Overview

If, as Walter Benjamin claimed, “it is the function of artistic form… to make historical content into a philosophical truth” then it is the function of criticism to recover and to complete that truth. Never has this been more necessary or more difficult than with respect to contemporary art. Contemporary art is a point of condensation of a vast array of social and historical forces, economic and political forms and technologies of image production. Contemporary art expresses this condition, Osborne maintains, through its distinctively postconceptual form. These essays—extending the scope and arguments of Osborne’s Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art—move from philosophical consideration of the changing temporal conditions of capitalist modernity, via problems of formalism, the politics of art and the changing shape of art institutions, to interpretation and analysis of particular works by Akram Zataari, Xavier Le Roy and Ilya Kabakov, and the postconceptual situation of a crisis-ridden New Music.

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9781786634900

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Reviews

The Postconceptual Condition philosophically maps a chasm of truly mythic proportions, namely that between art and politics. While this chasm is quintessentially modern, the meaning of 'modern' keeps changing and with it the structure of historical experience. Global or transnational modernity forces us to revise notions of 'autonomy' or 'activism, ' and conditions the work of art in ways that mark a clear break with its modern past, i.e. Conceptualism. In confronting the fate of art institutions (the biennale form) and analyzing the conditions of the artwork proper, Osborne gets a critical grip on that beast that calls the chasm between art and politics home--a creature better known as the cultural logic of high capitalism. --Roger Buergel, Founding Director of the Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich Very little philosophical writing is inspiring enough to catalyse art and bring it into being. Peter Osborne's writing is consistently in this category. --Hito Steyerl, visual artist and author of Duty Free Art Praise for Anywhere or Not At All Osborne's most important contribution to the philosophy of modern art undoubtedly lies in his determination to redress philosophy's dehistoricising tendencies and his rigorous delineation of the history of misconstructions of Kantian aesthetics right down to the present day. --Lisa Trahair, Critical Inquiry The first book in English that brings contemporary art as a whole to philosophical consideration. --John Rapko, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews It is an ambitious attempt to restore intellectual relevance to the art that is made today, beyond all cynical descriptions, and to create a historical framework that allows us toread our own present as full of possibilities, provided that we do not surrender to objective cynicism. The book is rich in ideas and sidetracks. Compared with most of what is written on 'contemporary art', it is on a completely other level of sophistication. --Kunstkritikk A conceptually challenging and forward-thinking text. --NYArts Magazine

The Postconceptual Condition philosophically maps a chasm of truly mythic proportions, namely that between art and politics. While this chasm is quintessentially modern, the meaning of 'modern' keeps changing and with it the structure of historical experience. Global or transnational modernity forces us to revise notions of 'autonomy' or 'activism, ' and conditions the work of art in ways that mark a clear break with its modern past, i.e. Conceptualism. In confronting the fate of art institutions (the biennale form) and analyzing the conditions of the artwork proper, Osborne gets a critical grip on that beast that calls the chasm between art and politics home--a creature better known as the cultural logic of high capitalism. --Roger Buergel, Founding Director of the Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich Very little philosophical writing is inspiring enough to catalyse art and bring it into being. Peter Osborne's writing is consistently in this category. --Hito Steyerl, visual artist and author of Duty Free Art

Praise for Anywhere or Not At All Osborne's most important contribution to the philosophy of modern art undoubtedly lies in his determination to redress philosophy's dehistoricising tendencies and his rigorous delineation of the history of misconstructions of Kantian aesthetics right down to the present day. --Lisa Trahair, Critical Inquiry The first book in English that brings contemporary art as a whole to philosophical consideration. --John Rapko, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews It is an ambitious attempt to restore intellectual relevance to the art that is made today, beyond all cynical descriptions, and to create a historical framework that allows us toread our own present as full of possibilities, provided that we do not surrender to objective cynicism. The book is rich in ideas and sidetracks. Compared with most of what is written on 'contemporary art', it is on a completely other level of sophistication. --Kunstkritikk A conceptually challenging and forward-thinking text. --NYArts Magazine

The Postconceptual Condition philosophically maps a chasm of truly mythic proportions, namely that between art and politics. While this chasm is quintessentially modern, the meaning of 'modern' keeps changing and with it the structure of historical experience. Global or transnational modernity forces us to revise notions of 'autonomy' or 'activism,' and conditions the work of art in ways that mark a clear break with its modern past, i.e. Conceptualism. In confronting the fate of art institutions (the biennale form) and analyzing the conditions of the artwork proper, Osborne gets a critical grip on that beast that calls the chasm between art and politics home-a creature better known as the cultural logic of high capitalism. -Roger Buergel, Founding Director of the Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich Very little philosophical writing is inspiring enough to catalyse art and bring it into being. Peter Osborne's writing is consistently in this category. -Hito Steyerl, visual artist and author of Duty Free Art

The Postconceptual Condition philosophically maps a chasm of truly mythic proportions, namely that between art and politics. While this chasm is quintessentially modern, the meaning of 'modern' keeps changing and with it the structure of historical experience. Global or transnational modernity forces us to revise notions of 'autonomy' or 'activism, ' and conditions the work of art in ways that mark a clear break with its modern past, i.e. Conceptualism. In confronting the fate of art institutions (the biennale form) and analyzing the conditions of the artwork proper, Osborne gets a critical grip on that beast that calls the chasm between art and politics home--a creature better known as the cultural logic of high capitalism. --Roger Buergel, Founding Director of the Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich Very little philosophical writing is inspiring enough to catalyse art and bring it into being. Peter Osborne's writing is consistently in this category. --Hito Steyerl, visual artist and author of Duty Free Art Praise for Anywhere or Not At All Osborne's most important contribution to the philosophy of modern art undoubtedly lies in his determination to redress philosophy's dehistoricising tendencies and his rigorous delineation of the history of misconstructions of Kantian aesthetics right down to the present day. --Lisa Trahair, Critical Inquiry The first book in English that brings contemporary art as a whole to philosophical consideration. --John Rapko, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews It is an ambitious attempt to restore intellectual relevance to the art that is made today, beyond all cynical descriptions, and to create a historical framework that allows us toread our own present as full of possibilities, provided that we do not surrender to objective cynicism. The book is rich in ideas and sidetracks. Compared with most of what is written on 'contemporary art', it is on a completely other level of sophistication. --Kunstkritikk A conceptually challenging and forward-thinking text. --NYArts Magazine

Author Information

Peter Osborne is Professor of Modern European Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), Kingston University London. He is a long-serving member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy. His books include The Politics of Time, Anywhere or Not At All, Philosophy in Cultural Theory, Conceptual Art and Marx.

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