‘apparecchiatura’ (highlighted by double quotation marks) evokes notions of preparation and a set-up, leading to the choice of “layout” in this translation, ideal for its associations with scenography.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maurizio Calvesi

Translated from Italian by Madeline Robinson Originally published as “Ricognizione e reportage,” in Collage 1 (1963): 65–75, excerpts.