ART Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

ART - Essay Example Foster, Krauss, Bois, and Buchloh focuses on a crucial event—how the seminal work is created, how the artistic manifesto is published and the opening of a major exhibition; this crucial event tells us the story of enchanting diversity of practice and interpretation that characterizes the art of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, they made a point to explain in detail all the turning points and breakthroughs of modernism and postmodernism. 1. Modernism is generally an artistic approach, which dominated the European and American art and literature in the Twentieth Century. The key features of modernism are thought to be the principles of formalism and the autonomy of art. 3. The third aspect is the concept of the avant-garde, which challenges the dominant artistic culture. Often referred to as "inner logic of modernism", this critical force makes the art move forward towards Postmodernism. Characterized as a critique of Modernism and the project of modernity, Postmodernism is best understood as a part of a cultural shift which has been felt in science, philosophy, and the arts. Culture is seen by others (e.g. Jean Baudrillard) as an endless play of imitation (simulation) which signals the end of authenticity and reality and the emergence of "hyperreality" (Baudrillard 1049-50) 2. Interventionist is when the artist becomes a manipulator of signs rather than a producer of Art. The viewer becomes "an active reader of messages rather than a passive contemplator of the aesthetic"(Foster 1066). This form of Art is described as "a social sign entangled with other signs in systems productive of value, power and prestige" (Foster 1066) This critique of Modernity often takes the form of a challenge to the norms and values of western culture as a whole. But this critique is losing its popularity. If we still don’t have an answer to Hal Foster’s 1996 question, â€Å"Whatever Happened to