| This dissertation, "Strategies of Institutional Critique in Recent American Art," examines the critical strategies of the kind of art known as institutional critique. "Institutional critique" is a term which entered art criticism in the 1980s to describe works that, since the 1960s, have commented upon their position within the institution of art---that is, within art's material and discursive frame or context. Focusing on works commissioned or occasioned by museums, the dissertation analyzes how the practice of institutional critique positions itself in relation to the contexts of institution and audience. Informed by Michel Foucault's work on the processes of discursive legitimation and Judith Butler's work on the strategies of performative reiteration, I argue that the art of institutional critique draws much of its critical potential from the very legitimacy that institutions grant to works of art within their sphere.;Composed of thematic chapters, the dissertation begins with an introduction that discusses institutional critique in the art criticism of the 1980s and 1990s and outlines the different approach I take to the subject. Following this, the first chapter analyzes the diversity of aims already at play during the 1970s in works by three central artists, Michael Asher, Daniel Buren, and Hans Haacke. The following chapters focus on various aspects of the structures that enable, even as they limit, selected works of institutional critique, through close analyses of 1980s and 1990s works by artists Michael Asher, Sophie Calle, Andrea Fraser, Louise Lawler, Gerald McMaster, Julia Scher, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Fred Wilson, and the institution of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Chapter Two analyzes the figure of the artist as both an object of critique and a necessary point of identification. Chapter Three considers the role of the museum through an analysis of four archives-based projects. Chapter Four goes beyond this institutional base to discuss strategies of address and how they mediate between the artist, institution, and audience. Chapter Five explores the question of audience participation and the ethical dimension of solicited interactions between the artist, a work of art, its host institution, and an audience. |
