The avant-garde: art as theory
Journal Title: Art Inquiry. Recherches sur les arts - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue
Abstract
The starting point of the paper are the questions formulated in 1993 by Philip Auslander as to whether the avant-garde is possible in postmodernism, or whether postmodernism itself can be regarded as a new phase of the avant-garde. The representatives of avant-garde art considered theory to be of great importance. Therefore, an attempt to answer the questions has been made here from the point of view of three theoretical approaches to the problem. The first one has been discussed with reference to Paul Mann's book The Theory-Death of the Avant-Garde assthat art today functions within the framework of a “discursive economy”. The avant-garde theories, opposed to the artistic status quo, in fact support the functioning of this mechanism, becoming “discourse productive”. Thus, instead of renewing it, they contribute to the death of the avant-garde, which is absorbed by the cultural “exchange effect”. The second approach, referred to as “theory-life”, is developed on the basis of the reneving atbaet, by Peter Bürger. He considered that the basic aspiration of the avant-garde was an attack against the institution of art and revolutionizing life as a whole. This renewal was announced in their writings and manifested in artworks which became a way of undertaking and attempting to solve theoretical problems. I have described this phenomenon as “theorism”. The third option discussed is the “end of theory”, with reference to Victor Burgin's book of the same title. The British author believes that the concept of art shaped from the Renaissance period onwards through the Enlightenment and Romanticism, has collapsed in the 20th century. Currently art operates not in the area of theory, but in the sphere of the discourses creating “semblances of truth” and performing mobilizing and strategic, not ontological functions. The article concludes with some remarks on the change of metaphors (“death”, “life”, “end”), which are employed in connection with the avant-garde, as well as the possible consequences of this situation.
Authors and Affiliations
Grzegorz Sztabiński
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP270716
- DOI 10.26485/AI/2017/19/6
- Views 135
- Downloads 0
Participatory art, new media and convergence art based on the example of La Fura Dels Baus Group
The article attempts to present various categories of activities related to participatory art that we can find in the extensive artistic output of the Catalan group named La Fura dels Baus. Ever since it was established...
Empathetic turn in the reflection on art
Empathetic turn in the reflection on art
Art absorbed by the Web
The object of this study is to analyse the impact of the Web on art. For this purpose I have made a distinctions between Net Art, which emerged in the 1990s and has been developing up till now, and the phenomenon of art...
Is it just a metaphysical turn?
The paper introduces the phenomenological definition of metaphysics in art and out-lines the relationship between metaphysics and 20th century art, suggesting possible "escape from metaphysics," and the reactions to this...
The Ambivalence of African-American Culture. The New Negro Art in the interwar period
Reflecting on the issue of marginalization in art, it is difficult not to remember of the controversy which surrounds African-American Art. In the colonial period and during the formation of the American national identit...