Figurations of ethics, configurations of power : Michel Foucault, Attila Richard Lukacs, and the New Painting

The monumental paintings that Canadian artist Attila Richard Lukacs (b. 1962, Edmonton) created while in Berlin (after 1986) focus on the themes of desire, power, masculinity, and eroticism. This focus, however, is not only a representation of what he sees, but is also an attempt to order things to a political and ethical end. Using the major works of Michel Foucault ( The Order of Things, The History of Sexuality), the thesis demonstrates how Where the Finest Young Men... (1987) and Authentic Decor (1988), may be interpreted as achieving a fundamental ordering and representation of desire. In particular, the thesis shows how Lukacs intervenes on existing codes and conventions of culture through heterotopia, and how he articulates political, sexual, and ethical choices through a concept of self-forming ethics. If one is to situate Lukacs' work within the dynamic of heterotopia, and support the claim that these paintings not only intercede on existing codes and conventions, but also manifest ethical choices, then one ought to read the work against a prior understanding of sexual politics proper to the art historical and socio-political moment of the 1970s. The basis of that historical glance is established through the work of General Idea and notions of sexual identity. The sensuosity and pleasure characteristic of mass media entertainment formats, such as beauty pageants and variety shows, is similar to that featured in much of General Idea's work created throughout the 1970s. Importantly, the aesthetics that General Idea embraces in their brand of performance art increasingly becomes evident at the end of the 1970s, with the emergence of the New Painting. An assessment of the so-called "return of painting from exile"---as it appeared in Italy, Germany, and Canada---considers the output of Lukacs' contemporaries. The intention there is to establish whether a newer focus exists in the work of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which supports the hypothesis that what Lukacs aims to do is to order things to a political and ethical end. Upon setting forth an examination of the framework in which Lukacs appears, the dissertation then presents a highly detailed analysis of Where the Finest Young Men... and Authentic Decor, with particular focus on the function of heterotopia in these works. Finally, an explication of power and ethics in Lukacs is proposed through the later works of Michel Foucault, in order to demonstrate how, teleologically, the paintings operate as political, sexual, and ethical choices.

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