A review of several exhibitions of contemporary photography appeared in a recent edition of the Village Voice. Martha Schwendener writes, "Several theories are offered in Words Without Pictures, the recently published record of a year-long forum on photography sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the essays and discussions, there's a suggestion that, while formalism might be an exhausted term for critics and historians, it could, as Kevin Moore argues, be "an anxious attempt" among artists to make something new and yet familiar in a moment when technology, politics, and culture are rapidly shifting. Others suggest abstraction as a response to the current global crisis—a kind of causal fragmentation/disintegration scenario—while editor Alex Klein warns that, while materiality and abstraction might have political implications for some artists, there are clearly others for whom it's "trendy, market-savvy, and scarcely disguised by a veneer of easily digestible theory.'"
How does comment compare to some of the ideas we've discussed with regard to Younger than Jesus and Altermodern?
Contemporary Art Photographers Mess With the Medium
Anxiety? Fetish? Picture-prone artists are loving themselves some process.
by Martha Schwendener
The Village Voice, October 13th 2009
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2 comments:
Great article. Its refreshing to read after Relational Aesthetics' and the last two shows we have discussed. I think there will always be new and exciting trends in the art world. They will evolve and combined themselves with more 'traditional mediums'. The trends that stay with us will someday be considered a 'traditional'. Its hard as a young artist who wants to make it, you have all this new exciting processes and technology at your fingertips. I felt it last year, reading about relational aesthetics and interactive art made me very excited, so I wanted to try it out. But thats not who I am as an artist and trying to work that way was stressful and unsuccessful. There is a reason why traditional mediums such as ceramics, photography, and painting have stayed prevalent for so long. We are drawn to them, they will always be around.
I am not saying these new trends are not essential, in fact I believe they are necessary. Art is a continual dialog, we will always be pushing and questioning everything we have done in the past and what we will do in the future. We are constantly changing because as artist we reflect the world around us. This may sound sappy, but I believe its important to stay true to yourself as an artist, great art is great art, it doesn't matter if you are working with clay or paint. At least thats what I keep telling myself, if I didn't believe this I would be paralyzed and unable to create anything. I am a true art dork, these conversations we have in class and in Flemings basement excite me and motivate me. I love that everyday something new will arise, and even if I don't fit into these new 'trends' I still want to know about them and understand they arose. The one thing that I found interesting in both the Altermodern and Younger Than Jesus show is the idea of 'globalization'. The artist are combining all sorts of ideas, medias, technologies, cultures, materials. They are reaching outside of the 'art world' and grabbing whatever they want from wherever. Like that guy who made a color field 'painting' from photoshop. I know the younger than jesus show was heavy on technology but I don't believe this young genre of artist are all working this way. The curators were trying to capture a generation and an easy way to do that is to talk about technology and show a very small group of artist that utilize it.
All I have to say is " I'm not scared" . I will grab what I want from where I want and make work that shows my reflections to the world around me. Think about everything we have discussed in this class? From Relational Aesthetics to an article by Dave Hickey. I feel there is no need to try to put myself in a genre that doesn't fit me because 2 months later we will be discussing something else, something new. Look at Elizabeth Peyton, she didn't try to fit into a new genre. She is painting portraits that reflect the culture around her. She is being herself and it works because its true. On a side note, I think her work is boring but its working for her and people love it.
Good post and nice comment, Amber. I'm always drawn to formalist ideas. I don't think it ever goes away, it just goes through fazes where it isn't talked about as much. Formalism can make any piece stronger, even conceptual art. If you are using formalism as something to go against, you are still dealing with it as an issue. I'm very interested in form and how it can change a piece just by the way it occupies space or objects are in juxtaposition to one another. I think form for form sake can be very interesting as well. I'm happy to see some artists still working this way today.
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