Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
Art
Date of Award
12-2004
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Scott M. Koterbay
Committee Members
Peter H. Pawlowicz, Vida J. Hull
Abstract
In Has Modernism Failed? (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 art-for-art's-sake. In Art As Experience (1934), John Dewey similarly proposes that "thinking is a kind of doing," recommending an instrumental art in one's drive to better him/herself.
Contemporary artist Linda Montano challenges the status quo by exploring the nature of art beyond its material value. In her Living Art performances (1970-1986), Montano creates a postmodern pragmatic aesthetic that is conducive to the unique interchange between knowledge and experience.
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.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Brandenburg, Alisa Anne, "Inducing Knowledge by Enduring Experience: the Function of a Postmodern Pragmatic Aesthetic in Linda Montano's "Living Art"." (2004). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 970. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/970
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.