Shock of the News

Résumé du livre

In 1909 F. T. Marinetti's futurist manifesto appeared on the front page of Le Figaro, and less than four years later Pablo Picasso incorporated a fragment of real newspaper into a work of art. Shock of the News, which takes it title from Robert Hughes' popular BBC television series. The Shock of the New (1980) examines the many manifestations of the "newspaper phenomenon" from 1909 to 2009, a century during which major artists engaged in a vibrant and multifaceted relationship with the printed news by co-opting, mimicking, defusing, memorializing, and rewriting newspapers. The exhibition presents works by more than 60 European and American artists, including Marinetti, Picasso, Georges Braque, Man Ray, Hannah Höch, John Heartfield, Kurt Schwitters, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Dieter Roth, Laurie Anderson, Sarah Charlesworth, Adrian Piper, and Robert Gober. Today, as the fate fo the printed newspaper hangs in the balance, Shock of the News reminds us of the newspaper's historical legacy, its cultural importance, and its continuing artisitic role.