24/7/2009
Jef Bourgeau
Jane Speaks Modern Art, Pontiac
Driven to Abstraction. Bourgeau's practice, which is considered by some to be a provocation against the art world itself, essentially involves the remaking of art and artists, both imagined and real.
Since he began exhibiting in the early 1990s, recent Kresge Prize nominee Jef Bourgeau has inspired controversy. His practice, which is considered by some to be a provocation against the art world itself, essentially involves the remaking of art and artists, both imagined and real. Bourgeau has been a vexing figure for many and his “interventions” have continued to be viewed as a subversion of traditional notions of artistic practice and integrity.
Late in the last century, the rise of theory spawned the rise of an anti-aestheticism. Even for cultural theorists discussions concerning aesthetics were often carried out in a critical shorthand that failed to engage with the work of art, much less any notions of aesthetic experience. Any attempt to see the art object as embodying and conveying knowledge in itself quickly faded as an outdated conception.
People started to make art at university in response to what theory they read. The writing became fundamental in creating the art: it served the art and the art served the writing. The practical body of work suffered accordingly. Any changes in the discourses surrounding contemporary art became intimately linked to art education and to the artist's 'professionalization'.
Moving into our new century, the art object has become a distant concern. A work of art no longer applies as the source for one's conviction of its value. An art object is no longer visually distinct from a non-art object. Instead, its placement in an art space and context has orientated it within an established network of artistic practices, ideas, debates and modes of display otherwise known as the 'artworld'. This leaves art solely as an artworld activity, an institutional activity.
Such a peripheral focus makes a discussion of the art object irrelevant and instead targets art only in relation to accepted discourse, modes of representation and elucidation..
A revived aestheticism encourages the idea that the intrinsic impact of a work of art has the potential to open radically different ways of thinking about identity, politics and culture. If we encourage 'theory' to enter a more reflective phase, we can expect the appearance of a new aestheticism. At a moment that is often termed 'post-theoretical', this is a direct index to which there is a renewed willingness among critics and philosophers to consider the ways in which cultural theory often overlooked key aspects of the object.
Anachronistic-Futurism restores a consideration of the physicality of the artwork, and of style and form. At the same time, it celebrates its total loss by the deconstruction of time.
Anachronistic-Futurism heralds a priority for art practice to develop organically, without being constricted by measurable criteria but reclaiming now-mythologized terms such as 'creativity', 'artist' and 'art': special qualities requiring freedom from any externally imposing theory.
reception: Saturday July 25 from 3-6pm
Jane Speaks Modern Art
7 N. Saginaw - Pontiac