Anti-Art > ArtXAll: Pablo Echaurren’s Painting and Culture Industry 1989–1995

The contribution concentrates on Pablo Echaurren’s production of the late 1980s–early 1990s, a phase in which the artist deals less with openly political issues than with the media potential of culture industry to circulate anti-establishment narratives. In particular, the essay focuses on: a series of paintings based on cartoonish characters, skulls, pictograms and abstract marks; a series of prototypes for interior design projects, including a collaboration with Studio Alchimia; works made on commission in the commercial sphere for either brands (e.g. Swatch) or media outlets (e.g. TV themes and animations); and the visual identity for youth-related initiatives (e.g. Arezzo wave), social movements (e.g. posters, pins, and graphics for the environmental movements) and political actions (e.g. the Metroposter collaboration with Renato Curcio for Frigidaire magazine). Particular attention will be dedicated to the paintings, a case in point being Wart (1989), to be discussed as systems for the reconfiguration of signs and symbols borrowed from art history, mythology, and consumerist culture, with references to postmodern pastiche, figuration libre, political muralism, graffiti art and alternative comics. On one side, they are the result of a gestural, expressionistic impetus, as in the attempt to take distance from the collectivist endeavors of the previous decade and in line with the Neo-Expressionist style that dominates the art market. On the other side, the canvas becomes an area of conflict, between the evil beasts of humanity (with references to Medieval monsters and the grotesque tradition) and the instructional agenda of the information age, notably interface elements of computers and other ubiquitous symbols reproduced through stencils. Echaurren’s approach in this timeframe resonates with Keith Haring’s, considering the popular appeal of his cartoonish imagery and his ability to switch from handmade to “industrial” production. What the two have in common is also the manufacturing of a universally understandable visual language, emblematic of that W.J.T. Mitchell has called “pictorial turn”. Moreover, Echaurren’s take on culture industry is indicative of a change of the role of the artist into a communicator, and of the professionalization of his practice into what Germano Celant has called an “artmaker”, in line with the entrepreneurial spirit of the 1980s. Ultimately, the essay explores the viral dimension of this production and the shift from a politically-minded genre of anti-art, which the artist is mostly known for, to a democratizing and expanded model of art for all, both rooted in the historical avant-gardes.