ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This study reexamines the long-criticized problem of representation in contemporary art through Hal Foster’s theoretical framework and links it to Jacques Lacan’s concept of objet a. Under the logic of formalist autonomy, representation has been dismissed as obsolete since Modernism. However, Foster’s notion of the Traumatic Real reveals that representation can function as an active device for invoking the Real within the Symbolic order. While inheriting Foster’s perspective, this study supplements his analysis by introducing Lacan’s structural dimension of desire through objet a. Thus, representation is redefined as a mode that exposes the trace of the Real at the intersection of the subject’s lack and desire, rather than as mere visual replication. The paintings of Gerhard Richter visually embody this theoretical inquiry. His series October 18, 1977 and September address the Red Army Faction incident and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, through blurred imagery revealing the absence of the Real. Richter’s blurring technique destabilizes visual clarity, rendering the viewer’s gaze uncertain and exposing fragments of the Real situated outside the Symbolic order. The blurred figures thus operate as objet a, functioning as visual devices that evoke the absence of the Real rather than directly representing it. Richter’s paintings ultimately resist the sensationalization or commodification of traumatic events, demonstrating that Representation remains a valid artistic strategy for revealing the gap of the Real and reconsidering the role of art in the contemporary era.

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