It's an irresistible topic, isn't it?

As someone who's grappled with this kind of language problem for about 30
years, as an academic, an art history instructor, and a museum educator, I'd
like to weigh in.

We art people have a terrible way of shoving "isms" around, and doing it in
the most inexact language possible.  I would like to suggest that
"contemporary art" (unlike Impressionism, for instance, or Modernism) should
never be capitalized.  Contemporary art is merely art of one's own time; it
is not a style, a philosophical outlook, or anything less than an expression
of a zeitgeist.  If our time is that of post-Modernism, just as the first
half of the century was the era of classical Modernism, then post-Modernism
is our contemporary art.

Henri Bergson was right -- there are no boundaries, just a clear sense of
past and an awareness of becoming.

So for the folks who are just entering the debate: I always advised my
students the visitors to my museum to try to touch what seems
contemporaneous in any work of art  (i.e. the universal) and not fret
overmuch about whether a given movement seems to match in moment  or in
substance.

Ellen B. Cutler
LNB Associates: Writing, Editing, Research Services
Aberdeen, MD  21001

----- Original Message -----
From: Jay Heuman <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 2:34 PM
Subject: Re: "Contemporary Art" cutoff date


> Hi Stephen et al.:
>
> > I would tend to agree with Jay on the start-point
> > for contemporary.  Certainly, Minimalism,
> > Conceptualism, and Post-Painterly Abstraction
> > peeled away from Abstract Expressionism, but
> > the latter seems more the apex of Modernism
> > than exactly the beginning of what was
> > contemporary.
>
> Most PPA proclaim their undying allegience to the hegemonic
> Modernism of Clement Greenberg . . . and most owed the start
> of their careers to his inclusion of them in the upper
> echelons of the New York art world.  Modernism, though not
> as closely aligned with Greenberg (from my knowledge), was
> also striving after the purity of form, the lack of
> 'pretense' implicit in the illusion of the painted picture
> window or representational sculpture . . . hence, the
> non-representational and inorganic forms of Donald Judd,
> Carl Andre, Agnes Martin, etc.
>
> As for Conceptual: They were taking some ideas of Modernism
> to a point beyond the Modernist comfort zone.  While they
> accepted Plato's condemnation of mimesis, they forgot the
> second half . . . Kant's discipline which criticizes itself
> to achieve greater and greater purity.  The idea of a
> painting is not to be mistaken for a pure painting . . .
> hence, they were not, from a Modernist standpoint, creating
> artwork, but parodying the ideas -- or, stated differently:
> The Conceptual artists were involved in philosophy, not
> art -- as art (according to Greenberg) was to extinguish
> entirely subject matter and content . . . which the
> Conceptual artsits insisted on forwarding while abandoning
> the technical skill of art as originating in the ancient
> Greek 'arte' (meaning skill).
>
> > But the more fluid issue, perhaps, is when the
> > contemporary ends.  One could argue that
> > contemporary ended in the mid-1980s with the
> > advent of post-modern, but if this is true it only
> > spilled into a kind of swirling eddy where the
> > by-now autonomic reflex toward 20 C. radicalism
> > stuggled to stay afloat.  Cynically viewed,
> > postmodernism was a kind of medley of all our
> > favorite old tunes, trying to pose as something
> > new by being ironic.  And it was new enough, I
> > guess -- certainly new enough for the auction
> > prices but I'm not sure it was new enough to mark
> > the end or beginning of anything.   "Contemporary
> > art" still tends to be the overarching term used
> > to describe what is current, and "postmodern" did
> > not really provide it with its other bookend.
>
> I will agree that the advent of the postmodern did not
> designate the 'end' of contemporary and 'beginning' of
> something new.  I belive the postmodern pastiche of the
> multitude of past styles and forms is indicative of a
> similar critique and/or parody as Pop Art which elevated
> specific subjects over others . . . That Norman Foster makes
> reference to Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright is a
> commentary about Bramante and Palladio.  That Barbara Kruger
> references advertising, not Alberti, is significant.  Etc.,
> etc., etc.
>
> > But I will risk the hazard of a guess by predicting
> > that the end of contemporary (along with its
> > persistent echoes of modernism) is upon us with
> > the advent of the "post-analog" -- not only art which
> > exclusively embraces new-media or technology,
> > but (perhaps more importantly) art which, whatever
> > its manner of production, is conceived in response to
> > the shifting cultural context that is a direct result of
> > new technologies.
>
> I absolutely agree!  More and more artists -- even some of
> the 'traditional', 'Old School', Modernists who are hanging
> on are beginning to explore new media.  Their rationale?  No
> matter what medium one uses, one must strive to use it in
> it's purest form.  (Sounds kind of cult-ish if you ask me .
> . . LOL!)  However, cannot conceive of traditional
> techniques and forms of art disappearing any time soon.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Jay Heuman, Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator
> Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE, 68102
> 342-3300 (telephone)     342-2376 (fax)     www.joslyn.org
>
> This is a personal message. The views expressed in this
> message are solely those of the sender and are not to be
> attributed to the owner of the sender's domain, the sender's
> employer or any other person.
>
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