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Order vs Chaos: the evolution of contemporary art

Focus questions

Why has the author used the heading Order/Chaos for an article about modernism and postmodernism? Use examples to illustrate your answer.

Which frames would you employ to unpack (a) modernism and (b) postmodernism? Explain using specific examples.

This article traces the historical and critical paradigms between modernist and postmodernist aesthetic conventions. It employs the frames as methods of investigation

There are a number of tasks including:

There is one Assessment Task included in this unit.

Headings/issues in unit:

Introduction

This article will act as a conceptual scaffold for students to develop and utilise their knowledge of the content of the senior syllabus. You will learn how to employ appropriately and confidently, understanding of the practices/conceptual frameworks/frames to the deciphering of text and images within early and late modernism and draw comparisons to the development of postmodernity.

Through a sequencing of learning experiences, you will develop a density of knowledge relevant to the case study and be able to synthesise the “course content” with the differing forms of information provided in textbooks, galleries, videos and other sources.

This article will provide you with knowledge to increase your understanding of contemporary aesthetic conventions and methods of practice. By the end of the unit you will be able to make connections between historical and critical events and key figures. You will come to the valuable understanding of the important nexus between the artist/artwork and yourself as the reader of the sign, symbols, codes and morphology that surround the production and understanding of the visual arts in the 20th and 21st centuries.

You will develop a reflective review of the convention of modernism and the hybridisation into postmodernity. This explains the title of the article Order vs Chaos as the basis of an investigation of the modernist and postmodernist aesthetic conventions and modes of production. The metaphor of order and chaos will be employed to study the rupture between modernist traditions and postmodernist strategies.

The article offers methods in which students can investigate and interrogate visual conventions and come to an illuminated decision about the practices within the two ideologies.

This article will examine how historical accounts of events and theories presented by modernism were usurped by the critical structure of postmodern ideology.

Below is a program outline of the unit with references to critical/historical paradigms, key artists and artworks, resources, activities and assessable work (with outcomes to be assessed).

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Order: modernism - The universal aesthetic project

“The world has changed less since the time of Jesus Christ than it has in the last thirty years.”

Charles Peguy 1913

Modernism highlights the paradigm shift within visual conventions, codes and signs. It breaks from the traditions of historic art and reviews visual arts practices (historical/critical/practical).

The strategy of stylistic revisionism manifested in manifestoes and the establishment of the avant-garde best articulates the aims and outcomes of Modernity.

The development of the social sciences: psychology, Marxism and sociology brought about new considerations within the contemporary ideology. Emerging visual theories coupled with advances in technology gave rise to new possibilities in the production of art. Artists recognised and embraced the “culture of the new” and explored new terrains of artistic practice.

“The speed at which culture reinvented itself through technology in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, seems almost preternatural.” Robert Hughes Shock of the New

Frames


Subjective:

- an examination of the personal and psychological experience and how it became the basis of artistic expression in modernism.

Themes that will be examined include:

Key art movements that will be investigated utilising the subjective frame in terms of investigation for the case study:

Key theorists that can be utilised include:


Structural frame:

- an examinination of the modes of communication and the establishment of a system of signs, which were constantly being renovated to provide new aesthetic orders. You will interrogate key aspects within modernism that exemplify the “avant garde” condition and establish new visual conventions.

Suggested themes that examine key concepts within the structural frame:

Key art movements that will be investigated utilising this frame in terms of the case study:

Theorist and historians to be investigated include:

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Cultural frame:

- an examination of the manifestation of ideological paradigms and the social and cultural meanings made apparent throughout the modernist period. The cultural frame will explore artworks as concepts:

Key art movements that will be investigated utilising this frame in terms of the case study

Theorists and historians to be employed for investigation:


Postmodern frame:

This is a re-examination of the conventions within artistic practice and the “contraventions” that arise in terms of addressing issues/concepts surrounding the production and reading of art.

Thematic topics include:

Key art movements that will be investigated utilising this frame in terms of the case study:

Key theorists and historians include:

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Conceptual framework:

Conceptual frameworks will be developed around the investigation of the frames, indicating a symbiotic relationship between the two content components.

Once students have knowledge of the theme, artists, movement, theories and historians, they will formulate their own conceptual frameworks that identify the interactivity of the agencies of the art world: artist(s), artwork, audience, world.

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Chaos: Postmodernism - The anxious disjuncture in aesthetics

This is to provide students with a critical springboard for viewing and understanding contemporary art practices. You will recognise the importance of the explicit knowledge learnt in the first half of the case study (Order: Modernism). The reference to chaos is fitting in terms of the forceful shift in aesthetic brought about in postmodernity. With the development of new theories and technologies a new system of codes and conventions inhabits contemporary society. This part of the article attempts to go beyond the rhetoric of particular artistic strategies such as “appropriation” “stylistic quotation” and “irony”. It is an attempt to trace the genealogy of both modern and postmodern practices by revealing possible sites of investigation through the use of the frames.

Both movements and classification used in catalogues, periodicals and textbooks will be used to map out trends within art practice.

“ ...To think the expanded field was felt by a number of artists...(they) had entered a situation, the logical conditions can no longer be described as modernist. In order to name this historical rapture and the structural transformation of the cultural field that characterises it, one must have recourse to another term. The one already in use in other areas of criticism is postmodernism”

Rosalind Krauss. p287 The Originality of Avant-Garde.

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Frames


Subjective frame:



Art movements or styles that will be examined:


Theorists, critics and historians that may be incorporated include:

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Structural frame:


Art movements, styles and exhibitions that will be examined:


Theorist and art writers include:

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Cultural frame:


Art movements, styles and exhibitions that will be examined:


Theorist, historians and art writers

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Postmodernism frame:


Specific exhibitions and key text will be examined in this frame:


Theorist, critics and historians that may be incorporated, include:

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Conceptual framework

Conceptual frameworks will be developed around the investigation of the frames, indicating a symbiotic relationship between the two content components. Once you know about the theme, artists, movement, theories and historians, you will formulate your own conceptual frameworks that identify the interactivity of the agencies of the art world: artist(s), artwork, audience, the world.

During the unit there will be a number of activities which will assist in gauging your understanding and knowledge of the topics study. Throughout the unit you will be reminded of your place as “art decipherers/critics” similar to the character in Six Degrees of Separation: the art collector. Their purpose in this unit is to “collect” information about modernist and post modernist practices. The role of art critics and the operation of art history will be investigated and articulated as content. However more attention will be paid to frames and conceptual frameworks within this unit.

The structure of each topic area within the unit is very broad and a refinement of the topics will be developed through negotiation with you so as to extend your interests in visual arts. This is coupled with any appropriate exhibitions or artists’ talks that are showing at the time of the unit.

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Assessment task

In the assignment given for this term, the outcomes H7, H8, H9 will be used as the criteria for assessment.


Part 1

Select one of the themes listed below and investigate the issues and concepts that are prevalent within both modernist and postmodernist practice.

In your response you must:


Themes to be investigated:


Part 2

“Aesthetic dialectics is the development of a thesis, which is contested by an antithesis, and in turn developed into a synthesis of these opposing concepts.”

Discuss this concept of how art evolves in terms of investigating the practices (art making, criticism and history).

Consider in your response that modernism renovates aesthetic conventions in favour of creating a new visual language incited by the avant-garde and postmodernism reconstructs aesthetic conventions to create a hybridity within contemporary art practice.

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Resources


Videos titles

Shock of the New – Robert Hughes video and book

History of Western Art – Michael Wood

What is Modern Art? – Matthew Collings

American Visions – Robert Hughes

Asia Pacific Triennial 1 and 2

Basquiat

Bad Girls

Bill Viola Collection

Black Angel

Grey Suit

Guerrillas in our Midst

Europe after the Rain

What is Fluxus?State of the Arts

There are also videos on:

Cindy Sherman

Jeff Koons

Andy Warhol

Exhibitions

Sensation

The Body

Don’t Leave Me this Way (Art in the Age of AIDS)

Compassion and Protest

Cyber cultures

Sydney Biennale 1982, 1988, 1990, 2000

Venice Biennale 1997 Past Present Future

Doucumenta X

Asia Pacific Triennial 1, 2, and 3

Yves Klein

Cindy Sherman Retrospective

Bill Viola Retrospective

Eight Video installations Museum of Modern Art

Festival of Melbourne 1997 (Serrano)

Read My Lips

Patrica Piccinini 2000

No Exit

Rose Crossing

Complicity.


Book titles

Visualising Theory

Storming the Reality Studios

A Companion to Aesthetics

Electronic arts in Australia

Postmodernism for Beginners

Keywords

Artwise

Ways of Seeing

Contemporary Art sourcebook

Art Research and Theory

Sensation

Shark Infested Waters

History of Australian Painting

Artwise

Sydney Biennale Education kit

The Photograph

Complicity

Modern Art

History of Modern Art

Sightlines

Contemporary Images in Australian Painting

Craig Malyon, Visual arts teacher

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