Analyzing two critiques of one piece of art - Essay Example

Here, the main focus of the author’s argument is on the sensuality principle and especially that of the female persona in influencing selling strategies and in attracting, influencing and sustaining interactions at public gatherings1. In the second article on Manets Bar at the Folies-Bergèrese is titled “Manets Un bar aux Folies-Bergere as an Allegory of Nostalgia.”As the title suggests the interpretation and critic on the same piece of painting is centered on the nostalgic memories it evokes.

The author seems to be keen to part from the prevailing analysis of the painting which “canonized” it based –ironically and heavily-on its unrealistic visual contradictions and ambiguities as opposed to the more obvious clarity of its content2. The author therefore attempts to embrace the complete scene of the Folies-Bergèrese as set of multiple views and states of mind. The focus and therefore the purpose is to resolve the most controversial and ambiguous elements of the painting therein provide a narrative evaluation that previous art critics, scholars and enthusiasts alike have failed to.

He achieves this by first beginning with a critique of evaluations by other authors on Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergèrese(such as those of Hans Jantzen) and thereby examining the source and direction of the painter’s inspiration in the development of the piece. The author prevails in asserting that the value of making such grandeur pieces was not just for sale at exhibitions but in form of the industrial goods displayed in them similar to the advertising of departmental stores and commercial enterprises through them.

The former, identifies the author, diminishes the perception of art within the public domain to a level similar to that of shelved domestic goods3. This close association between commercial entities and large-certainly influential-artwork of the time is replicated in other stores and as such