The End of Art

The postmodern understanding of art has, for some time now, led to a heated debate and confusion about what is art and what is not. Today, art and works of art are mentioned in the same breath as words like market, fashion, millions of dollars, marketing, and brand. In the hazy atmosphere accompanying these, there is something sensed but never quite named. The renowned art critic Donald Kuspit's book is precisely about this ineffable thing. The truth behind the discomfort felt by the viewer in an exhibition hall filled with utterly vulgar, unmemorable, shallow postmodern works: These are not works of art, and therefore they cannot evoke the feelings that true art does.
Kuspit, using Alan Kaprow's term "postart" to describe such works, argues that postmodern art actually means the end of art because aesthetics has lost its prestige. He explains how the type of artist who believed in spiritual values has been replaced by the postartist, who is inextricably linked to market demands. Meticulously evaluating the works and theoretical ideas of Marcel Duchamp and Barnett Newman, he points out that this loss of value in art cannot be separated from the entropic character of modern art, describing the current situation as anti-aesthetic postmodern art.
The book, which contains sharp observations on the path art has taken throughout the twentieth century, not only reveals the current impasses of the visual arts but also points to the possibilities inherent in this deadlock.