Academic Sessions: Belfast 2007
Beyond Recognition: The Outer Limits of Artistic Creation and Critical Reception after September 11, 2001
Convenors:
Christopher Bedford, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art cbedford@lacma.org
Jennifer Wulffson, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles jwulffson@getty.edu
In the wake of 9/11, a surge of art writing emphasized the democratic and expressive qualities of art in a world defined anew by grief, uncertainty, paranoia, and anger. James Wood of the Chicago Institute of Art, for example, affirmed in November 2001, ‘[a]rt can become our Virgil shepherding us through the labyrinth of life and death. It reaffirms the beauty and creativity that distinguish man-made expression from raw nature and reaffirms tolerance and embrace of diversity.’ Approached as historical documents, such statements are striking in their reliance on a conception of art-making as an inherently redemptive, humanistic act, a quixotic intellectual conviction that vanished long ago with the rise of post-modernism, if not before.
Yet since 2001 the critical community – while often invoking the notion that 9/11 has altered the way we understand extant art – has been less receptive to new projects. As Sarah Boxer noted in early 2002, ‘[t]he events of September 11, 2001 were beyond measure. But when the day ended, the visual limits were fixed.’ Boxer’s observation is evinced by a reinvigoration of photojournalistic images. But has our investment in these images foreclosed or discouraged work in other media that reflects on 9/11? It appears that faith in the capacity of art to represent and interrogate our responses does not underwrite the discourse of art criticism today, despite recent efforts by artists such as Jenny Holzer, Thomas Ruff, and Carolee Schneeman. Has criticism, consequently, stymied the capacity of visual art to engage such matters?
Speakers:
Julian Stallabrass (Courtauld Institute of Art)
Joel Meyerowitz’s Photographic Monument to 9/11
Rachel Wells (Courtauld Institute of Art)
Beyond Resolution: Thomas Ruff’s Pixelated ‘Jpeg’ Photographs of 9/11
Terry Smith (University of Pittsburgh)
Critical Art Practice in the Age of Aftermath
Speculative Archive (Julia Meltzer and David Thorne)
Not a matter of if but when