Surpassing Modernity : Ambivalence in art, politics and society

"For the past thirty to forty years, cultural analysis has focused on developing terms to explain the surpassing of modernity. Discussion is stranded in an impasse between those who view the term modernity with automatic disdain-as deterministic, Eurocentric or imperialistic-and a booming interest that is renewing the study of modernism. Another dilemma is that the urge to move away from, or beyond, modernity arises because it is viewed as difficult, even unsavoury. Yet, there has always been a view of modernity as somehow difficult to live with, and that has been said by figures we regard today as typical modernists. McNamara argues in this book that it is time to forget the quest to surpass modernity. Instead, we should re-examine a legacy that continues to inform our artistic conceptions, our political debates, our critical justifications, even if that legacy is baffling and contradictory. We may find it difficult to live with, but without recourse to this legacy, our critical-cultural ambitions would remain seriously diminished. How do we explain the culture we live in today? And how do we, as citizens, make sense of it? This book suggests these questions have become increasingly difficult to answer."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Image credits Acknowledgements Introduction: The surpassing urge Chapter 1: What are we talking about? Narratives of modernity and beyond A landscape in which nothing was thesame except the clouds Narratives of modern art and life The antinomies of a culture of modernity The ambivalence of surpassing and paradigm shifts: The anti-aesthetic The affirmation of surpassing and paradigm shifts: Contemporaneity Conclusion Chapter 2: We petty-bourgeois radicals: Reflections on Polke’s Wir Kleinbürger! (We Petty Bourgeois!) The puzzle of the ‘we’ in Polke’s ‘We Petty Bourgeois!’ exhibition, Hamburg, 2009–10 The irresistibility of the Petty Bourgeoisie and its cloak of invisibility Marxism and the petty bourgeoisie Comrades and contemporaries, the 1970s, from the vanguard to intermediaries From supermarkets to supernatural: Vision, magic, and the mediated Conclusions: Petty-bourgeois revolutionaries? Chapter 3: What is art supposed to do? The modernist legacy, the Arab Spring, a censorship case in Sharjah, and artist arrests in the Year of the Protester 30 December 2010, Qatar: Mathaf: ArabMuseum of Modern Art, Doha 17 December 2010, Tunisia: A protest leads to uprisings April 2011, Sharjah: A censorship controversy What is art supposed to do? Art, civil action, doing one’s job, and the enduring assertion of aesthetic autonomy The legacy of testing cultural limits The limits of critical determinism Eurocentrism, cultural universalism, or cultural relativism? Conclusion Chapter 4: Inversions and aberrations: Visual acuity and the erratic chemistry of arthistorical exchange in a transcultural situation The problem of centres and peripheries Is standpoint aesthetic new and how would we know? Aberrations and inversions as alternative art-historical models Ian Burn on visual acuity Malevich’s organic model and a chemical art history Conclusion Notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Conclusion Select Bibliography Index "For the past thirty to forty years, cultural analysis has focused on developing terms to explain the surpassing of modernity. Discussion is stranded in an impasse between those who view the term modernity with automatic disdain-as deterministic, Eurocentric or imperialistic-and a booming interest that is renewing the study of modernism. Another dilemma is that the urge to move away from, or beyond, modernity arises because it is viewed as difficult, even unsavoury. Yet, there has always been a view of modernity as somehow difficult to live with, and that has been said by figures we regard today as typical modernists. McNamara argues in this book that it is time to forget the quest to surpass modernity. Instead, we should re-examine a legacy that continues to inform our artistic conceptions, our political debates, our critical justifications, even if that legacy is baffling and contradictory. We may find it difficult to live with, but without recourse to this legacy, our critical-cultural ambitions would remain seriously diminished. How do we explain the culture we live in today? And how do we, as citizens, make sense of it? This book suggests these questions have become increasingly difficult to answer."-- Provided by publisher Résumé éditeur : "For the past thirty to forty years, cultural analysis has focused on developing terms to explain the surpassing of modernity. Discussion is stranded in an impasse between those who view the term modernity with automatic disdain-as deterministic, Eurocentric or imperialistic-and a booming interest that is renewing the study of modernism. Another dilemma is that the urge to move away from, or beyond, modernity arises because it is viewed as difficult, even unsavoury. Yet, there has always been a view of modernity as somehow difficult to live with, and that has been said by figures we regard today as typical modernists. McNamara argues in this book that it is time to forget the quest to surpass modernity. Instead, we should re-examine a legacy that continues to inform our artistic conceptions, our political debates, our critical justifications, even if that legacy is baffling and contradictory. We may find it difficult to live with, but without recourse to this legacy, our critical-cultural ambitions would remain seriously diminished. How do we explain the culture we live in today? And how do we, as citizens, make sense of it? This book suggests these questions have become increasingly difficult to answer."