Hans Haacke- Freedom Fighters Were Here

Hans Haacke- Blue Sail

While in my Art History 4 Class, I started questioning certain topics and had questions about other things. Here are some of my ramblings and thought provoking questions that I asked. A lot of these issues came up or were sparked by a study group for the class.


This weeks readings are around conceptual art and the relationship art has with philosophy. Now the book gave us a very unique look at who the artists involved with conceptual art are. Authoritatively concept art is actually a rather debated subject. It is clear that it emerged from Duchamp and Minimalism, post-war politics and positivist philosophy (as opposed to the existential dread). Several artists claim to be the originators of concept art: Kosuth, Buren, and Anastasi (the last of whom was not mentioned in the text). We talked about how minimalism was the beginnings of postmodernism, but concept art is now squarely in what Lyotard calls 'the postmodern condition'.

Think of Lawrence Wiener for this:
"you can make art, you can have art fabricated, you don't even have to make the work," type thinking. Or of artists who say things like, "I don't want to put more objects into the world, so my work will be documentation in the form of drawings, photographs and essays"....

Terms to think about in more depth:

1) deskilling (which is a slur, and negative connotations in the beginning)
2) institutional critique
3) epistemes (Foucault's term for the way societies organize their facts)
4) aesthetics vs. art (in terms of Kosuth's essay 'Art After Philosophy')
5) the house of muses (the museum)
6) and this statement by Clement Greenberg that, from my point of view, will end up being his one great legacy, that the world of high art has been attached to the ruling class (and the bourgeiosie) by an umbilical cord of gold.

I have added an image of some of Hans Haacke's recent work, when he was the Dean of Students, or whatever at Cooper Union in the city. (Hows that for institutional critique!) But Haacke is totally rad, I highly advise getting to know his work very well...






Here is one of Smithson's most pivotal pieces. It is called "Heap of Language", I believe this may help illustrate Smithson's ideas about language, communication and semiotic breakdown (think entropy) of what we mean when we use language. Remeber "The Phenomenology of Perception"? Melreau-Ponty talks about the differences between spoken language and speaking language? Refer to our "Midterm Study Guide 1" on this blog. He sees two modes of linguistic expression: the language we speak and the language that speaks directly to our perception. Smithson was very familiar with Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Go New Jersey Phenomenology!