Ffdoespieszak Pieszak CRITICAL REALISM in CONTEMPORARY ART by Alexandra Oliver BFA, Ryerson University, 2005 MA, University of E
CRITICAL REALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ART by Alexandra Oliver BFA, Ryerson University, 2005 MA, University of Essex, 2007 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 2009 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 FfdoesPieszak Pieszak UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Alexandra Oliver It was defended on April 1, 2014 and approved by Terry Smith, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory, History of Art & Architecture Barbara McCloskey, Associate Professor, History of Art & Architecture Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago Dissertation Advisor: Josh Ellenbogen, Associate Professor, History of Art & Architecture ii Copyright © by Alexandra Oliver 2014 iii CRITICAL REALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ART Alexandra Oliver, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2014 This study responds to the recent reappearance of realism as a viable, even urgent, critical term in contemporary art. Whereas during the height of postmodern semiotic critique, realism was taboo and documentary could only be deconstructed, today both are surprisingly vital. Nevertheless, recent attempts to recover realism after poststructuralism remain fraught, bound up with older epistemological and metaphysical concepts. This study argues instead for a “critical realism” that is oriented towards problems of ethics, intersubjectivity, and human rights. Rather than conceiving of realism as “fit” or identity between representation and reality, it is treated here as an articulation of difference, otherness and non-identity. This new concept draws on the writings of curator Okwui Enwezor, as well as German critical theory, to analyze the work of three artists: Ian Wallace (b.
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