Avant-Garde and After_Brandon Taylor_2

7/28/2019 Avant-Garde and After_Brandon Taylor_2

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IINT ROD UCTIO N

1. D BL;RE :"n,ide (Cen/reoi8 8 O ~ r n 1 9 7 1 . Kon cknh. 65' 7'f " x z':! ' 9'/.

120 x 9.1 m). lnstatled al the5oIomon R. GuggenhE'imlntemationalExhinitioo,1971, foro re day befo-e rbeopening.Coecnon otbeartl


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to have OCCI!. al bca. a ground..clearing excrcse coincidenr witha wider mood of disaffcc ricn or, at wo rst . an embar rassrnen twhose time had passed. By rhe early 1980s rhe almosr abandonedpractlccs of painting and sculprure were bei ng ushered backonto cent re stagc in an effort tu reassure an expanding public fornew art rhat social rcvolution was no longer on rhe agenda. andthat older traditionv, parricularly fmm the Euro pean pastowerefit to be rcsumcd. In such acl imate the conti nued exisrence of anavaut-gardc could by no mcans he taken for gran red.

111C conjuncrion which rcsulred, of a hugely expended publicintcrcu in contemporary art s at a time of relntive polieical andsocial rcacrion. is a theme with many variations. Ir s over-simpleto scc thc Wcstern politiral retrenchmcnr after 1979-80 - Reaganism in Amc rica and Tharchcri sm in Grear Brirain - as beingcnrircly coin ciden! with capitulation to the cap italisr market.lndec d, relarionv between avant-garde ambtion and rhe markerin thc l?HOs preved ro he infinitely worrisome and complexo l-orcxamplc . rhe conservat ivo "re turn" ro painring ran parallel roand partially r rmcealed a ser of more challenging arti stic project stha t cffccrivcly fo rm a major part of rhis book: art now rumedback LO t he povcihilir ies of the Duchampian ready-made (rhe"found" nr "cncountered" objecr): it proposcd a dialogue abourthe concepr and purpmes of t he phorograph; and it declared arctum ro an opcnly narrativo or srory-rellng method . Such concern e, whic h secmed sudd en ly be1eagu red in th e day s of thcpainring "revival." han ' come in the last fifeecn or twenry yeanlo constitu tc the bese new art of our time.

A parallel developmenr since the earl y 19705 has been thegrowth of a new public and a new market for contemporary artoThiv expandcd constituency has posed altogether differenr qucsrions aOOu I rhe relarionsbip beeween puhlic culture and disscnt.The rwenrierh-cenrurv avan t-garde from Cubism and Surrcalismonward has, on rhe whole, fined easily into a public and COIl1merr-ial cult ure. Vd hand-in-hand wirh the expan sin of the artnetwork has gone a rapid growth in thc training of art historianv, critirs , and curators whose undcrstandug of eontemporary3rt fl'sulted in a professionalisatioll and imt itutiollalisation ofIhe a \ ' a n t a r d e attitude itsrlf. By tbis !ogie. the cmbalming ofwhat purports to be avant-garde art in museum colleetiom, survey l'xhihirions. and popular books has had the etfcct of dcpri\"ing it of the very resistam and critical qualities by whicb it oftencarne iu to be ing. Th e twist wi[hin this paradox is th ... t lh emuseum apparat us is, ostensibly at least. nccessar)' l O makingc h D ~ n g new art "i sible to a substancial i1ucfCSled public.

10 T rtldilillll tllld Al'tlll /-Carde


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2 . PIERO MA "ZON ILint"


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and art istic vales. ,\ t thc same time rhcy clcvatcd iudustriallymadc forms. often used repctirively, inro rhc cult ure of art (nc . 3).In the late r 1960s. a generation of so-called Conceptual arusrsacross an intemarional spectrum begao ro resume [he carhcr tendeucy ro expcrimen r wirh found materialv, photography, andordinary epheme ra . By shift ing artention systcmatically awa )"from rhe incffable visual experience of art objccts and rowards theanirudes and ~ of concciving dn-m or making thcm, Conceptualists soughr (O OCcupY a 'Opae," oUlsidl' rhe dominam cultu ralconventions govcmi ug the prod uction and con sumption of art.Un e result of all these form s of avant-garde activity was that

by the early 1970s it was no longcr m'n'Si.1ry for pain rings te beprimarily colourcd , or flat o llor for sculp turev to be upright orhavc volume. lollovving in rhe footsecpcof [he French artist-iconoclasr, ,\ la rce l Duchamp . arrists proclaimcd th at anyrhing in orOUl of thc gallery - Jines drawn on the gro und, a ser of pilotocopicd docume ms. a f ilng cabner. a sheet ofnstrncrionv a J;.Ilk ryper formance - could undcr certain condrions of producrion anddisplay qualify as "a rt." The intended rcsult was ro fru strare [hemarket mcchanism hy making arr objects which were resistant robcug sold, collccted . and cvaluarcd hy ronventional rnean s.\VhCIl, rhcreforo, rhe mcanng of "avanr-gardc" rame undcr

rcncw cd scrut iny in the mid-1970s, it dd so againsr a backgrounduf skirmshcs airead )' fought and so rne victo rics won. By rhi srime, howcver, the polti ca! setting had cbanged, espccially in theUnit cd Srares. The radical social agenda of rhe larer 1960s thatprovdcd a suppo rtive conrexr for ear lier avant-gard c art - theanri-victnam War prores s. rhe srudems' and workers' strikt>s, thegrowrh of feminism - was widely perceived ro be past history. By1?7S or so. Conceptual art ieself wa s becoming popular, evenualc . By the latcr IlJ70s and early 1980'0 ir was widely considcred

.1_ Room MORRISl 'ntit/OO,1965-66.fibregla'iCentlights 2' 1l 8' 10.6 1l 2.8mt,DaliasMUSl?Umal FiTlf' Arts.

Trodtian and A vata -Carde 1)


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An carly nstance of this ten sin may be found in cont roverses tha t erupred in 1971 at New York's prestigious Guggenheim.\tuseum. Barly in tbat r ear, a show of new art was selected forme Guggcnhci m lntcrnarional (an ann ual sur vey of rcccnt arr),featuring rwclvc American artists and eigh t from thc rest of thcwmld . ver a furore was raiscd whcn a work by the 1'rcnch artist,Daniel Ruren (see HG. 1) - a srripcd painting in tw o pares, thelargor par t hung in the cen tre of the Cuggcnhcim atrium and thcsmaller p


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la l '1 '< ,a: .-k "" ~.... ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '...... wa l l


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~ n l 1 1 a and Conceptual art icts of thc 19611s had almosr allbeen men; how cou ld women. as a group nr as iudviduals. overUlTl1 th e val es of male culture if rhar culture wc re a iread)' aficld of conrestation among mcn? The dilcmma has preved pow crful; and in the 1990s ir is still being insistcd - rightly - rhar toofe.... of the early feminist challenges reach,..J thc cconomir levcl.TIIC rccent acricisr work uf thc American group. th e Guerrill aGlrl s. prot ests against rhe mbalance betwccn male and femalcarccw ro status in th c arrs - herc in thc form of a comm ercia l1yprimcd post or that j uxraposes rhe pr icc-, paid for a whit e malcavant-gardc hcro, ja spcr j oh ns. with tho sc paid for rhc art ofW(l IlWIl artists. bot h white and of colour (FlG, 5). Such activismwggcsrs thar a powcrful patriarchy and rhc cconomics of a rampanr capitalisr markc t are srill inex tricably cmwincd. It rcmainscomrovcrsial how far the most challeoging new work by womcnand scxua] minorit ics has rnanaged ro sofren or unsct tlc rhatpartm-rvlup.

Thc fcmnist cha llcnge implicit in rhis particular GuerrillaGirl,, rm ter is made paradoxical ar another level by the fact rhatin [he largor task of dc-masculinising culture. jaspcr johns lila)'

5. GU( RR l LAGIRl5Unntled post"" Il,11:19. 16". ,21'" '' (42.5 x 54.5 cm).

WHEN RACISM & SEXISM ARENO LONGER FASHIONABLE,WHAT WILL YOUR ARTCOLLECTION BE WORTH?The art markel WQf'I' f be$1Ow mega-bud: price$ on !he wort..ofo ~ ...hile mab f ~ ro.. !he I I I mmionyou jll$l spenton o $ingle .kIsper John$ poinling. )'O\l could hov\I boughl a llecst one worlc by 0 11 of the$ewomen ond ortish of color :

~ . . , . , AbDft 80 do K.,.,..;"g Doro"- l a"V"A... ; AIberl l.,... """""" M a f " ~ "s . . I o < > i ~ Ango.oi""" """"" Wa..... ,. h le.- fd_ !#wi.IM ,.....bu. A-. . i ," ~ n " ; . > < h i !ud... ley ....-Yo.., ,,, """ '9.... i'" G;p,g.-d 11",1."" " l"" 9hihube! B>f>op Ngkl lio G o n o ~ ~ " " Doro M_Ro", Son...,.. Ka' " Go- ""_ y l MiliO'rh "b. th ~ !oL H < x ~ T,,,,, Modo..J"I " ~ .... Co""""," An .. . HunhnQdon ~ Momo.r. , . Ca.. Mor- . i Joc '_ e,;.cwod .... __Rooalba "," ' ' ' 0 mdo Koh\o Go-.bnoio_M " ' l ' c..._ A.yo/iu>~ N -ICon>t

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Avant-Garde and After_Brandon Taylor_2