Research On Clement Greenberg's Modernist Art View

Clement Greenberg,born in 1909,was the most important art critic of American modern art during the 20th century.He was a significant founder of avant-garde art taste and the first and main advocator of abstract expressionism who has an international influence.In order to understand his critical theory,we must first understand the basic situation of modern art,the trend of thought of“Art for art' s sake" and the Formalist theory in the 1920s and 1930s.Since the publishing of" Avant Garde and Kitsch" in 1939,his art criticism has lasted until the 1960s to 1970s.His definition of modernism is considered to be one of the clearest arguments on modernism so far.The analysis on art forms has always been the prestigious study for the western literature and art research.Greenberg's criticism ideas on modern art is basically a form criticism based on the formalist theory.He firstly made clear the characteristics of modern art.He believed that the primary feature of modem art is the autonomy of painting,that is,to return to the essence of painting-flatness.For Greenberg,expressionism is the zenith of the modernism development.With the deepening of the context of modernity,taking the regards pure abstract form as the logic of modern art essence,he paid attention to the present,held a forward-looking critical position facing the future,and completed the modern turn of the narrative scheme of visual form theory with aesthetic modernity.This paper begins with the direct explanation of Greenberg's artistic view of modernism,elaborating the specific structure of his modernism theory in art activities,then expounds the causes of his modernism theory from the perspective of the time background Greenberg had grown in and his objects of criticism,and lastly,ends with the influences of Greenberg's modernism theory under different contexts and the inspiration and thinking it has brought to the contemporary art.Greenberg's artistic view of modernism has also become the most prevailing method for us.The specific and comparative analysis of his theory will provide us with important reference on the context of the growing point of our own artistic view of modernity.In America,Greenberg's influence is fading away and he is severely criticized,which is resulted from both the transformation of society reality and the change of logic of art history itself.His critical comments and conclusion are losing their liveliness.Or to put it another way,can Greenberg's artistic view of modernity serve as a reference for today's art?Additionally,this paper has also reflected innovatively the enlightenment Greenberg has brought to China,instead of copying his conclusion on modernism.To analyzing Greenberg's artistic view is to participate in his art criticism and to feel the fusion of avant-garde art and modernism.