Art Theory

Paper Summary:

In a discussion on art theory, this paper examines the historico-temporal conceptual paradigm, which attempts to account for art making practices throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The paper relates that this is the legacy of "modernism" versus what has come to be known as "postmodernism." The paper also relates that,
the two legacies, however, are intertwined and cannot be separated. Next, the paper identifies and explains the recognizable features of postmodernism, namely, the breaking of restrictive boundaries as seen by Marcel Duchamp's decision to display a urinal in an art gallery, the style of pastiche, and the erasing of boundaries that have traditionally separated high culture from popular culture.

From the Paper:

"A paradigm can be thought of as a theoretical framework which forms the foundation of critical analysis of a particular work of art. Generally, paradigms consist of a complex web of philosophical principles that define a particular worldview. Paradigms are not always successful in defining and analyzing works of art, however; as the literary critic Frank Kermode once wrote on the subject of paradigms, "If we cannot break free of them, we must make sense of them." Thus, a lot of the thinking on theoretical paradigms is self-reflective; in other words, a work of art may spurn an analysis that causes one to question the nature of the very paradigm being employed to analyze that work."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Jameson, Frederic. "Postmodernism and Consumer Society." Retrieved May 14, 2008, from http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/jameson_postmodernism_consumer.htm.
• Kermode, Frank. The Sense of an Ending. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967.

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