Linden's lecture - Contemporary Art - 200 onwards.

I need to get this written up fast, as I have another day of lectures tomorrow.

Con - with
temporarius - time, pertaining to
Art - whatever you want it to be.

She described the crisis between Modernism and Post Modernism

Modernism                                        Post Modernism

Trust absolute truth                           Reject truth - point out assumptions

Fact through logic and observation   Facts created by assumptions

Desire for Absolute Doctrine            Diverse doctrines

Emphasised logic proportions            Emphasises story, journey, perspective

                                                          Role of images

Culture is now a discourse of ideas via postmodern techniques
Foucault - all participants are in operation of power.  Not top down any more.  The obsession with spectacle.  (Does this account for society expecting to be entertained by others, rather than doing things themselves - in my view we have become a passive society).

Contemporary art operates with many themes from both modernism and post modernism.  We recognise that these are no longer seen as clearly defined periods.  Modernism made the assumption (Greenberg) Purity = logic, which PM challenges.  Yet we pick and mix post 2000 which bits of each style we want to use.

Raymond Williams identified patterns with culture via Dominant, Residual and Emergent.  In post 2000 Linden's analysis is:

Dominant - marketisation
Residual - bits from past (Mod/PM)
Emergent - Not yet recognised but present and significant

Art history used to indicate one style follows another, but this is now hugely challenged.  Many names for post 2000.  Post conceptual art; pseudo modernism; alter modernism.

Marketisation of art - 1990 on.  Saatchi.  M Thatcher spitting image.  1984-5 Miners strike.  Everything building up to be less respectful and polite.

Telegraph merits of investing in art -v- property 1997-2015

FTSE                           up   45%
Picasso                              462%
Central London property  407%
Wider London property   334%
UK property                    205%         Where would you put your money?

Mind you, stats are for averages for everything except Picasso where they have picked the highest yielding artist, not an average.

International Art Index - lists top 50 artists - buyers don't even look at the art.  Just buy.  This worries many artists.  Glut causes price fall.  Markets can be rigged by buying or preventing sales.

PR theory has recognised Art is good for PR.  Cities and Governmnets use art as propaganda.  Art represents towns.  Turner prize is televised - bringing art and spectacle together.  All big cities have art galleries - Whitworth in Manchester; Helsinki.

Artists catch the news - by being spectacult.  Sensation 1997.  RA.  however sensation is diminishing - audience is jaded.  People fed up of spectacle of Chapman bros destroying art.

Guy Debord identified Society of the Spectacle in 1967.  Image obsessed and impact on us.  We are image obsessed - and this is a very contemporary issue.

Most countries have a Biennale - good for global image and economic dynamism.  Location becomes HQ for tourism and investment.  But the other side is Joburg Biennale 1995 - excluded black community - and was thus seen as the sycophantic courting of the international art world - and not necessarily a good thing.

2001 Michael Landy Breakdown.  Examination of consumerism.  Mince all his possessions in derelict C&A store over 2 weeks. A reverse assembly belt.  100m of conveyor belts - 7,000 bags of stuff and sold it.

2008 D Hirst Sothebys Bypassed the Gallery and sold direct to auction.  Demonstrated the insanity of the market. This took place on the day of Lehmans collapse.  The sale was the work of art.

Market fundamentalism (Thatcherism? 1980s) says the market will solve all economic and social problems.  Foucault - Discouse (a bit of knowledge) is a set of ideas shared between many.  Market fundamentalism discourse says single point will trigger the rest e.g. the market will deliver.

Museums etc represent ideologies to shape our understanding of history, knowledge, natural world, objective scientific methods and subject influences.  Modern field of research.

Trappings of investigation - post medium and spectacle.  The vast uncoordinated.  An effective research programme potential.  Defines what we are and what we know and where we might go.

Post medium condition - Grayson Perry.  "You are Here" Gave reasons for people going to art galleries.

Fundamentally Art sets up camp wherever it wants.  Points out storytelling is important and reflects what we are.  John Dewer - Art enables the experience of experience.