While I
am primarily a visual artist, a painter and maker of what I call
painting-installations, I am also an art historian (Ph.D. in art history and
metaphor theory at the University of Zurich). Nevertheless, I have been known
to criticize art history as it is taught. My criticism of the typical timeline
models can be found here
I will
discuss my own “Braided Rope Model” (created together with John Perreault) in
detail in the future. Right this moment, I would like to make certain that we
are all on the same page, after a fashion, when discussing or using art history
here on the Metaphor and Art website.
Thus, I
am simply presenting my “Quicky Art History Times” to be used as reference. The
first page is the entire history of art from Prehistoric through now,
Postmodern. In a grossly superficial fashion, of course, to fit on one page.
the second sheet is a zoom-in close-up of the entry “Modernism” alone. The
third a zoom-in to “Postmodernism.” This might indeed be the most interesting
to many readers and viewers, as there are hardly any books on the entirety of
this subject, and those that do discuss it are generally highly selective,
limited and indeed often propagandistic attempts at promoting one single
contemporary style, usually Neo-Conceptualism. The best book is Irving
Sandler’s Art of the Postmodern Era, yet it is huge, 636 pages, and
expensive; a book essentially for other art historians.
I lived
through this era. I was doing my BFA in Late Modernism, began my art career and
MA in beginning Postmodernism, finished my Ph.D. in the continuing
Postmodernism — and I continue until now, what I would like to hope is Late
Postmodernism. A note on the differences between these two eras:
I, and
most international art historians, see Modernism in visual art as roughly, very
roughly, from the 1830s to 1979 (yet actually still continuing now, as some
major practitioners are still alive and active, — indeed all periods and
epochs always overlap anyway ). The (sub-)era known as Postmodernism began
roughly 1970–79 or 80. Philosophical and literary proto- and prefigurations
began in the 60s, yet there are always earlier precursory to be found for any
situation, which is why we have the prefixes ‘pre-’ and ‘proto-’ in our
languages.
This era
(from, very roughly, 1979/80 till now, as stated), is a transitional period
very similar to, on the one hand, the transitional period now called Mannerism
after the Renaissance and, on the other, the transitional period called
Academicism shortly before Modernism began. (I have discussed this similarity
here: “Mannerism is Now”).
Postmodernism
overlaps Late Modernism, yet is clearly AFTER Modernism in several
philosophical, historical and visual ways. Thus, literally “Post-Modern,”
generally trendily elided to Postmodernism in emulation of French.
Modernism, especially in its the “Late” form, is progressively more reductive.
Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Op, Kinetic, Minimalism, arte povera, Land Art and
especially Conceptualism are all clearly Modernist in their goals and
approaches, albeit in vastly differing fashions — this gets us to 1979.
Postmodernism began (quite hopefully I might add) with architecture and
Feminist art. Charles Jencks established the word in the visual arts,
especially architecture, in a series of books from about 1977 onward,
especially the artist-read favorite What is Post-Modernism? (The term
had long had vogue in literary theory, however.) At the same time, the first
wave of Feminist artists began introducing hard-hitting, clear, even
heavy-handed content. We beginning artists clearly saw that this was “not” or
”after” Modernism in someway. All of this and more lead to the beginning of
Postmodernism taking over what until then had simply been termed pluralism.
How Post-Modernism later congealed into a permanent state of academic
Neo-Conceptualism as it came under the influence of trendy French
Poststructuralism and other literary theory, the power-grab in art schools of
the at-that-point out-of-power Conceptualist professors, the demise of art
criticism and the rise of the art curator, is another story. Soon to be told.
And do
not forget: Yes history repeats, after a fashion. But it is primarily a tool
for thought. Everything is always new, when it is personalized and arises out
of real, lived experience in the time and culture of the creator. One gets a
historical perspective, to an extent, by using history as a instrument for
contemplation and making analogies. Thus once again, Mark G. Taber and my
addiction to metaphor as a thought process.
History
is not a limitation unless you make it so. We need this form of conversational,
perhaps even argumentative, homage AND transgression. The relations among
cultural aspects can be seen as not simply oedipally belligerent, but not as
untroubled either: a model which presents the possibility of a productive
transmission of culture, grounded in modes of vernacular interchange. This
authorizes, in a sense, successors who also alter the traditions without being
obliged to symbolically slay them. This is not a burden of tradition — when you
examine the world of jazz you will find a culture and a model that has been,
and remains a hot bed of innovation. Rock carried that on in open loud passion
and interracial influence. Hip-hop now continues cross-generational cultural
transmission by providing a new lyric to older tunes, quite literally. We in
the visual arts can do likewise with our cultures.
In my
opinion, as an artist, one can do whatever arises out of the true experiences
of your own background. Your sources must be personal and “earned.” Cognitive
metaphor theory proffers a mode of thinking which can be applied to the
analysis and creation of art, while accentuating the efforts of the makers of
these objects. After the object-only orientation of Formalism, after the
medium-only focus of Deconstruction, this may lead to a feeling of liberation,
of agency. Nevertheless, my metaphor(m) is a theory which brings with it a new
sense of the the past. Whereas the Formalist Modernists felt free from the past
and the Deconstructivist Postmodernists are endlessly tangled in an inescapable
present, authors and artists as viewed through my cognitive metaphor theory are
directly responsible for fashioning their own tropes through the processes of
extension, elaboration, composition and/or questioning. Once again, more about
this will arise in future articles on this website.
Artists
in particular should learn art history. Such knowledge does not give rise to
fear, to a burden of the past, as is frequently fretted (particularly by
Europeans), but rather the opposite. One has more of a burden of the past when
one knows little to nothing of history. A vaguely threatening cloud hangs over
your thoughts and your work. When you know it you can respect it by wrestling
with it. Artists develop their own, perhaps idiosyncratic, inheritance by
knowingly, actively re-writing the timeline. Creators are able to discover
their preferred precursors, find their own artistic fathers (and fortunately,
ever increasingly, mothers). The friendship and conversation with the dead that
Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset saw in history allows creators to find
as much sustenance in Goya as in their contemporaries. Yet such conversance
also imparts opportunities for antithetical, critical historical and cultural awareness.
I think,
as well, that too many people fixate on the term “Postmodern,” thinking that by
denying it, or rewriting history in some way, they can eliminate it. The Big
Question we should be pondering is how to mature, to get “healthier” to use
Donald Kuspit’s term. How to use art history as a tool for making analogies to
help us get onwards to a situation beyond the current malaise of disintegrating
academicism.
The
overview I have illustrated below is the most, logical and international view.
The best for reference and learning; it is correct, yet vastly limited.
We do not need to ignore history but to expand it (see my critique and braid
theory once again).
Please
use these charts. They are the foundational reference in all the art historical
discussions on this site
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