1990s. Consumer Culture And Art,

1990s witnesses the accelerating development of consumption culture, which is undoubtedly the cultural background and the actuality of the development of fine arts. To display the relationship between consumption culture and the fines arts of the 1990s in China will lead to our better understanding and the self-realization of fine arts' value and meaning.This dissertation includes three sections. The first section mainly analyzes consumerism and the secularization of the aesthetic appeals. The secularization of art not only shows in the dynamic mutual penetration of art and ordinary life but in the pervasive appeal to "images" in contemporary life as well. The secularization of the aesthetic appeals will undoubtedly lead to the reorientation of art in 1990s, where the artistic forms undergoes the changes from the "formal experimentation" to "realistic concerns," from "individualization" and "secretness" to "publicity" and "communicativeness."The second section generalizes the characteristics of artistic orientation in 1990s as "elite consciousness," "the mentality of wander," "cynicism," "classical complex," and "youthful sentimentality" and explores their origins and changes under the background of consumerism, with the associations of the origin and extension of consumerism and comes to the conclusion that some weaken under the pressure of consumerism, like "elite consciousness; some, intertwined with the ideology of consumption, are detached from the "elite consciousness", like the "mentality of wander"; some endeavor to avoid consumerism only to meet the requirements of its expansion, like "classical complex"; some display the youthful anxiety trapped in the mire of consumerism, like "youthful sentimentality." On the whole, this section concludes that consumerism and "elite consciousness" are the two essential factors of the artistic orientation in 1990s, which result from the irresolvable imbroglio of consumerism and elite consciousness.The third section explores the 'meaning" of art and the changes that happen tothe various ways of materializing its meaning from the angle of capital and mass media. During these changes, the functioning of capital controls each phase of the activities of fine arts with financial benefits as its ultimate goal.