Module 15 Film Review

The film, Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T.J Clark discusses the various types of art criticism by analyzing artwork and discussing other artist’s art criticisms. Although I definitely had some trouble following what he was saying exactly, I decided to read through the transcript on the right side of the video. I learned from Greenberg that you need to be receptive and stay receptive, open. Good art can come from anywhere, the results confute, they refute everything, every preconception you may have. Greenberg mentions how the best visual art of the past 50 years has been predominantly abstract. Greenberg said were stuck with that the best art, the best culture, under urban circumstances for a so-called elite. That elite gets bigger and bigger. When art’s good, it’s everything it should be.

The film, Jackson Pollock: Michael Fried and T. J Clark in conversation discussed how Jackson Pollock is an important modernist master who raises many questions with his work. They also point out how Pollock has been used a negative point of reference for modern art. The debate comes from the historical side of modern art while Fried is focused on the independence of its aesthetic. The concentration Pollock’s work requires challenges the distraction endemic in the wider culture. This film was interesting, in that Fried and Clark critiqued Pollock’s work through different approaches. This relates to the  Greenberg on Art Criticism film through the advice on being receptive to an artist’s artwork.