In this article, the author talks about art-house cinema, avant-garde film, and dramatic modernism. He believes that the most important modes of film practice are art-house cinema and the avant-garde, both of which contrast with the classical Hollywood mode of film practice. While the latter is characterized by its commercial imperative, corporate…

Nothing says "the sixties" like the word "revision," and, in keeping with those times, the fledgling feminist art movement dismissed hard-won mastery as "mere skill" and snubbed the canon of Western art as evidence of male dominion over the criteria for legitimacy and achievement. In debunking the myth of the Great (male) Artist, the women's…

The "all-over" abstract canvases that Jackson Pollock produced between 1943 and 1951 present a pedagogical challenge in how to account for their apparently chaotic structure. One reason that they are difficult to teach about is that they have proved notoriously difficult for art historians to come to terms with. This is undoubtedly a consequence…

In this article, the author analyzes Arthur Efland's "Art and Cognition," which advocates study of the visual arts for its cognitive benefits. The author argues that Efland's cognitive premises are largely sound but that his specific recommendations often belie the general principles he espouses. Efland focuses on the interpretation of baffling…

Addresses various phenomena that abetted the "fluxizing" of American art. Noted that the New York-based Fluxus movement began an extended period of dissemination and, in some sense dissolution, around 1967. (RS)

In the spring of 1919, Andrp Breton and Phillipe Soupault conducted various experiments in automatic writing. They converted themselves into machines to record the whispers of the unconscious, inspired by Rimbaudes urge for adventure in quest of cosmic knowledge and Lautreamontes conviction of art as a communal enterprise. To destroy bourgeois…

Presents a photographic essay that features photo documentation by Peter Moore of three Wolf Vostell projects produced in New York during the period 1963-64. Notes that Vostell used de-collage techniques as a means to critique broadcast television. (RS)

Discusses George Maciunas' pivotal contributions to the renaissance of SoHo, the New York City community south of Houston Street. Recounts the establishment of Fluxus cooperatives, the history of the FilmMakers' Cinematheque, Maciunas' long struggle with the Attorney General's office, and closes with a description of the February 1978 erotic Flux…

Outlines coincidences between the birth of Dada and the birth of Fluxus. Charts the adoption of similar ahistorical strategies by members of both movements as they attempted to position themselves historically. Questions the assumption that democratization of the arts is the natural result of artistic actions that attempt to break down the line…

Explores why Fluxus' ambiguous affirmations and denials of modernism are not contradictory but part of a self-conscious strategy designed to manipulate the operational apparatus of modernism. Suggests that, in its separation of means and ends, Fluxus lost the authority to author itself, became the subject of a traditional modernist debate and the…

Presents a conversation that ranges from discussion of the overt questioning of understanding, meaning, and the validity of the art situation to the conscious, recurrent renewal of "crisis" as a catalyst for the arts. (RS)

This paper considers the artistic and literary movement called "Postmodernism." Noting that postmodernism is intellectually grounded in the premise that its discourse must expose positions of privilege and power relations in society, the paper asks of art education, How much has the postmodern condition, a thesis of cultural relativism…

Traces George Maciunas' interest in cinema beginning with his work for "Film Culture" magazine in 1955, his methods of producing/making films, his relationship to the main film avant-garde of the sixties and his ideas of cinema. (RS)

Discusses the development of Fluxus as a community of individuals who responded to complex interactions among themselves, yet who struggled against the codification of their activities into "artistic cohesion." Refutes myths of periods of ideological unity. Provides an overview of consensus among scholars, curators, and critics…

Disscusses the history of Theo van Doesburg's painting Arithmetic Composition 1. Relates the work to that of Mondrian and Malevich. (MM)