This book examines the terms upon which painting in the United States sought to negotiate with the legacy of American formalist aesthetics and by extension, the understanding of modernist painting it had become most readily associated with. In so doing, a separate set of possibilities for painting gradually began to emerge. The salient debates and practices that collectively worked to establish such a response are approached through the philosopher Gianni Vattimo's idea of pensiero debole or so-called weak thought. To this end, the proposed study both identifies and seeks to examine a type of "weak" painting which, like Vattimo's idea, took as its critical point of departure "the exhaustion - but not the vanishing - of the project of modernism (the belief in reason, progress, history, the nation-state, etc.)." Craig Staff explores particular instances wherein artists sought to extend the parameters of the object beyond what had been called into question, namely the proclivity for modernist painting's "strength" to be understood as denoting, amongst other things, a perceived set of universal essences. This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, fine art, cultural studies, critical theory, curatorial studies and philosophy.

This book examines the terms upon which painting in the United States sought to negotiate with the legacy of American formalist aesthetics and by extension, the understanding of modernist painting it had become most readily associated with. In so doing, a separate set of possibilities for painting gradually began to emerge. The salient debates and practices that collectively worked to establish such a response are approached through the philosopher Gianni Vattimo’s idea of pensiero debole or so-called weak thought. To this end, the proposed study both identifies and seeks to examine a type of "weak" painting which, like Vattimo’s idea, took as its critical point of departure “the exhaustion – but not the vanishing – of the project of modernism (the belief in reason, progress, history, the nation-state, etc.).” Craig Staff explores particular instances wherein artists sought to extend the parameters of the object beyond what had been called into question, namely the proclivity for modernist painting’s "strength" to be understood as denoting, amongst other things, a perceived set of universal essences. This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, fine art, cultural studies, critical theory, curatorial studies and philosophy.

"The waning of the century-old modernist movement in the arts has called forth an astonishing array of artistic and critical responses. The twenty-five essays in Art After Modernism provide a comprehensive survey of the most provocative directions taken by recent art and criticism, exploring such topics as the decline of the ideology of modernism in the arts and the emergence of a wide range of postmodern practices; recent directions in painting, film, video, and imagery; and the dynamics of the social network in which art is produced and disseminated. This major collection is an indispensable guide to the ideas and issues animating this decade's art--the far-reaching cultural reorientation known as postmodernism"--Back cover

Painting has often been declared dead since the 1960s and yet it refuses to die. Even the status and continued legitimacy of the medium has been repeatedly placed in question. As such, painting has had to continually redefine its own parameters and re-negotiate for itself a critical position within a broader, more discursive set of discourses. Taking the American Clement Greenberg's 'Modernist Painting' as a point of departure, After Modernist Painting will be both a historical survey and a critical re-evaluation of the contested and contingent nature of the medium of painting over the last 50 years. Presenting the first critical account of painting, rather than art generally, this book provides a timely exploration of what has remained a persistent and protean medium. Craig Staff focuses on certain developments including the relationship of painting to Conceptual Art and Minimalism, the pronouncement of paintings alleged death, its response to Installation Art's foregrounding of site, how it was able to interpret ideas around appropriation, simulation and hybridity and how today painting can be understood as both imaging and imagining the digital. After Modernist Painting is an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand the themes and issues that have pertained to painting within the context of post modernism and contemporary artistic practice.

This study constructs a framework of narratology for art history and rewrites the development of twentieth-century Chinese art from a narratological perspective. Theoretically and methodologically oriented, this is a self-reflective meta-art history studying the art historical narratives while narrating the story of modern and contemporary Chinese art. Thus, this book explores the three layers of narrative within the narratological framework: the first-hand fabula, the secondary narration, and the tertiary narrativization. With this tertiary narrativization, the reader-author presents three types of narrative: the grand narrative of the central thesis of this book, the middle-range narrative of the chapter theses, and case analyses supporting these theses. The focus of this tertiary narrativization is the interaction between Western influence on Chinese art and the Chinese response to this influence. The central thesis is that this interaction conditioned and shaped the development of Chinese art at every historical turning point in the twentieth century. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, critical theory, Chinese studies, and cultural studies.

This book explores the ways Robert Smithson’s art revealed and defamiliarized the constructs of rational reality in order to allow radically speculative alternatives to emerge. In this way, his art is conceived as a true fiction that eradicates a false reality. By tracing the web of correspondences between Smithson and science fictional, speculative and mystical modes of thought, Rory O’Dea explores the aesthetic encounters engendered by his art as a means to warp the contours of reality and loosen the boundaries of being human. Given the current and impending catastrophes of the Anthropocene, which represents the ever-expanding planetary shadow cast by humanism, the possibility of being other-than-human posited by Smithson’s art is a matter of urgent concern. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, contemporary art, American studies and environmental humanities.

This is a study of the relation between the fine arts and philosophy in France, from the aftermath of the 1789 revolution to the end of the nineteenth century, when a philosophy of being called “Monism” emerged and became increasingly popular among intellectuals, artists and scientists. Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer traces the evolution and impact of this monist thought and its various permutations as a transformative force on certain aspects of French art and culture – from Romanticism to Impressionism – and as a theoretical backdrop that paved the way to as yet unexplored aspects of a modernist aesthetic. Chapters concentrate on three major artists, Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) and Claude Monet (1840–1926), and their particular approach to and interpretation of this unitarian concept. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, philosophy and cultural history.