Journal Article

Depiction, Object, Event

Wall, Jeff

2007

Overview

Discusses the expansion of the field of canonic art forms since the 1950s, with reference to the depictive and anti-depictive qualities of modern and modernist art, fine art's engagement from the mid-20th century with the movement arts, and the post-Conceptual claim for a form of art which is not a work of art. Comments on the issue of depiction in art with reference to the Minimalist object, Duchamp's use of the readymade and Conceptual art's substitution of the written text for artwork. Considers the emergence of movement arts in the avant-garde art events of the 1970s, commenting on the blurring of boundaries with mass culture that this effected, noting the role played by Warhol and Pop art. Notes the mimetic, hybrid, neo-Situationism of the social forms of art events at 21st century biennials, and suggests that the formlessness of these events signify them as a final new art form. Concludes by discussing the autonomy of art and the question of aesthetic criteria in the context of innovative art's departure from canonic art forms.

• Publisher: Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and California Institute of the Arts
• Subject: Art objects / Arts organizations / Canonical forms / Conceptual art / Dance / Mimesis / Minimalism / Modern art / Modernist art / Radicalism