Making Contemporary Art:
Fabrication and Negotiation
Sherri Irvin
University of Oklahoma
A popular view has it that visual artworks are identical to or constituted by physical objects. In this paper, I use facts about the creation of actual contemporary artworks to argue that this view is incorrect. Contemporary artworks are created by a combined process involving physical fabrication and institutional negotiation. As a result, they have physical and normative features, all of which are crucial to appreciation and interpretation of the artwork. Using examples, I consider a number of ways in which contemporary artworks can come apart from their associated objects, with implications for philosophical understandings of the ontology of art as well as for museum practice. I also discuss the implications of these observations for traditional visual artworks.
Friday, April 8th, 12:00 p.m.
King 337
Please note the date, time, and room changes for this event
