When Art Becomes A Question

During the transformation of the Western society from modernity to postmodernity, great changes took place in nearly all the aspects of the art world. Through analyzing the relevant texts of the western scholars on those changes, this dissertation, with the concept of art institution, attempts to critically understand the general condition of the western art context in the late 20th century. The introduction explicates the ideas of Burger and Debeljak on art institution, and utilizing Habermas' theory on "the public sphere", examines some fundamental transformation of art institution from in modernity into postmodernity. Art institution in postmodernity no longer enjoys autonomy in the real sense of the word, and this doesn't bring about the reunitization of art and life practice but leads to the loss of "the critical - negative potential" of the art. The first chapter explores the emergence, evolution, construction and inherent contradictions of the postmodern discourses. In the art world after the 1960s, Postmodernism becomes the dominant ideology. The second chapter focuses on two important theses, "the end of Art" and "sublime", in the western contemporary art theory discourses, in order that the author could develop some opinions concerning the western postmodern art specular. In addition, some inspiring critical reflection of several western theorists on the present state of art is subjected to discussion in this chapter. The last chapter reveals the functions art instituion performs economically, politically and culturally in postmodernity. Art institution today has fully integrated into the capitalist system. Nearly all the actions concerned are oriented to the market. As far as the social-cultural functions are concerned, firstly, art institution has been closely linked with some special social-psychological regulating machinism since the 1960s; secondly, in the present globalizing world, art institution's ideology ensures the western "advanced" civilisation the superiority over the non-western "backward" civilisation.