The Ideal Of Authenticity In Painting

This thesis is intended to take Michael Fried’s thinking on art, especially his antitheatrical theory, as a case study to discuss the ideal of authenticity in painting, and to understand the core values of late modernism and its contemporary significance.Based on Fried’s criticism of late modernism and his research on pre-history of modernist painting, the thesis is divided into seven chapters. Chapter1is an introduction to this study. Chapter2examines Fried’s view of modernism, his differences with Greenberg, and his criticism of "objecthood" and "theatricality" in minimal art. The core of this chapter is to analyze his concept of autonomy of art and the challenges confronted. Chapter3shows how Fried uses the opposition between "absorption" and "theatricality" to reconstruct the history from Chardin and Greuze to David, and then discusses Diderot’s dramatic concept of painting. Chapter4focuses on the embodiedness in painting. It researches Courbet’s painting by dint of the evolvement of realism theory, compares Fried’s methods to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of body, and discusses Fried’s pros and cons of art history writings. Chapter5analyzes the issue of painting and beholding in the light of Fried’s study of Manet. It argues that through replacing "acknowledgement of flatness" with "acknowledgement of beholding", Fried accordingly provides a new dynamic mechanism for the birth of modernism. Based on issues of "autonomy of art","panting and body", and "painting and beholding", chapter6turns to the topic of authenticity. It reconstructs Fried’s thinking from three aspects, namely artistic creation, subject matter, and concepts of art, thus pointing out the possible question in his thinking.In order to highlight Fried’s concepts of modernism and his art research methods, the author of this thesis has made a close comparison between Fried and critics such as Greenberg, T. J. Clark, Norman Bryson, Linda Nochlin, and Rosalind Krauss, etc. Moreover, the author has put Fried’s writings in the context of new avant-garde, post-modernism, and contemporary culture, therefore making his ethics of art prominent. Finally, the thesis reaffirms that the ideal of authenticity based on the concept of individual is significant for contemporary art and culture:it inspires one to use his creative power and explore himself, rather than yielding himself to the mediocre and average reality of the current times. To reveal that significance is precisely the theoretical and practical significance of this thesis.