How to understand and evaluate contemporary western art?

1993 The topic of the February issue of Le Monde was Contemporary Art: Painter or Liar? As the title, it briefly reports a big debate that is taking place in French cultural circles today. As this article says, there is an increasingly strong view that contemporary art, which is currently on display in galleries, marketed at international fairs and celebrated by art galleries, has long lost its artistic essence and developed into "contemporary art". Is it "revolution" or "fraud"?

On the basis of spirit, critics lament the loss of art as a "good craft" in the past, and attack the obscure and meaningless criticism of contemporary works, and then think that the free spirit of art criticism has disappeared, the aesthetic judgment of art has followed the fashion trend of the market, the voice of artists has long been drowned out by the media and advertisements, and the transnational art market has almost dominated the news media, which is undoubtedly the death of art. The defending party still tries to distinguish the living art from the "modernist school" and praise it. I hope it is easy to see that the dialectical side is far less powerful than the attacking side and is losing ground. It can be said that the great debate on contemporary art in French cultural circles in the past two years has covered a wide range and touched the depth of the problem system, which has never been seen since World War II. Moreover, its scope was not limited to France from the beginning. It shocked the whole western art world and had a great influence on the trend of western art in the 2 1 century. This paper makes a brief summary of the opponents in this far-reaching debate.

A "nonsense": the collapse of evaluation criteria

One of the most extensive criticisms of contemporary art is that it has lost the accuracy of evaluation. Can art become art without distinction between good and bad? Jean Morinaud, a professor at Lausanne University in Switzerland, pointed out in the article Art Today that "Art today is something anyone can do, but no one can evaluate it. There are some chairs wrapped here, and there is a duck down quilt with some paint sprinkled on it. Instead of sticking regular stripes everywhere, there are always people watching, buying, cataloging, commenting and praising. Naturally, some people claim that they don't know anything. As Dardev in Moliere's play said, "It's ruined now! "

Francoise Gaillard simply called contemporary art "doing nothing" and traced its roots back to Du Xiang. She thinks that in 19 17, Du Xiang signed a name "R. Mutt" on a ready-made porcelain urinal, even if it was a subversion or ridicule of traditional art, art history had been written too much. "This small move is regarded as evidence by various pioneers and modern art historians ... all avant-garde movements are regarded as pioneers ... he dragged art into a whirlpool doomed to failure ... Since Dada, from 1920, we have been swinging in repeated deconstruction, and the deconstruction is repeated."

She then analyzed the reasons why this nonsense was not only accepted but also defended, and thought that the problem lay in the separation of art and aesthetics. Since anything or anything is realized casually, because an artist. Arbitrariness can enter the ranks of works of art, then this separation will naturally lead to the transfer of the ultimate purpose of "works of art", and since the emergence of modernity, this tortuous purpose has no longer taken beauty as the goal. "Nonsense. Two kinds of extremely clever avoidance, but let us see how the artistic goal is transferred. One is to find the essence of art, but that essence is always escaping, so that it can only be found in infinite limits (for example, from a single color to an empty exhibition hall, the experience of class can be explained). The second is to cause social controversy (all kinds of provocations, such as performance art, intermediary and installation, are also explained).

"Stupid" has two conditions. She quoted Thiers de Duve to explain how modernity in post-Du Xiang can be settled: "Nonsense" must be meaningful in art history or social history, and "Nonsense" must be tested or aroused. She further believes that "experiment and subversion are far from conflict, but complement each other ... the former is based on aesthetic soil and the latter is based on ideological soil. However, the crisis of contemporary art today is rooted in the collapse of all previous foundations. " In a pragmatic world, how can we ask to explore the essence of art? In a world accepted by everyone, how can there be an intention to protest? Artists (postmodern? ) Just playing tricks or accepting cynicism or opportunism is the only attitude recognized by our creative society. Therefore, critics have to sigh that art is finished. Finally, she sarcastically commented: "Thanks to Du Xiang, modernity may still emerge from this dead end, but who knows if time will plant long-term love again?"

Moreiro, on the other hand, attributed the loss of evaluation criteria to the loss of connotation of contemporary art, which has increasingly become a meaningless form. The artist's purpose is to play with empty forms, which is far from the spirit of modern art. He pointed out that even Kandinsky, the originator of abstract painting, is opposed to "an art that expresses nothing but simple geometric decoration, just like a carpet or tie". As Kandinsky said, artists "have to convey something, because grasping form is not an end, and form is just a kind of writing with internal expression." There is no pure art there. However, "the historian of modernity. Instead, write art as "March to the victory of purification." "As we all know, I will never reach the top of the mountain, but I will reach the back of the mountain. There is no theme, no object, no interest, no distance. Whether all the definitions and explanations of distance are fixed and everything else is put aside, which leads to the combination of colors in a certain order. Some forms, some forms, some actions, some actions, some effects, some ideas, etc. At the same time, "various misappropriation strategies, such as collage, off-the-shelf products, combinations and devices, have become more and more popular and abused. "

He believes that all this comes from the artist's pursuit of "self-sufficiency", which has become a basic principle of contemporary art, that is, the so-called "any component belonging to the overall artistic behavior can be separated, thus becoming a flexible strategy for artistic production. ..... or materials, or area, or frame, or the location of Chen Fang's works, or ideas such as conceptual art, or uncertain scars left by actions, naturally, in the final analysis, there is nothing to be ashamed of ... Some people regard this realization as the most extreme of art, and the inner deconstruction of art leaves only an empty shell ... We just push the process of artistic expression to the limit in our artistic expression era. " We finally know that everything is art nowadays.

Second, "new addiction": the denial of art itself

Another focus of contemporary art debate is the so-called "innovation principle". On the other hand, critics believe that contemporary art is based on the principle of "expressing one thing" and constantly criticizes predecessors. This impulse to seek new things forever. Innovation is good, which will inevitably lead to the denial of art itself, and art is increasingly regarded as "non-art" Replace. Jean-Philippe Domecq, the chief editor of Spirit magazine, summed it up as a "new addiction". He pointed out that "today's art is the opposition between modern and contemporary". The contemporary criticism of modernity only takes "innovation" as the sole criterion, and Andy Warch is an example.

199 1, Spirit published an article criticizing Andy. He pointedly called him a big star of the new art hobby promoted by art dealer Castries. As we all know, distant painters have made great efforts from the late American abstract expressionism to pop art, and Hehe's international tour has made a circle from new york to Paris, London, Frankfurt and Nice, making a sensation. "But what is the talent of Wo Wo? He is neither a painter nor an artist, but a great sociologist in the 1960s and a contemporary playboy, even without gender. His works are just a series of advertisements and media images, which have no artistic connotation at all. If they want to be regarded as a criticism of consumer society, a celebration of social creation, or a worthless image shaped by useless objects and images everywhere around us, they can do anything. Now his market has plummeted.

Domagk questioned the "innovation principle" regarded as the golden rule in the art world. Because, "according to the viewpoint that reproduction is bound to keep improving, it is considered better for an avant-garde to eradicate the former." Modern art also has rules and regulations from pioneer to pioneer, and fruitful heritage has been eradicated. "It has been worth decades, and even the previous pioneers have been broken. Far from historicism, as far as every pioneer is concerned, it was impossible to criticize at that time, because it was necessary at that time. Now it seems that this kind of thinking can be discussed.

Catherine Franklin believes that this innovative principle also makes artists lose their "self". She pointed out in the article "Obsessed with Physical Objects": "Since the beginning of this century, artists have stopped putting things into their works. Otherwise, they often lose themselves and the author disappears. " Du Xiang was not the initiator. In the first decade of this century, there was a "sticker revolution". Braque and Picasso were the initiators, and sauville praised them for "grasping the reality that they almost escaped in one fell swoop". In the 1960s, many people returned to China ... to the grandchildren of Schweitzer and Gabira, whose works have become substitutes for the sacred value of art and anti-aesthetic slogans calling for life. Pope and neo-realists nourish this charm with direct, vulgar and daily reality, so that their post-theorists further use objects and environments to imitate the space of museums and galleries, making it a third world of commercial advertising and entertainment ... The result of their fascination with objects ... inevitably makes artists disappear ... The most realistic works can only become a part of nature, a stone, a tree and a cloud. Facts, facts, so far away, seem to guide artists to dig their brains and spend time in recent decades.

Morillo called the principle of innovation another kind of despotism that destroyed art. He believed that Manet was attacked by the conservative bourgeoisie not at the end of the last century, but another kind of "modern despotism" in recent twenty years. Just make it new. Anyone who wants to show off his official skills will be accused of being a "reactionary" by public opinion manipulators if he has objections. Just like political left and right, it is either more or less open Marxism or shallow anti-communism. It is under the autocratic ideology that artistic pursuit is becoming more and more pure, innovative and self-sufficient. Now, if we reflect, shouldn't this axiom of linear evolution be abandoned? .

In short, the historical dogmatism caused by the gilded myth of modernity makes it only forward and progress, which is good and beautiful. Even those who are not the last wave of progress have become reactionaries.

3. A weak defense

On the side of defending contemporary art, some people attribute the problem to political struggle, which is regarded as the resurgence of the Rightists, while others think that it is the contradiction between innovation and conservatism, but they cannot refute the criticism of art.

Dali Philippe Dagen, an art critic, admitted in (the first book) that the controversy provoked by spirit has aroused people's anxiety in the art world and caused a great chaos. He also admitted that many official art institutions, museums and some responsible persons are "maintaining an official art collectively called' contemporary art'". He also recognized the criticism of Daniel Buren and thought that his works were "completely harmless and neutral politically and socially". , are some decorative items that have nothing to do with feeling and pain. He believes that "French official referees and the art market are in crisis, but it cannot be concluded that today's art is a deceptive trick or a mediocre work." "Take Hehe's success as the extreme of modern meaning, instead of waiting for time to judge, and put an" illustrator "on his head. Words, to no avail, let alone artistic philosophy. He went on to refute "distant genealogy" In particular, it points out the nothingness about future prospects and historical affirmation in Doman's Contemporary Anti-Modernity. Is it true that "only Jacques Medici, or Jacques Medici written by the French Academy poet Paonava, is the model of the 20th century ..."? His holy land, only art, only art can touch it, and creating emptiness and infinity can only be achieved in a mysterious spiritual trance. Art borders on mysticism? So what is the art of non-mysticism? The avant-garde of formalism. ? Does Picasso count? Take giacometti against Picasso? Is it the way out after the artistic order to oppose reproduction with presentation and continuous appearance with existence? Is the theological mission of restoring the existence of the Eucharist the crux of the case? Far-reaching theology obviously cannot tolerate all skeptics, awakening theorists, conceited painters and passionate analysis, such as Picasso or Warhol.

In fact, many critics still belong to the left among French intellectuals and do not advocate restoring the camp or returning to religion. It is obviously unconvincing to refute the reason that the rise of modernism changed with time at the end of last century, while avoiding the non-operational problems today. As far as art itself is concerned, an article by Didie Ottinger in the art magazine "Days aux Arts" (No.1 10, 1993) has touched the essence of the problem and affirmed the originator of contemporary art "nonsense".

He reviewed Du Xiang's great influence on art in this century and affirmed his achievements. He pointed out: 19 13, when Du Xiang put the bicycle fork on the white stool, it was "a contempt for the function of accumulating figures and colors on walls and canvases for thousands of years ... This unheard-of move created this ready-made product, and it was completely impossible to create any school for a long time. He believes that it is precisely because of Du Xiang's great shock that artists imitate him endlessly. " Since the late 1950s, artists in this century have been obsessed with Du Xiang's inventions. 1959, the first English monograph about his works was published in Niu Chun, and a group of American artists introduced articles into their paintings. Subsequently, pop artists expanded the application of objects and the images they picked up. In France, the original "style" from ready-made products is accompanied by the emergence of new realism. Crystal uses ready-made product packaging, arman uses it for re-reading, Sperry uses it for pasting, and Tinelli and Cesar use it for combination. At the same time, Sanriouand also used his equipment to satisfy the field of metaphysics. Year after year, artistic schools made of objects have multiplied, such as Cragg's Baroque style, Flavin's formalism and geometric classical style, while Karl? Andel assembles neon lights or bricks. The art of violating things is not only the narrative art of Sienhoe, but also the graphic art of Warhol or Lichtenstein. NamJune Paik's combination of TV picture tubes is urban, while Richard rong's arrangement of stones and rotten wood is ecological. Postmodernism throughout history is obviously supported by the clothes rack left by Du Xiang. He has repeatedly stressed that in the 1960s and 1970s, all the most radical avant-garde, even those who were afraid of not making products, seemed to come from Du Xiang. In 1950s, the first batch of performance art was born in Montenegro College due to the communication between musician's club Job Cage, dancer Mere Cunningham and painters Rauschenberg and Du Xiang. Both the pioneering works of Robert Maugham's conceptual art in 1963 and the body art in 1960s were undoubtedly inspired by Du Xiang. Therefore, "the artistic boldness and violation of this century ... all come from Du Xiang. Avantgarde equals Du Xiang. " Now everyone has a finished product! These people include many critics, philosophers, historians, pretentious imitators, flatterers and many professors from authentic colleges.

In fact, when Du Xiang commented on his contemporary art in 1962, he already felt the danger of the trend spreading, and art might degenerate into "fooling around". He once said, "Dada's legacy, the so-called new realism, pop, combination and so on, is just an easy game made by Dada's achievements." And I invented ready-made products at that time, with the intention of pouring cold water on smoky aestheticism. But the new Dada is used to discover their so-called aesthetic value. However, if Odin acts like him, Du Xiang is not a hidden opponent of postmodernism. In his view, to reread Du Xiang's works, we must abandon the dualism of good and evil between his idolaters and frustrated opponents. The narrator then analyzes the visual effects and erotic elements in Du Xiang's works, and reviews the evolution of his ready-made works. He believes that the third dimension is one of the cores of Du Xiang's eroticism, and the rib is his attempt to transcend the outdated perspective and plane in history and find a spicy road. " Therefore, his distant works constantly stimulate the retinas of Puritans and dualists of good and evil, and make the modernist hypocrites who stubbornly block the uplift with fig leaf uneasy today.

However, no matter how to defend, whether to affirm Du Xiang's historical position or praise his great influence on postmodern art, the supporters of contemporary art can't give an evaluation of today's art. Looking back at history, it's just the provocation of art to society, and the theory of continuous revolution of art, or the novelty theory derived from modernism, has become fashionable in today's consumer society, but it no longer has the significance of social criticism.

Is this how contemporary art works? Is it the way to deny art or the way out for art? Must the questioning of contemporary art go back? Even back to the nineteenth century? You must return to religion? Violation is worth discussing and studying.

Four. The problem behind the argument

This heated debate is naturally not only an academic debate, it involves not only the current cultural policy in France, but also the traces of the struggle between the left and right factions in the French political situation. What's more, the dispute of Dojo reflects the general crisis of western culture today. The outbreak after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s was accidental. As Le Monde commented, there have been similar debates about modern and contemporary art for a long time ... As early as 1987, Spirit published Olivier Mongin's article How to Judge Contemporary Art, and in 1988, Domak also called in the magazine: "A debate about contemporary art is waiting for us. As early as 198 1, Le Monde published the anthropologist Levi? Shi Tuo's criticism of contemporary art is entitled "Lost Craft". In the February issue of 1986, Modern also published Plastic Arts: the Image of a Policy, while the Review criticized it in the fourth issue of 1990 with the title of French Cultural Policy. However, it was not until the July and August issues of Spirit (199 1) and Modern Art (1992) and February issues (10) (contemporary art versus modern art? " Successive three-level shooting has aroused strong repercussions from many newspapers and art publications. So that the contemporary art fair held in Paris in June 5438+the same year 10 just opened, and the live news program of France TV 2 could not stop the critics. Someone exclaimed: "Before the Rightists came to power, they had already called contemporary art to death."

It is not difficult to find that the problem has gone far beyond the old pattern of the dispute between the old and the new, the dispute between innovation and conservatism, and beyond the traditional political division between the left and the right in France. One of the hidden central problems is how to treat "modernity".

The supporters of contemporary art are undoubtedly defending the modernity embodied in modern art and post-modern art. Undoubtedly, the loss of artistic specialty and elite status, the artistic form revolution combining mass media and commercial circulation are the important nature of contemporary western society, while the critics of contemporary art doubt and reflect on whether it is reasonable to express modernity.

As the greedy Luo said: "From Baudelaire to Benjamin, the aesthetic thought nurtured by the protest against the era of mass production is meaningless in the society of an era ... We have entered another new modernity ... The greatest advantage of the distant era lies in getting rid of the obstacles of linear and dialectical development ... Everything is everywhere, and what art is a foregone conclusion. Everyone has the right and obligation to judge the price compensation ... Picasso may not be the greatest painter of this century. Unclassified Paul? Klee does not belong to any school, does not belong to any fashionable theory, and is closer to our other modernity.

Art News, a theoretical journal that has always supported contemporary art, published a special issue of "Are Press 'l 'Histoire Continue" (END1992), which reviewed contemporary art and put forward a viewpoint. The essence of the debate is how to treat modernity. Catherine Miller, editor-in-chief of the magazine, believes that "the problem of contemporary art lies in how to look at modernity again." People are far from understanding some paradigms of modernity, even those who act as defenders of modernity. Art institutions, colleges, markets and mass media all open their doors to all new things, leading to the proliferation of defective products and the loss of value.

She admits that "it is too natural to understand the relationship between art and the public according to the fate model of impressionism: the bourgeoisie first resents it, then feels it, and finally throws it away." In the 1960s and 1970s, we sincerely believed that the first batch of bees we protected would have the same fate. At that time, they also wanted to criticize society ... they all believed that it was effective to spread the enthusiasm of the new church. However, I didn't expect that times have changed. "The extreme laissez-faire attitude of modern and contemporary art museums, which is against rejecting the past, has now exhausted the artistic quality of countless mediocre works." In order to avoid the jokes made by ancestors in front of Manet, middle-class art lovers all over the world compete to consume all kinds of substitutes made by most people in the art world. The old market mechanism has also driven some other industries. Executives in public and private institutions compete with more and more art critics, and discovering new artists every day has become an economic and moral reason for their lives. She also cited the recent adulation of Bren and Quince as examples. "The consequences of the art world's population expansion. One is that "it's too late for newcomers to enter the stage of art history, so they have to start a big debate on their own." The last wave of heresy or pretend controversy in the United States (such as holzer, Kruger, Gober, Harmons and Bami) fully meets the expectations of the global middle class. Secondly, the intellectuals, writers and critics who participated in the first avant-garde have parted ways with the art world, and some of them are the most outstanding figures, because this site does not need much thinking. And then give up going to other cities. Therefore, the articles and works in this art world lack judgment. Most of them are mediocre, mixed, patchwork and specious. From then on, the field of art is no longer the site of new ideas, but imitates the media, with degraded ideas and poor vocabulary.

She just attacked postmodernism and thought that "postmodernism is the ideology of the global middle class." His historicism turned to all previous debts to affirm the product of the current order, no matter what it is. It goes hand in hand with eclecticism and cancels all value judgments. Just like some people (such as Danto and Belting) claim that history is over, everything can be written as human history, and there is no need for aesthetic choice, because by defining choice and excluding the former, it is concluded that the latecomers will definitely reach the top. This is not only a cynical position, but also shows a dual personality, because choices always have a moral orientation.

"In recent years, many artists have accepted the restrictions put forward by the spirit of postmodernism, not only those abstract painters, but also a number of ready-made products. Before making the fable that history has ended, those who turned Du Xiang's behavior into a myth have limited the possible world of art with such a proposition of art and non-art. Choose one thing and make a picture. Or images. What angle of view and framing of Euphorbia spurge, such as Ravel's Painted Things and stereo photo ... Bill's (ready-made products as big as houses ... Mertz's chopping wood and neon lights ... Kohler's doll ... Gober inserted candles in wax ... Du Xiang Park's move. He could have predicted that one day, the sleeping people turned out to be the public. Postmodern ideology is not without temptation, because the trick of ending history is fascinating ... it is a magic lamp. Is it just to escape from the darkness? , "the screen lit up. "Is it a gift like a blind bug? Or subconscious? " Or, some electronics, media, and now aesthetic screens are just two huge screen polyhedrons of fetishism and iron?

To sum up, it is not difficult to see that this debate has gone far beyond the scope of contemporary art, and has also affected the concept and history of modern art since this century. Moreover, it seems to be just the beginning. Contemporary Literature and Aesthetics Review also came into being. For example, the criticism of Milo crisis in contemporary France involves Barthes' post-structuralism, and the criticism of deconstruction is also seen in the text. Many articles were published in Spirit and Art News. The more realistic background is the era of ideological collapse and non-ism.

Le Nouvel Observer (No.1508, 1993) exclaimed that "the political guidepost of French intellectuals has completely disappeared, and the original one has certainly disappeared, but the original idea is appropriate." Many famous intellectuals even said that it is meaningless for the left and the right to make some tunes. , "the third kind of intellectuals appeared? "An unheard-of world is stirring. The changes in the past twenty years are better than those in the two centuries. After all, it will never be miserable and messy, and it will be wonderful to stir up. In his recent philosophical work The Ghost of Marx, jacques derrida called for "the spirit of Marx" and the establishment of a "new international". Is returning to Marxism the way out?