- Clement Greenberg produced a particular definition of painting that defined
Modernism in art for years. Chose works that conform to or defy his definition of
Modernist painting. You can look back to eras from before WW II. - Walter Benjamin came up with an influential definition of Modernism when he
argued, “Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical
dependence on ritual.” How do the works you chose demonstrate the possibilities of
Benjamin’s concept? - Richard Wolheleim explained Minimalist art involved art objects that had
“minimal content.” He continued: “either they are to an extreme degree
undifferentiated in themselves and therefore possess a very low content of any kind,
or else that the differentiation that they do exhibit, which may in some cases be
considerable, comes not from the artist but from a non-artistic source, like nature or
the factory.” Address the significance of these words and include several examples
of works to support your ideas. - Address how Conceptualism, Earthworks and Performance Art provided an
alternative to the hegemony of Abstract Expressionism in the art world. Cite several
specific examples. - In what ways did Postmodernists reveal how the production of images took on
meanings as they functioned in systems of power and value, including the power of
the “male gaze.”
Sample Solution
