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The Contemporist: An Interview with Terry Smith
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Williams, Jeffrey J. |
| Copyright Year | 2014 |
| Abstract | What comes after modernism and postmodernism? For Terry Smith, “In the visual arts, the big story, now so blindingly obvious, is the shift— nascent during the 1950s, emergent in the 1960s, contested during the 1970s, but unmistakable since the 1980s—from modern to contemporary,” as he puts it in What Is Contemporary Art? (2009). Surveying painting, sculpture, architecture, and installations from around the world, Smith fi nds that there are three wings of contemporary art: fi rst, the after-effects of modernism, notably “retro-sensationalism,” like the outsized sculptures of Jeff Koons; second, the transnational turn, with the fl ourishing of art throughout the world; and third, the mediated, participatory, and networked culture of a younger generation. In several books over the past decade, including Contemporary Art: World Currents (2011) and Thinking Contemporary Curating (2012) as well as What Is Contemporary Art?, Smith explains where we are now. Smith began his career writing on modern art, notably in Making the Modern: Industry, Art and Design in America (1993), which shows the links between art and industrial production in Detroit, with design serving to make modernism normal. Australian by birth, Smith fi rst caught the attention of the art world with an essay, “The Provincialism Problem” in Artforum (Sept. 1974), and he has written a good deal on Australian art, including the modern and postmodern chapters of the textbook, Australian Painting 17882000, 4th ed. (2001), and Transformations in Australian Art, 2 vols. (2002). He has also examined modern and contemporary architecture, particularly after 9/11, in The Architecture of Aftermath (2006). In addition, he has edited or co-edited more than a dozen books (many stemming from his directing the Power Institute of Art of the University of Sydney), such as Australian Art and Architecture: Essays Presented to Bernard Smith (1980); Constructing Australian Art: Eight Critiques (1986); In Visible Touch: Modernism and Masculinity (1997); First People, Second Chance: The Humanities and Aboriginal Australia (1999); Impossible Presence: Surface and Screen in the Photogenic Era (2001); Jacques Derrida, Deconstruction Engaged: The Sydney Seminars (2001, with Paul Patton); Contemporary Art + Philanthropy: Public |
| Starting Page | 361 |
| Ending Page | 385 |
| Page Count | 25 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.5250/symploke.22.1-2.0361 |
| Volume Number | 22 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/566854/pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://muse.jhu.edu/article/566854/pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.5250/symploke.22.1-2.0361 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Discussion |
