Art in progress : : a philosophical response to the end of the avant-garde / / by Maarten Doorman ; translated from the Dutch by Sherry Marx.

• VerfasserIn: Doorman, Maarten,
• TeilnehmendeR: Marx, Sherry (Translator),
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press,, 2003.
• Year of Publication: 2003
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (181 pages) :; digital, PDF file(s).
• Notes: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Jan 2021).

In this challenging essay, Maarten Doorman argues that in art, belief in progress is still relevant, if not essential. The radical freedoms of postmodernism, he claims, have had a crippling effect on art, leaving it in danger of becoming meaningless. Art can only acquire meaning through context; the concept of progress, then, is ideal as the primary criterion for establishing that context. The history of art, in fact, can be seen as a process of constant accumulation, works of art commenting on one another and enriching one another's meanings. It is these complex interrelationships and the progress they create in both art and its observers that Doorman, in a display of great philosophical erudition, defends.

Table of Contents

Front matter -- Contents -- Foreword / Doorman, Maarten -- Introduction -- 1. Perspectives On Progress: A History -- 2. From The Ancients And The Moderns: A Door To The Future -- 3. From Romanticism To The Avant-Garde -- 4. On Making Revolution -- 5. Innovation In Painting And Architecture: De Stijl -- 6. The End Of Art -- 7. A New Approach To An Old Concept -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index Of Names