I need some help doing some research. I'm looking for quotes declairing either art or painting dead or over. I have found one from the 6th century BCE, i have a few others as well, but i'm looking for a source that has documented as many as possible. Somebody has got to have done a doctoral thesis on this, and if they haven't somebody should.

"What does it mean that for 30 years it was said something is dead? If the eulogies continue for 30 years , does it mean that something is dead? Or does that not mean something is not dead?"
--Jacques Derrida. Quoted in Dinitia Smith, "Philosopher Gamely In Defense Of His Ideas," New York Times, May 30, 1998, sect. B., p. 7.

Much thanks,

>
>"What does it mean that for 30 years it was said
>something is dead? If the eulogies continue for
>30 years , does it
>mean that something is dead? Or does that not
>mean something is not dead?"
>--Jacques Derrida. Quoted in Dinitia Smith,
>"Philosopher Gamely In Defense Of His Ideas,"
>New York Times, May 30, 1998, sect. B., p. 7.
>
>Much thanks,

I'm new here and this is my 1st message. Great topic, Wislawa. I cannot help you right now but I'm always coming across that generally spread idea. If I find something I'll send it to you. Derrida's statment is a pearl and it caught my atention at once because it's the kind of question that I keep in my mind for years (15 years?): How do we, painters deal with the persistent idea that art is dead? Indifference and scorning are ok. But what to discuss then?

Good to meet you,
Belaqua.

i like this topic, but i do not know if art is dead.

movements after movements, the arts have been populiarized? liberated?

more people are confused than ever what is art and if they have the capacity to appreciate arts!

my father used to go to art museums in china all the time, until china is now filled with all sorts of new and revolutionary artistic phenomenon. he simply quit going and told me he "does not understand arts".

for him, something was once there clear that could bring him joy and visual pleasent experiences are gone.

my cousin is a professor in a famous art institution in china, but he is even more confused. what he is teaching is no longer useful there, when the most popular and money fetching artists there use cameras or surgeon knifes for artistic creations.

is art dead? what is art today? what are being displayed, acquired at price of millios of dollars
by curators and collectors...how many people from the mass can appreciate them? is art really liberated or populiarized?

any one with an answer out there?

Here is a paraphrase from a letter from Michaelangelo to his father:

"...I have finished the church ceiling and it didn't turn out too badly. But otherwise things are not going as well as I would like: the times are not good for art."

This does not specifically relate to "the death of art," but you might find it interesting.

Artist Lou Posner
http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/d/duffy