The Postconceptual Condition

by Peter Osborne

Tracking the postconceptual dimensions of contemporary art

If, as Walter Benjamin claimed, “it is the function of artistic form … to make historical content into a philosophical truth,” then it is the function of criticism to recover and to complete that truth. Never has this been more necessary or more difficult than with respect to contemporary art. Contemporary art is a point of condensation of a vast array of social and historical forces, economic and political forms and technologies of image production. Contemporary art expresses this condition, Osborne maintains, through its distinctively postconceptual form. These essays—extending the scope and arguments of Osborne’s Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art—move from philosophical consideration of the changing temporal conditions of capitalist modernity, via problems of formalism, the politics of art and the changing shape of art institutions, to interpretation and analysis of particular works by Akram Zaatari, Xavier Le Roy and Ilya Kabakov, and the postconceptual situation of a crisis-ridden New Music.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Philosophy

240 pages, Paperback

Published January 30, 2018

About the author

Peter Osborne is Professor of Modern European Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), Kingston University London and was appointed Visiting Professor of Critical Studies at Yale in 2017. From 1983 to 2016, he was an editor of the British journal Radical Philosophy. He has contributed to a range of international journals (including Art History, Cultural Studies, New German Critique, New Left Review, October, Telos and Texte zur Kunst) and to the catalogues of major art institutions (including Manifesta 5, Tate Modern, Biennale of Sydney, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Office of Contemporary Art Norway, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Oslo, CGAC in Santiago de Compostela, and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.)
He has recently held Visiting International Chairs in the Philosophy Department at the University of Paris 8 (2012 & 2014) and in ‘Philosophy in the Context of Art’ at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm (2015).
His books include The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (1995; 2011), Philosophy in Cultural Theory (2000), Conceptual Art (2002), Marx (2005), El arte mas alla de la estetica: ensayos filosoficos sobre el arte contemporaneo (2010), Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art (2013) and The Postconceptual Condition (2018).

Reviews

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

as seen on @aliciaisreading on instagram:

I bought this book at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (one of the best contemporary art museums I’ve been to), and had SUCH high hopes for it. The long term legacy/impact/mutations of conceptual art? My favorite thing to discuss! Unfortunately, I found Osborne’s writing convoluted and ungrounded— definitely more philosophical and less grounded in art, or even interrogating capitalism (despite what the introduction discusses about late capitalism). There are two chapters I highly recommend: Existential Urgency which discusses the commodification and overproduction of Biennials, and The Kabakov Effect, which discusses Moscow conceptualism.

Perhaps a stronger reader could get more out of this book than me, but onwards we go with more art history books!

[Gonzalo Zamora Galleguillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hago trampa porque realmente no leí el libro completo. Si bien la teoría de la contemporaneidad de Osborne como seguimiento a la teoría de la modernidad es algo que me gusta mucho, este libro se enfoca en la discusión del arte contemporáneo. En parte medio que me da sueño y además es de arte muy de nicho, desde allá en Europa y con poco impacto social real. No pude enganchar con los demás artículos de la compilación.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

a bit boring at times but osbourne does a good job in arguing about the necessity of understanding the "postconceptual condition" in a constantly evolving art world.