The Postconceptual Condition

Description

If, as Walter Benjamin claimed, "it is the function of artistic form...to make historical content into a philosophical truth" then it is the function of criticism to recover and to complete that truth.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.

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.

In praise of The Politics of Time Osborne has constructed a new horizon of possibility for the revitalization of cultural studies and cultural analysis generally. -- Rod Jones * Time & Society * In praise of Anywhere or Not At All: Osborne's Anywhere or Not At All is more than just an excellent book. It presents us with the lineaments of a critical philosophy of art that proves the conceptual dimension to be essential to contemporary art. -- Antonia Birnbaum * Radical Philosophy * In praise of 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 * In praise of Anywhere or Not at All: The first book in English that brings contemporary art as a whole to philosophical consideration. -- John Rapko * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * In praise of Anywhere or Not At All: 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 * In praise of Anywhere or Not At All: This long overdue philosophy of contemporary art provides us with the conceptual tools to rethink both the history of contemporary art and the philosophy of art criticism. Impassioned yet analytical, Osborne delivers a politically astute discourse in a prose highly pleasurable for its clarity. It is essential reading for anyone serious about contemporary art - or its philosophy. -- Ruth Noack, curator of documenta 12 In praise of Anywhere or Not At All: Osborne insists that what we need is a new and properly philosophical art criticism. * ArtInfo * In praise of Anywhere or Not At All: A conceptually challenging and forward-thinking text * NYArts Magazine *