October's Postmodernism

Bowman, Matthew (2015) October's Postmodernism. Visual Resources, 31 (1). pp. 117-126. ISSN 0197-3762

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the early years of the influential art journal October. Beginning in 1976, October established itself as arguably the foremost art-critical voice of postmodernism. Significant essays, published between 1976 and 1981 on the index, the expanded field of sculpture, allegory, and photography, served as trajectories leading to a deeper understanding of postmodernism and an emergent generation of artists skeptical of their late-modernist inheritance. However, this paper contends that October did not merely report and analyze then-recent cultural developments, but rather actively contributed and constituted those developments through a dialogical relationship between critics and artists. Therefore suggesting that any critical-historical reappraisal of postmodernism would be incomplete without apprehending October’s collaboration with artists in moving beyond late-modernism, this paper aims to demonstrate that much of our contemporary sense of what comprises postmodernism for the visual arts is fundamentally rooted in the intellectual positions advanced by October during 1976–1981.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: October, art criticism, Rosalind Krauss (b. 1941), Douglas Crimp (b. 1944), Craig Owens (1950–1990), Postmodernism
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics
N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Divisions: Faculty of Arts, Business & Applied Social Science > Department of Arts & Humanities
Depositing User: Matthew Bowman
Date Deposited: 17 Mar 2021 12:58
Last Modified: 17 Mar 2021 12:58
URI: https://oars.uos.ac.uk/id/eprint/1694

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item