That sounds like standard art history, suited more to a syllabi than to reality. the distinction between modern and post modern has never been defined for the arts generally, except artificially. It's hard to find where the line is crossed. Is it when artists began a new examination of irony, or with appropriation and restatements of modernist imagery; Duchamp? How does one separate Johns from any of that? Contemporary artists are those who are "contributing to curtrent global ideas and issues"? That's very vague. One of the issues may be the continuing relevance of modernist impulses beginning with Kandinsky. After all, ideas don't die but just go astray for a while, always finding their way back to the path, and hailed as newcomers. I'll need a better definition of contemporary than what you offer. Otherwise, it makes most sense to say all living and working artists are contemporary, just like today, this very day, is contemporary.
A relevant issue? See my commentary in the little journal Prompt, to be published next month. I look at Trotsky and Breton's manefesto "Toward a New Revoloutionary Art and find it very relevant today. The linear or progress notions of art history: modern, post modern, contemporary seem irrelevant to me. Anyway, I am happy you are joining in the discussions. Let's get to it. WC --- On Sat, 9/13/08, kathleen desmond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: kathleen desmond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: It's Hirst and Dickinson > To: [email protected] > Date: Saturday, September 13, 2008, 2:20 PM > I was going to comment on Chuck Close not being a > contemporary > artist, either, actually, even though I continue to admire > and > appreciate the work of both Johns and Close. Since we are > no longer > in a modern era, but a postmodern one, I guess that's > what I use as > the "dividing line." Jasper Johns certainly > contributed to the > contemporary avant-garde of the 1950s and 60s along with > John Cage, > Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg and moved to Pop > Art making > the way for the postmodern art of Damien Hirst and other > Young > British Artists, as well as the array of global artists > involved in > Intermedia, Installation and multimedia. I think of > contemporary > artists as those who are contributing to current global > issues and > ideas. I don't know about presumptions of confronting > relevant > issues. What relevant issues? > > kkd > > >I wonder why you don't consider Jasper Johns a > contemporary artist. > >Where, exactly, is the dividing line between, say. > modern, and > >contemporary? Johns is still making work and we may > presume he is > >still confronting relevant issues. Is a contemporary > artist one > >whose work is not yet widely influential? > > > >WC > > > > > >--- On Sat, 9/13/08, kathleen desmond > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> From: kathleen desmond > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> Subject: It's Hirst and Dickinson > >> To: [email protected] > >> Date: Saturday, September 13, 2008, 1:33 PM > >> I couldn't help notice the inaccurate > spelling of the > >> names Damien > >> Hirst and Emily Dickinson, the inaccuracy of > calling Jasper > >> Johns a > >> contemporary artist, and the lack of context in > using these > >> artists > >> for comparison. > >> > >> > >> >To join William in reading between the lines > of the > >> Sendak interview -- we > >> >might notice that the names he places into > the iconic > >> artist club are all > >> >writers or composers. (Mozart, Melville, > Dickenson etc) > >> > > >> >I.e. -- Sendak is not giving ground to any > visual > >> artists -- and I suspect > >> >that he feels (as I do) that his memorable, > poignant, > >> narrative vision is a > >> >greater achievement than the work of > contemporary > >> iconic visual artists like > >> >Jasper Johns and Chuck Close. (and > way-way-way greater > >> than the billionaire > >> >joke artists like Damien Hurst) > >> > > >> >Either way -- only the obsessive mind of > Cheerskep > >> would find him nourishing > >> >the Platonic forms of "illustrator" > or > >> "artist". > >> > > >> > >____________________________________________________________ > >> >Internet Security Software - Click here. > >> > >http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/Ioyw6ijlZS7BfiQLJLajaGccEyrj8k > >> >HknQUt26DVcpx55Z0SnXzXCU/ > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Dr. Kathleen Desmond > >> Professor of Art History > >> Byler Distinguished Faculty > >> University of Central Missouri > >> Warrensburg, MO 64093 U.S.A. > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > 660-543-4620 > > > http://faculty.ucmo.edu/desmond/ > > > -- > Dr. Kathleen Desmond > Professor of Art History > Byler Distinguished Faculty > University of Central Missouri > Warrensburg, MO 64093 U.S.A. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 660-543-4620 > http://faculty.ucmo.edu/desmond/
