artintelligence

A couple of weeks ago the title for a book sprang into my mind “The End of Art” it seemed like a very good title for a book that I would like to write. I was rather disappointed, therefore, to learn that this book had already been written. But, of course, when I actually got hold of this book—which is by the art critic Donald Kuspit—it was not the book that I wanted to write.

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Photography was largely spurned by the world of fine art for over one hundred and twenty years (the daguerreotype was invented 1839). There were some notable exceptions such as dada photomontage, surrealist photography and constructivist photography—but these were always on the fringes of the principal activities which were painting and sculpture.  It was only in  the 1970s when conceptual art began to use photography as a primary mode of expression that photography, finally, took centre stage.  This became reinforced by the fact that conceptual photography segued in the late 1970s into the postmodern appropriation movement (Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Sherrie Levine) that dominated the international art scene in the 1980s. (more…)

One of the more interesting works on view in the Neue Nationalgalerie was Mine, Ours, Everywhere II, 2008, by Isabel Lima. This consisted of a small square canvas (click image left) that carried various dirt marks on its surface which tied in extremely well with Thea Djordjadze’s enormous dirty window, which was one of the highpoints of the Neue Nationalgalerie aspect of the Berlin Biennial. One of the rather odd things about Mine, Ours, Everywhere II was that it was accompanied by a label. This was strange because none of the other works in the exhibition had labels. (more…)

There is a scene in Sam Mendes’ American Beauty, 1999, when Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) says to Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) ’do you want to see the most beautiful thing I’ve ever filmed?’ From the standpoint of an aesthetics of contemporary art this is actually quite a significant scene. (more…)

I found Manon De Boer’s contribution to the 5th Berlin Biennial Two Times 4′33″, 2007-8 significant not because I liked it—I thought it was tedious—but because it is an especially clear sign of the degeneration of conceptual art into pretentiousness, self-absorption, and repetition. This was not a work of art at all, it was a non-musical, non-performance with a banal attempt at art tacked on at the end. (more…)

In previous posts on the Biennial I have focused on video, in this post I will treat the work of Czech artist Katerina Šedá which was the best sculptural material on exhibition in the Biennial’s principal venue, the KW Institute. In addition, Šedá also had an apparently related grunge sculptural installation in the Skulpturenpark, which was accompanied by a document (see end of post) which suggested that it might have some kind of “social” aspect, although this was expressed in a very vague manner. (more…)

One of the stranger pieces exhibited in the Italian pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale was Mario Garcia Torres’ What Happens in Halifax Stays in Halifax (In 36 Slides), 2004-2006. This work consists of 50 black-and-white slides which advance slowly into one another via a dissolve effect, the whole show lasting nine minutes. At Venice the projection was very dark which intensified the notion that these images had possibly been discovered in a shoebox.

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In 2001 the Scottish artist Martin Creed won the prestigious Turner Prize for his work Work No. 227, The Lights Going On and Off, 2000. The award was greeted by a furore of protest in the British press, and not only the tabloid press. One wonders why we are still surprised by works such as The Lights Going On and Off. (more…)

Ceal Floyer’s work takes the Readymade aesthetic to its logical conclusion. For Nail Biting Performance, 2001, she walked onto the stage at Birmingham Symphony Hall immediately prior to the beginning of a concert and bit off her fingernails into the microphone. This performance was hosted by the Ikon Gallery Birmingham (England) and an Ikon Gallery text reports: “Her ‘nail biting performance’ took stage-fright as its subject, the artist, bit her fingernails into a microphone for five minutes. The sight of her alone amongst the musicians’ empty chairs, accompanied by the amplified sound of nervousness, was affecting and tense.” (Ikon). (more…)