The End of the Art World (Aesthetics Today Series) - Softcover

Morgan, Robert C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1581150105 ISBN 13: 9781581150100

Publisher: Allworth, 1998

Synopsis

The most significant change in the art world over the past two decades has not been the evolution of a new style or movement but in how art is promoted and marketed. After prices accelerated in the 1980s, today's art world is beginning to look more like a multi-national corporation than a cultural institution.

Acclaimed critic, poet, and historian Robert C. Morgan argues for a new qualitative standard in art, not only in painting and sculpture, but also in literature, music, video, photography, conceptual art, and installations. Poignantly and powerfully written, he calls for an end to the art world as we know it, a world governed by the trends of fashion, media, and popular entertainment, and proposes a return to aesthetics and a new inner-directedness in art.

About this title

About the Author

Robert C. Morgan, an international critic, artist, curator, and lecturer, lives and works in New York City.

From the Back Cover

The most significant change in the art world over the past two decades has not been in the evolution of a new style or movement but in the ways in which art is promoted and marketed. In his latest work, acclaimed critic, curator, and historian Robert C. Morgan examines the separation of the art world from the realities within the community of artists. He argues that the boundary between contemporary art and current trends of fashion, media, and popular entertainment is growing increasingly thin, and calls for a return to aesthetics and to an inner- directedness in art of all mediums.

A frank and authoritative collection of art criticism from one of the leading minds in the field, The End of the Art World takes a position outside of established critical views, balancing aesthetic issues with a provocative critique of the socio-economics of recent art. It presents a stimulating combination of intelligent analysis, emotional response, and outspoken commentary for anyone interested in current critical discourse in art and culture.

Essays include: "The Delta of Modernism," "The Status of Kitsch," "The Plight of Art Criticism," "Art Outside the Museum," "Where Spectacle Meets Art," "West Chelsea: An Experiment in Attitudes and Architecture," and "After the Deluge: The Return of the Inner- Directed Artist." Artists featured: Nancy Grossman, Sang Nam Lee, Gilbert and George, Carolee Schneemann, Bruce Connor, Robert Rauschenberg, Nancy Graves, Bill Viola, Kevin Clarke, Michael Bramwell, and Philip Glass.

Reviews

Early on, Morgan (Between Modernism and Conceptual Art) contends that the "experience of the work of art is the fundamental ingredient in one's critical response, the foundation for any authentic interpretation." The experience of reading these essays, then, is one of initial bewilderment, increasing frustration and eventual resignation to vague, obscure language passing itself off as bracing straight talk. While Morgan's call for direct observation and his attack on the incursion of theory into criticism and into the studio may elicit sympathy, his writing itself is saturated with the very terminology and syntax he purports to disdain. Moreover, he deploys the all-too-familiar semiotic and poststructuralist jargon with a marked lack of dexterity (although he is professor of the history and theory of art at the Rochester Institute of Technology). Has he failed to digest his sources? A more charitable explanation would be that his heart is not in critical theory, but rather in the search for quality and an inner-directed tendency in contemporary art. Yet when he discusses specific works, the reader is often left high and dry, for instance, trying to unravel exactly why Morgan experienced "a reverberation of thought and mystery elevated to the level of profound feeling" in viewing Vija Celmins's paintings. Though some of his positions could be taken as "conservative," he does not appear motivated by ideology. In the end, what he can offer the patient reader is a highly subjective window on the American art scene of the past four decades. B&w illustrations.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The challenge is how to rediscover the act of seeing in this desperate age of speed and information, how to slow down and regain consciousness, and how to enter the world once again with an open mind and a new vision of what the future may hold with the prospect that it may actually benefit our lives (Robert Morgan, from the Introduction).

Edition details

• Publisher: Allworth
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1581150105
• ISBN 13: 9781581150100
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256