In September 2008 the author created an encounter between herself and Rick Walker, the Director of Cartwheel Arts, a small community arts company in Rochdale, in the North West of England. As one of the three founding workers of what was then Cartwheel Community Arts in 1984, she hoped to create a conversation which recollected or traced some of…

The methods by which environmental issues are aestheticized in late-twentieth-century film is directly and historically related to those established for grand manner painters by Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and taught at the French academy from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. That these fundamentals were part of the training of…

The "all-over" abstract canvases that Jackson Pollock produced between 1943 and 1951 present a pedagogical challenge in how to account for their apparently chaotic structure. One reason that they are difficult to teach about is that they have proved notoriously difficult for art historians to come to terms with. This is undoubtedly a consequence…

Addresses various phenomena that abetted the "fluxizing" of American art. Noted that the New York-based Fluxus movement began an extended period of dissemination and, in some sense dissolution, around 1967. (RS)

Presents a photographic essay that features photo documentation by Peter Moore of three Wolf Vostell projects produced in New York during the period 1963-64. Notes that Vostell used de-collage techniques as a means to critique broadcast television. (RS)

Discusses George Maciunas' pivotal contributions to the renaissance of SoHo, the New York City community south of Houston Street. Recounts the establishment of Fluxus cooperatives, the history of the FilmMakers' Cinematheque, Maciunas' long struggle with the Attorney General's office, and closes with a description of the February 1978 erotic Flux…

Among the harshest critiques ever received during my doctoral coursework came from a professor who was noticeably perturbed that I had researched and written a paper on an artwork without considering the title in the interpretation and analysis of the work. The professor insisted that the title is necessary to understand the piece. As a diligent…

Explores why Fluxus' ambiguous affirmations and denials of modernism are not contradictory but part of a self-conscious strategy designed to manipulate the operational apparatus of modernism. Suggests that, in its separation of means and ends, Fluxus lost the authority to author itself, became the subject of a traditional modernist debate and the…

Introducing the tale--A young girl about eleven years old appeared on the TV screen. She stood in an art museum expounding upon the painting hanging behind her. She talked about the artist and what the image portrayed. With an air of elitist prissiness that suited the museum environment, the girl delivered her presentation to a group of…

However innovative Cezanne's pictorial structure may appear to those with a preconceived notion of what a representation of reality ought to be, his art is not a simple continuation of previous movements, nor is it a revolutionary reversal that leads directly to cubism and abstract art. (Author/SJL)

Discusses the development of Fluxus as a community of individuals who responded to complex interactions among themselves, yet who struggled against the codification of their activities into "artistic cohesion." Refutes myths of periods of ideological unity. Provides an overview of consensus among scholars, curators, and critics…

What is the best way to understand the recent development of American art? An older tradition of commentary focuses on the role of tradition, noting how each new form of painting is rooted in a long history. But Jack Bankoswky and some other art writers discussing Andy Warhol have adapted a different approach, arguing that his art breaks radically…

Job security is a relatively new concept in the ancient field of teaching art. Historically artists have created, and been judged on, their own credentials--that is, their art. The master of fine-arts (M.F.A.) degree, often described as a "terminal degree," or the endpoint in an artist's formal education, has long been sufficient for artists…

While artists and academics have produced a wide range of work trying to understand national and individual identity, very little has been written about the experiences of student artists as they work to make sense of their particular political, social, and artistic identities and put them to work in the world. This article takes up that question,…

This tongue-in-cheek article calls for the critical reexamination of the history of modern art. The author believes that modern art is neither an extension of the Renaissance aesthetic nor a collective by-product of artists possessed of creative genius. Creators of modern art were actually representational artists suffering from visual stuttering.…