Buigues, Ana. fragment of "With Reference to the Writings of At Least Three Critics," unpublished source. 1998. --
Jeff Wall re-stages some of the icons of the last third of the XIX century painting as social commentary establishing a parallelism with class struggle and social preoccupations of that time and the ones we are experiencing now, erecting himself in a "Baudelairian" _flâneur_. The case of Jeff Wall presents some complexity. While he resorts to art icons from the past, he also considers theory and social art history and criticism which has been written about some of the painting he emulates [in his photographs]. For example in _Diatribe_, 1985 he illustrates the concept of "terrain vague," which art historian T. J. Clark defined when analyzing the social reality of the outskirts of Paris, after the Haussmannization, which for example Van Gogh illustrated in some of his paintings [footnote 34]. Wall combines effects from mass media, photo-documentaries, theater, cinema, advertisement, regarding technical aspects of the construction of his photographs and transparencies. His arrangements are strictly meticulous, revealing that those events only would happen for the camera. The format of the display of his works presents some ludic simulation of what he is displaying, since his back lit transparencies in display cases resemble street advertising devices [footnote 35]. The subjects he presents usually convey social commentary, regarding the interaction of social (and racial) mix, labour conditions, or socially displaced individuals like Courbet, Manet and the Post-Impressionists decided to portray. -- Buigues, Ana. fragment of "With Reference to the Writings of At Least Three Critics," unpublished source. 1998.
