Vision Hygiene 1960

Curator: Oh, wow! That looks like what’s left behind after a wild party. Confetti, stray eyelashes… chaos. I kind of dig it. Editor: I'm struck by the layers here in "Vision Hygiene", a mixed media collage by Martial Raysse created in 1960. There is so much depth both literally and figuratively in this work that marries Post-Impressionism with collage techniques. Curator: "Vision Hygiene," huh? Ironic. Feels more like vision grunge, and yet the orange really pops. Like a neon sign in the aftermath. What's he getting at? A critique of... tidy aesthetics? Editor: Raysse came to prominence at a time when art institutions and the public's perception were, in his eyes, undergoing rapid change. Collage was gaining recognition, and the definition of beauty itself was broadening. Works like this played with the viewer's expectation, as it asks how art can represent this changing modern vision, the idea that cleaning something is another means of modifying it. Curator: I'm catching glimpses of nature, too. Are those rubbed impressions of leaves or twigs among the shapes? It makes me think of our increasingly strained relationship with the natural world, overshadowed by these loud, vibrant plastics and inks. Editor: Indeed. The frottage, or rubbing technique, is very subtly included within a space normally found through industrial materials. The artist uses a playful technique of allowing his viewers to engage in active imagination as if we were also working toward refining some other world through art, institutions and other forces of our time. This notion would set the stage for artists that would become even more radically playful with viewers within the coming decades. Curator: So, less a visual cleanse and more of a muddying of the waters... art's version of productive discomfort, stirring up thought? It really is amazing to watch all the works leading up to later, modern artists. I am going to keep an eye out for Martial's Raysse now! Editor: It certainly gives you something to chew on, doesn't it? Martial Raysse creates so much potentiality, and asks us, as the viewer, to continue pushing what "vision" truly means! I'll need to contemplate further, and appreciate all the beauty amongst the grit here.