Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In this article, the author explores the metaphysical underpinnings of Fried’s Art and Objecthood (1998[1967]) in order to tease out its reliance on several of the tenets of conservative art criticism: Plato’s theory of forms, Kant’s aesthetics and the unquestioning acceptance of subjectivity and representation. He argues that it is due to these investments that Art and Objecthood fails to come to terms with the condition of art in the age of advanced technology and virtual (simulated) reality. This argument develops by means of clarification of three key concepts: simulacrum, theatricality and truth.

Keywords

postmodernism readymade representation simulacrum theatricality truth

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adorno

(1983[1966]) Negative Dialectics, trans. Ashton

. Continuum International Publishing Group, New York

Adorno

(1997[1970]) Aesthetic Theory, ed. Tiedemann

Adorno

, trans. Kentor–Hullot

. London: Continuum.

Artaud

(1958) The Theater and Its Double, trans. Richards

. New York: Grove Press.

Beistegui

(2012) Aesthetics after Metaphysics. Abingdon: Routledge.

Cabanne

Duchamp

(1987) Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. Boston, MA: Da Capo Press.

Deleuze

(2004[1968]) Difference and Repetition, trans. Patton

. London: Continuum.

Deleuze

Guattari

(2003[1980]) A Thousand Plateaus, trans. Massumi

. London: Continuum.

Derrida

(2001) Writing and Difference, trans. Bass

. London: Routledge.

Foster

(1996) The Return of the Real: The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century. Boston, MA: October Books, MIT Press.

10.

Foucault

(1996[1972]) Preface: Introduction to the non-Fascist life. In: Deleuze

Guattari

(eds) Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press, 427.

11.

Fried

(1998[1967]) Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

12.

Fried

(2005) Barthes’ punctum. Critical Inquiry 31(3): 539–574.

13.

Golding

(2001) 9½ Poetics for a non-Fascist life (or the importance of possessing the dead). Parallax 7(2): 81–84.

14.

Golding

(2010) Conversion on the road to Damascus: Minority report on art. In: Garnett

Hunt

(eds) Gest: Laboratory of Synthesis #1. London: BookWorks, Kingston University.

15.

Grudin

(2016) Beholder, beheld, beholden: Theatricality and capitalism in Fried. Oxford Art Journal 39(1): 35–47.

16.

Houlgate

(2007) Hegel and the Arts. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

17.

Irigaray

(1985[1974]) Speculum of the Other Woman, trans. Gill

. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

18.

Lacan

(1953) Some reflections on the ego. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 34: 11.

19.

Lacoue-Labarthe

(1998) Typography: Mimesis, Philosophy, Politics, ed. Wellbery

. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

20.

Lyotard

J-F

(1984a) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge,trans. G Bennington and B Massumi. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

21.

Lyotard

J-F

(1984b) The sublime and the avant-garde. In: Benjamin

(ed.) The Lyotard Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.

22.

Lyotard

J-F

(2004) Libidinal Economy, trans. Grant

. London: Continuum.

23.

Nechvatal

(2001) Film-philosophy. Salon 5(36).

24.

Olkowski

(1999) Gilles Deleuze and the Ruin of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.

25.

Palmer

(2016) Go pro: The hyper-professionalization of the emerging artist. ARTnews. Available at: www.artnews.com/2016/03/09/go-pro-the-hyper-professionalization-of-the-emerging-artist/ (accessed 12 December 2016).

26.

Plato (1997[c. 380 BCE]) The Republic. In: Hutchinson

Cooper

(eds) Complete Works. Indianapolis: Hackett.

27.

Wilson

(2011) The personal is the art historical. Parallax 17(4): 127–129.

Failure to Engage: Art Criticism in the Age of Simulacrum

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References