The paper strives to delineate the most ambitious attempt to date of systemizing theoretical foundations of contemporary art into a philosophical framework. In the age when “theory” plays a central role in legitimizing contemporary art, it is reasonable to inquire into potentials and reaches of such an endeavour. Peter Osborne presents a firm genealogy of contemporary art, rooting it historically primarily in the philosophy of Romanticism. This “philosophical art” draws its line well into the 20th century to conceptual art, the immediate predecessor of contemporary art production of today. It nevertheless seems that in founding contemporary art as inherently theoretical, “postconceptual”, Osborne is not aware that he is philosophically reaffirming the already dominant, hegemonic art paradigm of today. Instead of such a positivist founding of conditions of contemporaneity, a more critical reading of contemporary art would call for a turn in re-evaluating its main assumptions, particularly its dedication to the present tense.
|
