The target

About this book

"The Target is a two-part interarts study of Jasper Johns and Alain Robbe-Grillet. Stoltzfus's translation of Robbe-Grillet's introduction in the catalogue to Johns's 1978 Pompidou show in Paris is followed by an essay comparing the works of the American Pop artist and the French new novelist and cinematographer. Fifty-eight illustrations (eight in color) from the show accompany the translation because theses art works generated Robbe-Grillet's text, also entitled "The Target."" "Stoltzfus's essay discusses Johns's art and Robbe-Grillet's metafiction in a postmodern context. Both men subvert cultural stereotypes and realism in art. Their works are self-reflexive and they call attention to themselves and to the language of art. Autopoiesis, that is, the internal recursive loops of the system - the artwork - is one of the many features that they share. In addressing these features the essay deals with chaos theory, strange attractors, psychoanalysis, play theory, the role of the observer(s), and the social function of art." "An appendix to the book describes the rings of Johns's Target and their relationship to the nine objects and nine numbers that Robbe-Grillet assigns to them."--Jacket.