Modern art: ornamentalization and aestheticization

Student: Chernovskaya Mariya

Educational Programme: Bachelor

Year of Graduation: 2014

The work aims to analyze main tendencies in art from the beginning of the XXth century not from the art historical angle. In our opinion, it is essential to show interrelations between modern art and society for understanding modern art. Discovered tendencies seem to be contradictory, but they correlate with each other in a complicated way. In paper not certain art objects are considered, but aesthetic theories (beginning from Hegel’s aesthetics). Criteria of researchers’ point of view are presented in the first chapter. Primarily, conceptions of modern German philosophers are applied (Hermann Lubbe, Odo Marquard and Russian art critic Boris Groys), and (with some limitations) Wolfgang Welsch, Rosalind Krauss and Mike Featherstone.In theoretical part we worked with aesthetic theories, classified them and drew attention to limitations of certain theories in the context of modern art. In the first chapter formation of social institution of modern art and category of artistic as part of modernity project are analyzed. Furthermore, we specified meaning of the term ‘modern art’ - by this notion we understand art from the avant-garde epoque till nowadays (therefore, both modern and postmodern art are included in analysis).The main criterion of classification can be denoted as division of transformations between those that occured to internal qualities of art objects and artists’ self-identity (in other words, transformations within the sphere of modern art) and those that concern art as a social institution (main channels of consuming art) as well as characteristics of spectators’ perception.In the first case we have highlighted three tendencies. The first two are exit of art to the sphere of decorative and to the sphere of thinking. They can be joined under the term ‘disintegration of form and content’ in modern art. The third tendency is artists’ aspiration for uniqueness of their identity and their artistic creations. In the third chapter we also highlighted three main directions of change. First one is successive isolation of art as a social institution (taking into account the fact that artists, on the contrary, try to break the border between art and life). Two other aspects are connected with new spectators’ desires - he seeks an intellectual component in art (which is connected with popularization of intellectual lifestyle, as Mike Featherstone showed) and a feeling of authenticity.Two cases are analyzed in last part of the work, that show applicability of main points of the paper to two phenomena of Russian modern art. They are ‘Contradictions of avant-garde programme of art: case of Nikola-Lenivets art park’ and ‘Exhibition ‘The Paths of German Art from 1949 to the present’: spectators’ demand for art object’s interpretation in museum space’.

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