Inducing Knowledge by Enduring Experience: the Function of a Postmodern Pragmatic Aesthetic in Linda Montano's "Living Art".

<p>In <em>Has Modernism Failed?</em> (1984), Suzi Gablik calls for a postmodern art that has preserved the values that modernism lost over the 20th century, stating that only through "direct knowing" may we be shocked out of <em>art-for-art's-sake</em>. In <em>Art As Experience</em> (1934), John Dewey similarly proposes that "thinking is a kind of doing," recommending an instrumental art in one's drive to better him/herself.</p> <p>Contemporary artist Linda Montano challenges the status quo by exploring the nature of art beyond its material value. In her <em>Living Art</em> performances (1970-1986), Montano creates a postmodern pragmatic aesthetic that is conducive to the unique interchange between knowledge and experience.</p> <p>Using descriptive analysis, this study investigates the functional relationship between postmodernism and pragmatics as an aesthetic in performance art. Particularly, it addresses how Gablik's theory and Dewey's methods provide a framework in which Montano's art may be discussed as instrumental to both self and society.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MA (Master of Arts)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - unrestricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Brandenburg, Alisa Anne

• performance art
• conceptual
• theory
• philosophy
• Art and Design
• Arts and Humanities

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright by the authors.

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/970

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-2127