Michael Fried: Another Honest Outlaw
Critic Michael Fried
Don’t miss Michael Fried lecturing this weekend at the Art Gallery of Alberta as part of the Canadian Art Foundation International Speakers Series.
Fried carries the mantle for American art criticism once borne by the likes of Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg. His 1967 essay “Art and Objecthood” remains a touchstone for serious and committed critical writing. A poet, art historian, art critic and literary critic, he has written extensively about art and contributed importantly to the discourse about the origins of modernism in art and its development from the 19th century to the present day. Long engaged by questions of modernism, realism, theatricality, objecthood, self-portraiture, embodiedness and the everyday, Fried has written about French painting and art criticism from the mid 18th century through to the advent of Édouard Manet.
In his recent book Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before, he engages the arrival of photography into the contemporary art canon with the work of Jeff Wall, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Demand. This year saw the arrival of Four Honest Outlaws: Sala, Ray, Marioni, Gordon, a collection of essays that further engages contemporary art practice in the art of Anri Sala, Charles Ray, Joseph Marioni and Douglas Gordon. The fall 2011 issue of Canadian Art includes the following brief review of Outlaws in its Readings section:
Michael Fried is on a roll. The noted American art historian shaped a generation with his essay “Art and Objecthood” and in the last few years has returned to the fore again with new writings on recent contemporary art. His 2008 Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before was a one-stop primer on photography’s central place in today’s art world. This new book continues the trend with critical profiles of four artists who are setting key critical agendas. The chapter titles say all—“Presentness: Anri Sala”; “Embedment: Charles Ray”; “Color: Joseph Marioni”; “Antitheatricality: Douglas Gordon”. This concise critical vocabulary will be a godsend to art-school seminar rooms.
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