4. Appreciation scales of contemporary art

One day in February, after visiting the Jeff Koons exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris, I was sitting in a small creperie nearby and looked out the window. “Art is everywhere! », I suddenly exclaimed while observing the Stravinsky fountain and its eccentric sculptures, the Saint-Merri Church known for its contemporary art exhibitions, and finally this gigantic graffiti Chuuuttt! Ssshhh! made by Jean-François Perroy in 2011. My gaze focused on the dimension of its outline, the dark lines merged with the public lighting and the expression of the unknown face projected on the wall. At that moment, I wondered what can be common between this graffiti, the Firebird by Niki de Saint Phalle and Aqualung by Jeff Koons that I recently saw at the Center Pompidou. Can we classify such different works of contemporary art, and if so, on the basis of what criteria of judgment of taste?

To answer on this question, we can enter into the language game of each work. First, we can try to determine the specifications of a work set by individuals or groups in its particular language set. These are aesthetic and non-aesthetic traits that the viewer discerns and values ​​in the same language game. Then, we can identify the values ​​shared by the different language sets, and from these criteria compose evaluation scales for the various works. The more we discern the values ​​of a work in its own language game, the more chance we have in finding the family resemblance in another evaluation game. By grouping the works in the evaluation scales we can also speak of the resemblance of aesthetic experiences since the critics will pass judgment on the same qualities of a work of art. In this case, the rationalization of the judgment of taste will consist in subjecting it to criteria shared by other critics in the same evaluation scale.

The values of graffiti

« Graffiti should not be put where people tell you to put it. What is beautiful in graffiti is that it is spontaneous and unpredictable! » (1)

Graffiti is a painting made on walls or objects located in the public space. It joins urban art, or “street art”, a contemporary artistic movement that encompasses various techniques such as stencil, mosaic, stickers, yarn bombing, installations and others. We see that graffiti shakes the tradition of artistic creation in a private place, since it is done in a public space. In this respect, graffiti combines not only the different disciplines, subjects, levels of production, motivations, but also the places of creation or the supports. Each of these factors can remove or degrade the value of graffiti in its language game. I will examine several factors that impact an artistic work and make distinctions allowing the viewer’s choices.
First, we can categorize graffiti by the risk the artist takes in producing it. It should be noted that the legal status of graffiti can vary greatly depending on the country and the city. Graffiti made, for example, in France without the authorization of the owner of the medium is considered as act of vandalism. This artistic movement has been repressed and taken over by the public authorities and the brands that organize the events or the live graffiti exhibitions. From a purist point of view of the graffiti artist, a work acquires an artistic value thanks to the challenge linked to the forbidden (2). In other words, the graffiti artist who paints at the risk of being punished by the law gains much more prestige than the street-art artist who paints with the consent of the communities. Often made in a context of political tension, graffiti has developed during revolutions, wars, cultural changes. Repression and risk-taking are part of the art movement. The real function of graffiti is therefore not to be pleasant or to be applauded. It transmits the message to pay attention to the particular problem and, in this, revolt and irreverence are the basis of artistic creation. In this case, we have to detach ourselves from the finished product to see the approach, the way to exercise it, the legend that hides behind the signature. It follows that the value of graffiti is not only in a simple projection of paint on a wall, but also in its unpredictability and the spontaneous adventure behind the creation. One of the examples will be the approach of the British artist Banksy, a mythical character of the graffiti scene, who loves to provoke and spontaneously disrupt societies through his works. Recently, in the spirit of the graffiti, he illegally entered Gaza to draw media attention to the situation in Palestine (3). He produces his subversive works in the purest secrecy, and this mystery around his artistic adventure always tickles the curiosity of his admirers. Another graffiti legend is Robbo King (4) who tagged every train in Britain for the 1980s. Escaping police pursuit, he entered trains early in the morning and tagged the carriages in quirky graffiti.
Secondly, we can appreciate the graffiti from an idea that the artist wishes to transmit to us. It is a statement or a concept that explains a passionate act of the graffiti artist. In his latest work in Gaza, Banksy illustrates a kitten on a wall, with a ball on its paws. The idea is simple:

A resident approached me and asked me: “But what does that mean?” I explained to him that I wanted to publish photos on my site, in order to draw attention to the destruction committed in Gaza – and that on the internet, people only look at photos of cats (5).

We can look at this concept from several angles. Banksy takes us through the post-war reality of Gaza by producing a playful cat that everyone must love. On the one hand, this cat represents human indifference to conflicts between the powerful and the weak. What interests us in life is only the beautiful and funny lolcat like the ones we can see on the internet. We love all things pretty and cute, while we ignore all negative and unpleasant aspects of our life.

Banksy tells us that we must not remain neutral, because we will not save the world without compassion. The kitten seems to be sad since he lacks joy in his life. He represents the children of Gaza who never leave their ruined village. A reclusive area is blocked on all sides by huge walls and a fleet of warships. On the other hand, a kitten gives up hope that one day the destroyed buildings will be rebuilt and the children will regain their joy of living.
Faithfulness in resemblance can also be valued in graffiti. Returning to our example of Banksy’s cat, we highlight in this image a magnificent lolcat which performs well its function of attracting the gaze to the ruins of Gaza. Adorned with a pink bow, a kitten seems to be animated, even on a ruined house. Also, Banksy skillfully plays with an external object that looks like a ball and complements the image of the cat. Similarly, we will appreciate the grief of Niobe, well illustrated by Banksy in his other realization on the cemented ruins of Gaza. In the daughter of Tantalus, Niobe mourns the death of her children killed by Apollo and Artemis. Faced with Niobe’s pain, Zeus takes pity and turns her into rock. In this sense, the good imitated is also realized thanks to the choice of the destroyed wall which looks like a large stone in the middle of the ruins. Banksy’s characters, drawn beforehand in stencils, are quite realistic and well combined with items out of context, sometimes practically anachronistic.

Art in public space also brings into debate the question of the intervention of a work in common places. The aesthetic that emanates from graffiti cannot be separated from the city as a theme or setting. In this regard, graffiti can create space or, on the contrary, deteriorate it on the “urban fabric” (6). By judging the tag, the critic wants to find the relationship between the graffiti and the public space to ensure the legitimacy of the artistic action. Is the space with the drawn wall better perceived than the public space in its original form? Does the graffiti transform the space into a new form of interaction and exchange, or does it emerge as an isolated and strange object? These are the possible questions that we can ask in the context of the aesthetic quality that derives from the union of graffiti with the public space.
Finally, the technique used by the graffiti artist occupies an important place. We can mark, for example, the debates between those who value the usual spray can and those who prefer the use of stencils (7). This amounts to contrasting Banksy’s stencils and Robbo’s spray cans. Banksy admirers criticize Robbo’s art for lack of message and outdated style, while Robbo admirers consider Banksy’s technique to be naïve and simple. For older generation graffiti artists, stenciled graffiti only means lack of talent, since even a child can make a tag from a layer. Banksy is also criticized for copying the style of Blek le Rat, a French stencil graffiti artist who started drawing in 1981 (8). Despite this criticism, we can recognize that the production of the stencil also requires skill, including the choice of the pattern to be reproduced, the choice of material, the choice of the support, the choice of the type of color, the cutting and the application itself. In this regard, the well-executed stencil includes an aesthetic quality.

The values of New Realism

« The Nice school wants to teach us the beauty of everyday life. Make the consumer an art producer. Once a being is integrated into this vision, he is very rich, forever. These artists want to appropriate the world to give it to you. It is up to you to welcome them or reject them » (9).

The Stravinsky Fountain, or Automata Fountain, was created in 1983 by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle. Their sculptures refer to New Realism, an artistic movement founded by a group of French and Swiss artists in 1960 (10). It is an art of assembling and accumulating elements borrowed from everyday reality. The artists of this movement no longer use bronze or stone, but industrial materials. They can also take everyday objects to make them powerful symbols of consumption. Most New Realism artwork does not express feelings, but does present raw reality. By including waste in an artistic project, the New Realist testifies to the existence of an energetic principle of society. It is the source of social values that have passed outside the capitalist system, to the side of the unproductive. Metamatic no. 7 by Jean Tinguely, for example, illustrates the necessity and interest of the useless by transforming waste into a machine. This work functions as a social mirror of the past and has documentary value. As such, Tinguely’s automaton is invaluable, since it is strongly linked to the prior social use of objects or object fragments.

Dealers and critics share the conviction that the artistic value of a work of New Realism is not contained in the object or in the concrete element, but in the artistic intention to say what the artist wants to say. (11). They insist on the individual or collective approach which is not immediately perceptible. The individual approach means the presence of the particular subject in the artistic object. Here, the intention of new realism has been reduced to the personal idea that shares a social value. For example, each sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle expresses this particularity in its unique form with dazzling colors (12). Devoted to the figure of freedom and feminism, her “Nana” reveals the warmth and passion that transform inert matter into organic matter. In the works of poster artists (Hains, Rotella, Villeglé), on the contrary, the individual approach is minimized by the fixations of objects without a subject. In these lacerated posters, there is just general agreement on this value of sociological testimony for future generations. The paper torn by chance reflects what satisfied the needs of the time and presents itself as a universal relic.
New Realism works can also share the value of urban art if they are made in public places. It is about the integration of art into the architectural compositions of the city. For example, we can appreciate the sculptures of Niki de Saint Phalle in the Tarot Garden based on the criterion that makes a place more pleasant to live in or to visit (13). If these monumental sculptures fit well into these perspectives, they enhance the image of the district by making it dynamic and attractive. The creation of a unity between man, art and nature through the artistic project can also be nuanced if we take into account the different scales of space. Building the city through art consists in recreating a link between the inhabitants of a neighborhood and a public place. In this sense, the artist works on the articulation between the living and inanimate things.

Apart from the symbolic character, each of the works of the Garden of the Tarot has an interactive quality which manifests itself in the exploration of the “major arcana”. These sculptures are made as much to be climbed and touched as to be looked at. Indeed, inside the “Empress”, for example, hides a real apartment where Nicki de Saint Phalle lived for several years (14). A large living room, a bathroom and a small bedroom are part of a work that impresses with its exotic decor. It is not surprising that people use their sense of touch to interpret each surface in its own way and grasp how a work is constructed (15). One of the ways of penetrating the aesthetic system of the work consists in acting on it. Here, the spectator becomes an internal element of the work since his function as explorer is also planned by the artist.
When a viewer compares works of New Realism, he or she may be interested in how the technique is used in their production. It is about the effort of the artist and his participation in the artistic process beyond the artistic idea. The material, the uniqueness or the originality of the shape is also criticized. On the side of banality, we can classify the work of Arman which exposes household waste in a series of Bins (16). Similarly, the works of Dufrêne are characterized by the use of undersides of lacerated posters mounted on canvas. Among the new realists, however, we find artists who continue their work on a unique and singular production. On the side of originality, for example, Tinguely’s machines are partly built with recycled objects and animated with motors. In the same way, the production of Nanas by Niki de Saint Phalle is part of a more creative artistic process than that of poster artists or ready-made artists.

The values of pop art

“Pop art is popular, ephemeral, throwaway, cheap, mass-produced, witty, sexy, tricky, fascinating, and big-paying. »

Richard HAMILTON (17).

The art of Jeff Koons can be considered as the art of everyday objects and mundane images, namely pop art. Originating in England, pop art experienced its finest hours in the United States from the sixties. Pop art is often compared with New Realism since both appear at the same time and use visual elements from popular culture (18). Although New Realism is more affiliated with Dada than with pop art, the similarity of techniques and motifs in the two movements implies that they value the works in a similar way (19).
Pop art uses images produced by the consumer society: advertising, magazines, comics, television, etc. Ironically emphasizing the mundane and ordinary elements of the time, the movement is also defined by the artists’ use of mechanical means and reproduction techniques. In this regard, pop art calls into question the principle of uniqueness of the work, because pop artists reproduce their works by the dozens, sometimes even by the hundreds. Andy Warhol, for example, multiplies the images of popular culture by screen printing, a printing technique that uses stencils interposed between the ink and the support (20). This identification with reproduction devices refers to his interest in anonymous, banal, repeated art rather than original art. Warhol moves away from invention and creativity to show that art is not defined by language alone. He is convinced that everyone can create a work of art: the stylist, the boxer, the businessman, the president, the beggar. Leaving aside the meaning of the object, these images bear witness to reality without sublimating it. However, Warhol does not take into account the formal or ideal qualities of the images. It records them on the canvas like a camera on film.
In search of an answer to abstract painting, Roy Lichtenstein, another major figure in pop art, creates a series of images from comic strips. American comics from the 1940s-50s can be considered banal in terms of graphics and discourse since they are part of the collective and popular vocabulary of the time. By simplifying the image, Lichtenstein isolates a known subject in order to highlight the caricatural traits of the genre as can be seen in Look Mickey (21).

On the one hand, he declares his art as the anti-contemplative postulate and anti-pictorial quality. Like Warhol, he adheres little by little to the new industrial painting. On the other hand, Lichtenstein recreates his images with his own sensitivity, imposing a graphic treatment of his style. By emphasizing very strongly the contours of his characters with a thick line, he often uses intensified colors. He reframes the original, giving it its own existence. He allows a new discovery of the banal by its transposition and its magnificence. What matters according to Lichtenstein is therefore not the transformation of the image on the canvas, but the intention of the artist to unify the representation. As Lichtenstein said “Pop art looks at the world. It doesn’t look like the painting of something, it looks like the thing itself. (22). In other words, pop art does not transform the consumer society, but the formula. The merit of pop art therefore refers to the creation of an unprecedented aesthetic of mass culture through the changes made at the level of the form and conception of art.
If the question of the quality of a work of pop art does not arise, on what is the artistic or aesthetic value of the work based? According to Arthur Danto, the recognition of an art object, which has no intrinsic quality to deserve it, relies on the recognition of a work in a historical and social context (23). Pop art has truly innovated the production and distribution of a work of art. It promoted access to wider audiences through industrial manufacturing processes. Finally, it highlights what is closest to all, consumer and ordinary products through which everyone can recognize themselves. As such, Warhol points out that one can watch television and see Coca-Cola, knowing that the president is drinking Coca-Cola (24). We can also imagine that we are drinking Coke. We know that a Coke is still a Coke. All Cokes are the same. Even the beggar knows that he drinks the same Coke that the president drinks. We can therefore interpret the value of pop art as the subject or the motif of the art object that we can recognize in a quarter of a second and that touches us with this banal sublimation. Directly absorbable by all, the purpose of pop art is the part of our desires and our ordinary dreams. Its popular symbols mark the unconscious from childhood with the aim of desacralizing the work of art. Therefore, the exact nature of what we like in works of pop art is a force of joy, joy in nothingness.
If the artistic act of pop art no longer resides in the manufacture of the object but in its conception and the discourse that accompanies it, it seems that we should abandon the idea of valuing pop art from artistic thinking. Pop art is always characterized by the use of mechanical, cold and systematic means: screen printing, industrial painting technique, repetition, ready-made. Yet we can still favor the technical aspect of pop artists’ achievements. Despite the manufacturing processes, pop artists also use oil and acrylic paint, collage, sculpture. They can personally engage in the artistic process by conveying the same message of pop art. Compared to these traditional approaches, industrial processes will always be contested even if they are considered secondary in the language game. If the artist does not touch his work, does this work belong to him? When you multiply a work by a mechanical process, does the copy you produce always remain a work of art? These are questions that can influence our judgment on the works of pop art.

Ranking of artworks

By discerning artistic and aesthetic qualities in artistic language games, we see that the contemporary art system exists within each local realm of experience with its criteria of distinction. It is about the intersection of local values.

In graffiti, we value the risk or the unpredictability, the message, the well imitated, the integration with the public space and the technique. In New Realism, it can be the intention or the artistic idea, the technique or the virtuosity of execution. Finally, the qualities of pop art can correspond to design or pattern and artistic technique. If we gather all these criteria, we can mark the superposition of the values of three artistic movements. Pop art, graffiti and New Realism have in common the criteria of the judgment of taste: the concept and the technique. In addition, New Realism and graffiti intersect through the criterion of adaptation to place. From this family resemblance, I will therefore establish the hierarchies of value for three works of contemporary art that I chose at the beginning of my research.
Entitled Chuuuttt !!!, the giant stencil suggests mystery, serenity. The “hush! is not there to ask for silence, but rather to indicate that there is something to listen to. The artistic idea of Jef Aérosol consists in helping passers-by to listen to the pulsations, the rhythm, the melody of the city behind car engines or police sirens (25). I see those wide eyes and understand that gesture. It appeals to look around myself, around the magnificent place. Suddenly, I only listen to this great urban symphony through which my thoughts pass. So, I listen to my ideas. I listen to my inner voice. In this respect, there is a concordance between my aesthetic experience and the conceptual idea which obviously deserves the highest mark in this hierarchy of values.
Entitled the Firebird, a colorful sculpture refers to the musical work of the 20th century Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (26). Deployed in the vast basin, this spouting element has its individuality thanks in particular to the way it moves water. Water, as a source of life, makes visible the music that challenges the data of visual sensation. It is part of the artistic will to create a playful ballet in the image of Stravinsky. By creating the dazzling, lively, garish, multicolored firebird, Niki de Saint Phalle’s objective was to stick to the dynamism of the surroundings of the Center Pompidou. The roundness of the forms and the liveliness of the colors bring to the atmosphere poetry, cheerfulness, childhood. They seem light as balloons. In addition, the infinity of points of view of a work offers the viewer the fusion of art and life that refutes any fixed form. In my scale of conceptual appreciation, this work ranks second.
Jeff Koons’ scuba is part of an Equilibrium series presented in 1985 (27). Koons is interested in the substance of the American dream: the desire for social ascent. For him, the world of sport is considered one of the main means of elevation available to the underprivileged classes. The diving suit evokes air and breathing, but it is not intended to rescue. Reproduced identically in bronze, Aqualung is incredibly heavy. The perception of a supposedly light object is therefore upset by this paradoxical form. In this seemingly impossible configuration, Aqualung constitutes for the artist a parable of this state of balance that we would all seek.
Despite the fact that this piece is made of cast bronze, this concept does not excite me much. I want to put Koons’ diving suit in third place in my conceptual hierarchy.

When it comes to the technique used by artists, my judgment will focus on the relationship of the artist with his work at the time of creation. In the following scale of appreciation, the ability of the artist to demonstrate virtuosity of execution or not will be the qualities that I will appreciate the most. Niki de Saint Phalle’s firebird is an example of creative genius, as the artist said “You have to make paint bleed”. (28). Made of painted polyester, with a metal structure, the sculpture is “touched” by the artist from the very beginning of its creation. It is alive in the sense that it is transmitted directly from the artist to the spectator without intermediate means such as machines or automatic devices. Conversely, I will depreciate works produced by automatic processes or with minimal participation by the artist. Made with a stencil, Chuuuttt!!! by Jef Aérosol can be considered as a work executed by semi-automatic processes. To make the stencil, we use a computer and a printer to print an image that we want to project on the wall. The contours are cut out in several layers and then the pattern is applied to the desired surface. Even if you have to know the technique, the stencil is accessible to all. It does not demonstrate true craftsmanship as talent or artistic expressiveness in the traditional sense. The most telling example of the desacralization of the artistic process corresponds to the works of Koons. He does not produce any work himself, but generates the ideas that he has shaped by more than 120 assistants in his studio in Chelsea, near New York. Despite the perfection of execution of Aqualung, I cannot grasp the personal commitment of Koons as an artist in this work. I see it as a luxury product under the brand name “Jeff Koons”, very recognizable and very expensive.

Finally, the third hierarchy concerns the adaptation of a work to the public place. When I observe Chuuuttt!!! by Jef Aérosol, it seems to be a good complement to the place of Igor Stravinsky. It is related to a place conceived as a meeting point where we stop, we settle down, we discuss. The monumental stencil harmonizes well with the fountain, a gothic church and the George Pompidou Center. In addition, it is conveniently placed on the wall following the contours of the building. The face is projected as if a man is watching from the corner of the street and discreetly signals us. As for L’oiseau de feu by Niki de Saint Phalle, it contrasts not only with the architectural forms of the public space, but also with the metal sculptures of the fountain. Unlike Jean Tinguely’s mechanisms, a work by Niki does not establish a link between modernity and classical architecture. It distances itself from everything by its absurd, clownish and childish character. On the other hand, it introduces another dimension of perception which refreshes the metal sculptures around the strict and cold facades.

Based on these three works of art, I have shown how the criteria of the judgment of taste operate within the game of aesthetic language and make it possible to develop the scales of appreciation of contemporary art. Attention to local and particular games evokes evaluative statements that clearly suggest a general mechanism of adjustment and agreement between artists and spectators. There are indeed the criteria of the judgment of taste. We see that each language game has its own set of artistic qualities that please or displease. Some are relative and local, while others coexist and overlap. In this respect, we can establish the criteria of the judgment of taste which encompass the plurality of local games. The judgment of works of contemporary art will therefore report on the network of evaluation scales that bring together the values of language games in their entirety.
Such an approach amounts to saying that it is possible to maintain both a relativist and an objectivist position. Within a language game, the evaluations correspond both to the real qualities of the objects and are also relative to the evaluation community in question.
To get out of relativism, we have to move from one language game to another by discerning local values. This evaluation makes it possible to see the crossing of the values which must be calibrated outside these sets. Internal expertise in a language game also aims to develop new values that can be exported outside the community. This is an extension procedure of the game that requires analyzing the conditions of an evaluative statement. This is how my next steps will be to show the evaluative character of the artist’s work with chance, of immersion in the installations and of the concept in the ready-made. It must therefore be clear that the language game shapes the aesthetic experience and our judgment of taste is educated in the apprenticeships of the profession.

References:

(1) The interview with the anonymous graffiti artist. See http://carredinfo.fr/interview-le-graff-nest-pas-un-art-mais-une-culture-11404/.
(2) Ibid.
(3) On this point see the official Banksy website http://banksy.co.uk/.
(4) See Team Robbo’s graffiti on http://www.teamrobbo.org.
(5) See the quote on http://banksy.co.uk/index3.asp.
(6) Hugues BAZIN, « L’art d’intervenir dans l’espace public », http://biblio.recherche-action.fr/document.php?id=427.
(7) See comments from admirers and opponents of Banksy regarding his graffiti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgdHeac4bsM.
(8) See an article about a French stencil graffiti artist Blek le Rat http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blek_le_rat.
(9) Pierre RESTANY, Avec le nouveau réalisme, sur l’autre face de l’art, Nîmes, Éditions Jacqueline Chambrons, 2000.
(10) See an article on New Realism http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_r%C3%A9alisme.
(11) See Julie VERLAINE, « Bon à jeter, donc inestimable ? », Valeurs de l’art contemporain, 2010, p. 45-56, http://marges.revues.org/453.
(12) On this point see the film on Niki de Saint Phalle & Jean Tinguely « Les Bonnie & Clyde de l’art 55 », Arts Culture, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y-I-KpxiG8.
(13) Niki de Saint Phalle, Jardin des Tarots, 1979-1993. Voir sur http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/.
(14) The testimony of the visitor to the Tarot Garden in Tuscany. See http://www.localnomad.com/fr/blog/2012/10/22/le-jardin-des-tarots-en-toscane.
(15) The Tarot Garden video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4croz92c5VE.
(16) The review of New Realism artists. See on http://www.gerard-deschamps.fr/18-artistes-et-oeuvres-du-nouveau-realisme.html.
(17) With this quote, Richard Hamilton, the “Father of Pop Art”, wants to emphasize that pop art is in total contradiction with classical art. See on http://mediation.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-pop_art/ENS-pop_art.htm.
(18) The distinction between New Realism and pop art. See on http://www.popartis.com/dossiers/nouveau-realisme.html.
(19) Dada is an artistic movement that challenges all conventions and ideological, aesthetic and political constraints. Dadaists use any possible material and support. See on http://mediation.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ens-dada/ens-dada.htm.
(20) Nicole SECQ, « Quelques généralités sur le pop art ». See on http://www.amisdumusee-bethune.fr/popart.html.
(21) Roy Lichtenstein, Look Mickey, 1961, huile sur toile, 121.9 x 175.3 cm.
(22) Anne de CONINCK, « Roy Lichtenstein, le banal sublimé ». See http://www.slate.fr/story/74943/roy-lichtenstein-pop-art-pompidou-banal-sublime.
(23) M. JIMENEZ, La Querelle de l’art contemporain, op. cit., p.208.
(24) See an article « Qu’est-ce que le pop art ? » on http://mediation.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-pop_art/ENS-pop_art.htm.
(25) The interview with Jef Aérosol. See http://www.rfi.fr/france/20110617-jef-aerosol-fait-chuuuttt-grande-symphonie-urbaine-paris/.
(26) The interview with Jean Tinguely. See http://boutique.ina.fr/audio/P13310372/jean-tinguely-travailler-avec-niki-de-saint-phalle-a-la-fontaine-stravinski.fr.html.
(27) « Jeff Koons, La Rétrospective », Exhibition at the Center Pompidou from November 26, 2014 to April 27, 2015. See more on https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cABRrbG/r4ydaM6.
(28) Elisabeth REYNARD, Niki de Saint Phalle : il faut saigner la peinture! See the presentation on http://www.paris-art.com/document-art/niki-de-saint-phalle-il-faut-faire-saigner-la-peinture/elisabeth-reynaud/3703.html.