A landmark study in the history of modern art – revised, updated and expanded ‘The book is important, not because it gives neat answers but because it raises questions’ – Sir Nicholas Serota, Di rector, Tate
‘Turn off The Culture Show and and Late Review , put down Time Out and and read this book instead. It has a good clear structure, providing a year-by-year account of what happened. It provides facts and dates but also philosophy. It attempts to bring the past into the present’ – Matthew Collings, The Guardian ‘A survey that understands, brilliantly, that the job of survey books is not to paint a picture of a territory, but to provide a map that others may use to navigate their own course’ – Tom Morton, Blueprint
HAL FOSTER ROSALIND KRAUSS YVE- ALAIN ALAIN BOIS BENJAMIN H.D. BUCHLOH DAVID JOSELIT
‘The significance of Art Since 1900 can’t can’t be underestimated: psychoanalysis and poststructuralism are now inescapable methodologies that must be taken on board
ART SINCE
by mainstream art history’ – Claire Bishop, Artforum
MODERNISM ANTIMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM
1900
‘The definitive history of twentieth-century art … spectacular, and painstakin gly conceived’ – Gaby Wood, The Observer ‘The level of discussion is simply far more interesting than in any other guide to
ART MODERNISM ANTIMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM
twentieth-century art’ – Norman Bryson, University of California, San Diego ‘This is no ordinary survey … it opens theoretical and historical perspectives on twentieth-century art with a sparkling clarity every reader will appreciate’ – Mignon Nixon, Courtauld Institute of Art
‘A remarkable collective work. It criss-crosses the entire twentieth century in complex and fascinating ways. Written by four of the most innovative scholars of modern art history today, it is a landmark’ – Briony Fer, University College London
This sales blad contains uncorrected proofs of sample pages in miniature. The full specification for the book itself is:
Trimmed page size: 27.7 x 21.6 cm Hardback 816 pages with 744 illustrations, 510 in colour ISBN 978-0-500-23889-9
HAL FOSTER ROSALIND KRAUSS YVE - ALAIN ALAIN BOIS BENJAMIN BENJA MIN H.D. H. D. BUCHLOH DAVID JOSELIT
£48.00
(price subject to change without notice) Thames & Hudson
181A High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX www.thamesandhudson.com
SECOND EDITION
SECOND EDITION
SINCE
1900
EadweardMuybridge(1830–1904) andÉtienne-JulesMarey(1830–1904) heEnglishmanEadweardMuybridgeand theFrenchman Étienne-Jules Mareyare yoked intime and by work: notonlydo theyshare the same birthand deathdates, butalso togethertheypioneered the photographicstudyof movementinways thatinfluenced notonlythe development of Futuristartbutalso the modernrationalizationof labor and,itcould be argued,of space–time ingeneral. Firstknownas aphotographerof AmericanWestand Central Americanlandscapes,Muybridge was enlisted in1872 by Leland Stanford,themillionaireex-governorofCalifornia,ina racing dispute aboutthe gaitof horses.In Palo Alto,Muybridge photographed horseswithabatteryofcameras;typically,he arranged the images inrows and reshottheminagrid thatcould bescannedbothhorizontallyandvertically.Abook, The Horse inMotion ,whichStanford bowdlerized,appeared in1882, the same yearthatMuybridge sailed to Europe foralecture tour. InParis he was welcomed by Marey,the famous photographer Nadar,the SalonpainterErnestMeissonier,and the great physiologistHermannvonHelmholtz—someindicationofthe range of interestinthis work thatregistered perceptual units beyond the limits of humanvision. UnlikeMuybridge,whoconsidered himselfan artist,Marey was aphysiologistbytraining who had previouslyworked on graphicmethods to record motion.Whenhe firstsaw workby Muybridgeinthesciencejournal La Nature in1878,he turned to photographyas amore precise and neutral wayto register discrete movement.Mareyfirstdevised aphotographicgun withacircularplatethatyielded near-instantaneousserial photographs fromasingularviewpoint.He then used aslotted diskinfront of the camerato breakup movementinset intervals thatcould be registered onasingle photographicplate; itwas this workthathe firstdescribed as “chronophotography.” Inorderto avoid superimposition,Mareyclad his subjects entirelyinblack,withmetal-studded strips along arms and legs (bits of paperwere used foranimals).Along with the singularviewpoint,this device effectivelyrestored a spatio-temporal coherenceto the veryperceptual fieldthat was otherwise fragmented.Itwas more scientificthanthe Muybridge approach,whichdid not have aconsistentpoint of view orinterval betweenimages,butitwas also less radical inits disruptionof the apparentcontinuumof vision. Itwas this disruptionthatmost intrigued the modernists— the Futurists intheirpursuitof asubversive speed,and artists like Marcel Duchamp intheirsearchfor spatio-temporal dimensions notpreviouslyperceived.Butcould itbe that,like Muybridge and Marey,these artists were also involved ina historical dialecticthatfarexceeded theirworkas individuals —amoderndialecticof aceaseless renovationof perception, of aperpetual liberating and redisciplining of visionthatwould persistthroughoutthetwentiethcentury?
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A liberati on of language: parole in li bertà ZangTumbTuum of1914,thefirstcollectionofMarinett i’s“free
5 UmbertoBoccioni, Dynamism of a Speeding Horse and House , 1914–15
Gouache, oil, wood, paste-board, copper, and painted iron, 112.9 x 115 (44 1 ⁄ 2 x 451 ⁄ 4 )
wordpoetry”was prefacedby hisslightlyearliermanifestoof Futurist poetry, Destruction of Syntax—Imagination without .Usingasetof expressivetypographic Strings—Words-in-Freedom andorthographic variationsand anunstructuredspatial organization, ZangTumbTuum triestoexpressthesights,sounds,and smellsof thepoet’sexperiencei nTripoli. Thisassertionof “wordsin-fre edom”emerg edfromalongand complica teddialoguewith late-nineteenth-centurySymbolistpoetry andits early-twentiethcenturylegacy in France.Althoughdeeply influen cedby, and dependentupon, theexampleof Mallarm é,Marinettipublicly declare dhisoppositiontotheFrenchpoet’sprojec t.Insistingthat
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Unique Formsof ContinuityinSpace ,which retains thetraditional
sculptural methods of modeling and bronze-casting, the work incorporates industrially produced materials as called for in Boccioni’s own manifesto: leather, found fragments of glass, shards of metal,preformed elements of wood.One of the firstfully nonrepresentational sculpturesof the twentiethcentury,it compares most adequately with the abstract sculpture produced in Russiaatthat time byVladimir Tatlin. Insofaras collage surfaced as the keytechnique inthe contradictoryrange of Futurism’s attempts to fuse avant-garde sensibilities withmass culture,Carrà’s Interventionist Demonstration [ 6] is a central example of the Futuristaestheticas it came to aclimax just before World War I.Indeed,the work incorporates all of the devices withwhichFuturismwas mostengaged: the legacyof divisionistpainting;the Cubistfragmentation of traditional perceptual space;the insertionof clippings from newspapers and found materialsfrom advertising;thesuggestionof kinesth esiathrough a visual dynamicsetup bythe collage’s constructionas bothavortex and amatrix of crisscrossing powerlines setas mutuallycounteractivediagonals ;and last,butnotleast,the juxtapositionof the separatephoneticdimensionof languagewithits graphicsignifiers. Typicallyenough,the phoneticperformance of languagein Interventionist Demonstration i s i n a l m o s t a l l i n st a nc e s o n o matopoeic.In directlyimitatingthe sounds ofsirens(the wail evoked by “HU-HU-HU-H U”),the screechesof engines and machineguns (“TRrrrrrrrr”or“traaak tatatraak”),thescreams of people(“EVVIVAAA”),it isdistinctly differentfromthe structural
3
1911, 1912
1909 | The f ir st Futur ist ma ni fe sto is pub lishe d
2
Damien Hirst’s The Dream (2008) shown at the “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” auction exhibition at Sotheby’s, London, September 2008
“apostrophizesourpresentera of plutocraticdemocracy,sinking scads ofmoneyin agesture of solidaritywith lower-class taste.” Appropriately,infall 2008 Koons staged ashow of his recentproductionatthat touristMecca,the royal palaceatVersailles. Two years later, Murakamicaused greatcontroversywith his ownexhibition at the same venue.The Japanese arti st has exploited the convergence of art, media,and market evenmore thoroughlythanKoons has.If the latteroperates withsmartselections fromthe repertoire of Westernkitsch, the formerdevelops figures of his ownbranding inspired bythe Japanese subcultures of otaku (oftentranslated as “geek”) and kawaii (“cuteness”).Otaku fans tend to be male adolescents obsessed withparticularcharacters in manga (comicbooks) and anime (televisionprograms and films);some are actionfigures to identifywith, while others are submissive girls to fantasize about.Anearly attemptbyMurakami inthe otaku veinwas MissKo 2 (1997),a combinationof apixie blonde girl withherhairina ribbonand a buxompornstarina skimpywaitress costume. MissKo 2 was nota hitamong otaku fans—apparentlyshe did not appear submissive enough—but Murakamihas proved more successful withmotifs thatplayonthe female-oriented subculture of kawaii , suchas his zestymush-
1914
94
analysisofthe phonetic,thetextual,and thegraphiccomponentsof languageinRussianCubo-Futurist poetryor the calligrammes of Apollinaire.Thejuxtaposition ofanti-Germanwarslogans (“Down withAustro-H ungary ”)withfound advertisingmaterial,or the concatenationof Italianpatriotic declarations(“Italia Italia”)with musicalfragments ,continuesthetechniqueofCubistcollagebut turnsthisaest hetic intoa newmodelofmass-culturalinstigatio n andpropaganda.Itsglorificationofwarisfurtherregisteredinthe drumbeatsevoked bythewords “ZANGTUMBTUUM.”
Jeff Koons, Balloon Dog (Magenta), 1994–2000, installed in the Château de Versailles, France, 2008
High-chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating, 307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 (121 x 143 x 45)
6 Carlo Carrà, Interventionist Demonstration , 1914
Tempera and collage on cardbo ard, 38.5 x 30 (151 ⁄ 8 x 113 ⁄ 4 ) 1912
rooms,smileyflowers,toddlers called “Kaikai” and “Kiki” (his corporationis titled in theirhonor), and,above all,“MrDOB.” Named aftera manga character,DOB closelyresembles aMickey Mouse whose head (thatis all he is) spells out his name (Dand B appearonhis ears,and his faceis anO).Toothyand sinisterin his first incarnation,DOB was quicklyrefashioned as infantile and cute;asit happen s,Mickeyevolvedin simila rfashion,andthe branding of DOB does seembased onthatof the Disneystar. AlthoughJapandoes nothold to the separationbetween high and low culture thatonce marked the modernWest,Murakami still spans socioeconomicregisters inaway thatmightbe unprecedented.His brightmutants like DOBappearboth inthe costliest paintings and sculptures and inthe cheapest merchandise (stickers,buttons,keychains,dolls ,etc.);theycanbe found inmajor museums as well as inconvenience stores.The graffitiartist Keith Haring had some of this marketrange inthe eighties; his signature figures of “the radiantbaby” and “the barking dog” also extended fromT-shirts to artwork.Yet his “Pop Shop” was small beercompared to the Murakamicorporation,whichoffers suchservices as advertising,packaging, animation,exhibition development,and website production.Atone point,the multitasking Murakamialso
The f ir st Futur ist ma ni fe sto is pub lishe d | 1909
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735
1980 |
Dada Fair
Art and the market
| 2007c
2007 c | Art and the market
Dada Fair |
1980
was the same yearthat China’s leaderDeng Xiaoping initiated the marketreforms that were to setoff China’s massive economic growthin the ensuing decades.The members of the Stars (which included AiWeiwei) worked indiverse styles,butwhathistorians identifyas theirmost significantaccomplishmentas agroup was theirinvention of the “unofficial exhibition” inChina, typically presented alongside official presentations as akind of “parasite.” The “Stars” show in1979, forinstance, was installed outside the eastgate of the National ArtGalleryin Beijing during the National ArtExhibitionfor the thirtiethanniversaryof the founding of the People’s Republicof China; it was closed downby the police, leading to ademonstrationconvened at Beijing’s famous DemocracyWall,and it ultimatelygarnere d a front- page story inthe NewYork Times ,as well as the consternationof the highestranks 4 Ai Weiwei, Fairytale, project for Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany, 2007 oftheChinesegovernment. Qing Dynasty wooden chairs (1644–1911) Tenyearslater,in 1989, justmonths beforethe Democracy thatdespite the muchgreate rcomplexityof transp orting1001 Movement(knowninChinaas theJuneFourt hMovement)was peopletoKasselas opposedtoshipping1001chairs there,itis very brutallysuppressedbythe armyinTiananmenSquar e,another likely that theaverageDocumentavisitorhadnocontactwhat- importantexhibition“China/Avant-Garde”wascloseddown twice soeverwith,and perhapsnoawareness of,the Chinesetouristsof duringitstwo-week run.Thisexhibition surveyedalively rangeof Fairytale ,whileeveryvisitorwouldhavenoticedthepresenceof artists’groups andexperimental activitiesthat occurredbetween 1001chairsthatconnotetraditional“Chinese identity.”Partof Ai’s 1985and1989aspartof whatwascalledtheNewWave,andit fairytale concernshowobjectscommunicateas envoysofpersons encompassedexperimentsinseveralmedia, includingperformance ornations—andwhat betterimagefor suchstand-insthan empty andinstalla tion.Thiseffloresc enceofartactivityarosepartlyin chairs?Fairytale ,then,juxtaposedtwodifferentpublicsthat werein responsetonew flowsof informationaboutmodernart andcritdangerof completelymissingone another:a publiccomposedof icaltheory fromabroadduringtheeighti es,andpartlyduetoa ChinesecitizensdiscoveringaEuropeancityforthe firsttime,anda domesticinfrast ructu reof unoff icialartjournals,includingthe publiccomposedoflargelyEuropeanandAmericanart enthusiasts Beijing-basedweekly FineArtsin China andthe Wuhanquarterly discoveringasetofChinese artifacts.Eachgroupnodoubtbrought TheTrendofArt Thought ,whichtiedtogetherdivers epractices theirown preconceptionsandexpectationsto theexperienceand there foreinevitably tookawaymeaningsthathadas muchtodo withthemselvesas withtheir encounterwiththe foreign.Inother words, Fairytale providesa highlynuanced andmultilevel enactmentofglobalization,not asa small,unifiedworld,but asa world ofpeopleandthingsthat travelatdifferentspeedsin whichconnectionsaremissedas oftenastheyare made. Inhis understanding of the workof artas a compositionof differentpublics—particularlyof aChinese publicencountering the West,and aWestern publicencountering Chinese material culture—Aiprovides anapt introductionto contemporaryart in China,whichsince the mid-nineties has beenanobjectof fascinationand financial speculationin the West.The arthistorian Wu Hung has argued that exhibitions are central to anunderstanding of contemporaryChinese artthroughtheir capacityto opensmall, temporary,butoftenvirulent publicspheres whereanintellectual and artisticvanguard canincrementallybroadenthe scope of artisticfreedomas well as political speechin China.The firstwatershed exhibitionafterthe end of Mao Tse-Tung’s Cultural Revolutionin 1976—adecade during whichopeni ntellectual and culturallife was severelysuppressed and artistic productionwas narrowly channeled into official SocialistRealistrepresentations inservice to 5 Wang Guangyi, Great Criticism: Marlboro, 1992 the state—was organized byagroup called the “Stars” in1979.This Oil on canvas, 175 x 175 (68 ⁄ x 68 ⁄ )
736
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3 RobertMotherwell, At Five in the Afternoon, 1949
Casein on board, 38.1 x 50.8 (15 x 20)
starting over,”wrote Thomas B.Hess,“and the whole image [is kept]underrigorouscontrol.”
lamenting the deathof abullfighter [ 3 ].Such posturing doesnot necessarilycharacterize the working method of all the Abstract Expressionists,butthe veryfactthat itwas possible atall (and that itwould be thoroughlyimitated bylegions of youngerartists once Signature style the movementhad become widelysuccessful,thatis, bythe midAs fordesigning a“logo,”atrap thatNewman called the “diagram” fifties) merits consideration.Gottlieb’s clouds hovering above an and whichhe paradoxicallyavoided byaddressing the issue atthe allusive horizon,Kline’s broad and energetic brush-strokes in outsetwhenhe opted forthe simplestpossible spatial markers (his slickerandslickerblackpaint[ 5 ],and Still’s dry shards quickly became patented figures of style.EvenRothko’s horizontal parti immediatelyrecognizable vertical “zips”),one can also date its beginning to 1948.Acase inpoint is Motherwell’s lifelongElegyto tions of his vertical canvases [ 4 ] fitinto thiscategory:were it the SpanishRepublic series (more than140 paintings),based on notforthesustainedinventivenessof hiscolorchords,andthe anink drawing conceived in1948 as anillustration fora poemby ensuing enigmas of figure–ground relations thathis works continRosenberg and destined forthe second (neverpublished) issue of ued to pose till the end,his artmay have beenexhausted bythe Possibilities : pulling outthe tinysketchfroma drawerone year artist’smanic overproduction. later,Motherwell scrupulouslyreproduced it,withall its scumbling Inshort,the serialityof AbstractExpressionism,intheend, had contours and paint runoffs,on a somewhatlarger canvas now muchincommonwith thatof themovementsaidto haveprecipigiventhe title AtFive inthe Afternoon ,the famous refrainof an tateditsdemise —Popart. JasperJohns(born1930)and Robert elegy by the Spanish poetand dramatist Federico García Lorca Rausch enber g (1925–2008), whose rise to fameimmediate ly
4 MarkRothko, Number 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange), 1949
3 Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, 2010
Oil on canvas, 216.5 x 163.8 (85 1 ⁄ x 641 ⁄ )
Installation view
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