The “Misunderstood Artist”: Artistic Explorations of a not yet Obsolete Trope

As a product of modernity, the figure of the “misunderstood artist” arguably belongs to the past. The utopian impulse behind its appearance, namely the longing for an unattainable, universal subject of aesthetic address, was dismantled by poststructuralist thought. The irresponsive “vanguard” artist, knowingly working in the absence of an addressee, came to stand for a postmodern ethos inimical to “the jeremiads of the misunderstood artist” (Lyotard, 1979). At the turn of the twenty-first century, with the proliferation of participatory practices geared to tangible –real, rather than ideal– communities, the figure had been finally laid to rest. 

Contrary to mainstream art historical narratives, this session seeks to explore the ways in which the figure of the “misunderstood artist” has remained an enduring theme of artistic production and of art historiography from the nineteenth century to the present. It calls for papers that examine how artistic engagements with this trope may challenge dominant accounts of the evolving relation between art, its institutions, and the public. How have artists parodically enacted their position as “misunderstood” to question the authority of art criticism, foreground the alienating conditions of their time, or amplify the gap between art and life? How have they conceptually deployed this figure or returned to their underrated predecessors to meditate on art’s social efficacy, complicate the reception of their work, or address the racial and gendered dimensions of artistic identity? And how can we rethink the pertinence of this trope from a contemporary perspective?

Session Convenor:

Anna-Maria Kanta, University of Ioannina

Speakers:

Anna-Maria Kanta, University of Ioannina

The Artist’s “Ivory Tower”: Anna Oppermann’s conceits of communication

From the late 1960s up until 1988, Anna Oppermann (1940-1993) produced ensembles. Assembled over long periods of time and composed of plants and found material, newspaper clippings and drawings, handwritten quotations and photographs, these pieces were intended, in the words of the artist, as an “offer of communication” to her audience. Indeed, notwithstanding the diversity of topics and concerns with which the artist grappled during her lifetime, Oppermann’s ensembles amount to a coherent body of work that draws the viewer’s attention to a highly self-reflexive and self-analytical mode of production and to the process of meaning-making. Retrospectively, they may also be understood as registering the receptive experience of art, precisely at the moment when pronouncements about the end of art proliferated.

In surveying the complex institutional, discursive and affective structures mediating the relation between artists and the public, Oppermann performed a careful balancing act. Focusing on a series of ensembles that the artist began producing in West Germany in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I will argue that Oppermann’s pronounced investment in art’s communicability needs to be explored in tandem with her employment of specific conceits and recurring motifs that conjured up the figure of the estranged and withdrawn artist or even alluded to the reproachful reception of her work. Of those the symbol of the “ivory tower”, to which Oppermann turned for its rich philosophical, spatial and cultural connotations, will be rethought of here as a vehicle for articulating the tensed relation between customary comprehension and aesthetic expression.  

Anni Reponen, Lund University

From Odd Loner to Lesbian Heroine – The Narratives of Rediscovery in the Case of Hilma af Klint

This paper examines the relationship between emotions raised in the artwork and attributions associated with the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944). The paintings of af Klint gained public awareness approximately forty years after her death. This makes her a perfect candidate to inspect the art historiographical impact of her built identity. Now, I ask, what do these images of the misunderstood artist, transformed over the decades from the “odd loner” to the “artist of our time”, have to do with the emotional responses of the art viewers?

In my previous research, I documented a range of intense emotional responses, including fainting, vomiting, and uncontrollable crying, experienced by individuals in the presence of Hilma af Klint’s works. What do concepts of “outsider” or “misunderstood” have to do with this emotional reaction? I argue these reactions can be partially explained by the exhilaration of an adventurous expedition, which many narratives of “rediscovery” attempt to replicate in the promotion of af Klint’s gospel to an ever-wider audience, intermixed with other identities of her as an esoteric, queer and artist at the border of abstraction.

In my analysis, I employ the theoretical framework of Hartmut Rosa and his notion of resonance, which posits art and spirituality as sources of meaning and connection, in contrast to the alienation and separation brought about by the acceleration of life in modernity. Rosa’s concept is also situated concerning the concept of aura in Walter Benjamin, which discusses how we seek an emotional experience of the image of an artist.

Sally Kawamura, University of York

Restoring the Regional: Miyori Hayashi and Experimental Art in Okayama

Miyori Hayashi (1938-2000) was a significant experimental artist from the Okayama region of Western Japan.  Her practice included painting, installation, performance, mail art and more.  She participated in performances and collaborated with artists who have become well-known figures in the Japanese mid-twentieth century avant-garde as well as internationally. Some were connected with the art network, Fluxus.

Despite this, Hayashi is barely known in the histories of contemporary art.  This could partly be due to the fact that she was located for much of her working life in her home prefecture of Okayama, placing her away from the major centres of art where she may have attracted more attention from critics.

Several of her largest performances and events took place in the Okayama area, often involving the landscape itself. Some of these, despite their scale, went rather unreported, causing Hayashi to occupy the position of a ‘misunderstood’ artist, perhaps due to her chosen geographical location.  However, her choice to continue working for most of her career at a remove from Tokyo could challenge the marginalisation of artists working regionally. 

I will articulate reasons for the absence of Hayashi’s art in current histories and, following Reiko Kokatsu et al. in Miyori Project, (Choeisha, 2011),I will argue for the significance of the restoration of knowledge of her practice.  I will ask how knowledge of and participation in her events and art affected her contemporaries, regionally in Okayama, nationally and internationally.  The influence she took from Okayama’s environment as well as the art scenes and individuals she connected with will also be explored. I will argue that she used her geographically marginalised or ‘misunderstood’ status to create works and communities that would not have been possible had she been located elsewhere. 

Guido Balzani, Iuav University of Venice

Are Artists Misunderstood, or Do We Simply Not Know How to Ask?

Throughout history, critics sought to unravel the mystery surrounding artists, often constructing narratives and tropes to explain their unique roles. In their seminal work, Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist (1934), Kurz and Kris attempted to deconstruct this complexity, revealing that our understanding of classical artists –from the Medieval to the Renaissance period– is filtered through stereotypes applied by art historians, which serve as matrices for different lives rather than authentic representations. The 20th century brought a significant shift in artists’ self-presentation as they began to speak directly about their lives and work. However, despite the increasing number of artist interviews available on museum websites and in magazines, a genuine connection with artists remains elusive. This disconnection may not stem from the artists themselves, but rather from the nature of the questions we pose to them.

Drawing from the history of artists’ interviews, this paper examines selected contemporary formats of conversations with artists to gain deeper insights into their perspectives and experiences. The analysis extends to contemporary museum projects like The Portraits of Artists (1992-2001) from Vienna’s museum in progress (mip). This work of art, conceived by the artist Peter Kogler, aimed to portray various artists through the medium of video interviews. The particular status of Kogler’s idea provides a new framework to rethink the dynamics of conversations with artists and challenges static perceptions of their role and meaning. If artists evolve over time, our first task may be to comprehend today’s society’s expectations and ways of enquiring before attempting to enter the mystery surrounding their identities.