Manet's Olympia

Abstract

This article seeks to question a position of the sociology of art – namely, that visual culture can be explained by reference to the conditions of its production. We argue that visual culture already inscribes a massive intent to differ from, or differentiate within, the general conditions of production. Here we attend to Manet's Olympia as a work that not only differentiates itself in that sense but has invited a complex history of reproductions or reinterpretations in different social contexts ever since. This, we argue, stems from its visual richness, complexity and challenge, which we seek to describe, in opposition to the idea that Olympia is a picture of a prostitute, dated Paris, 1865. In this sense, we provide an alternative interpretation, not a historical account, of Olympia (and by implication of the products of visual culture) from the point of view of complexity theory. Those unfamiliar with that term may prefer the expression ‘social ecology’. Ecology in the social and natural world implies differentiation, interaction and persistence in a dynamic sense. Ecologically, Olympia exemplifies all these characteristics. One of the authors (John Smith) is also a figurative painter who has ‘endured’ the sterile conception of Manet as the first modernist. He instead regards Manet as one of the great influential figurative painters, and not only in his own right, but through the visual reflexivity he re‐opens, reforming the traditions and future power of the discipline.