After Nihilism

In After Nihilism, Wilfried Dickhoff examines the art work of Neo Avant-Garde European and American artists, including Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, and Philip Taaffe. Applying Adorno’s concept of negative freedom in the autonomous work of art, he demonstrates how the works of these artists, in which the contradictions and paradoxes of deconstruction/ reconstruction; beauty/ sublime; difference/ indifference; affirmation/ negation; authenticity/cynicism; subject/ non-identity, are never resolved, thus creating images of competing complexities. Tracing the development of the Neo-Avant garde through the 1980s to the present, this collection provides indepth analysis of particular works of art and demonstrates the author’s close engagement with and understanding of the contemporary art world.

• Examines art of the 80s and 90s • Contains essays on well-known avant-garde artists: Howard Hodgkin, Joseph Beuys, Cindy Sherman

Introduction; Part I. Theoretical Prelude: 1. Inbetween being (t)here - a scenario of thoughts on the (im)possibilities of art; Part II. Paths of a Different Presence: 2. The Fautrier yardstick; 3. The unredeemed in Joseph Beuys’ expanded art; 4. Marcel Broodthaer’s determinate negation; 5. Gerhard Richter: painting’s responsibility; 6. Brice Marden: ensouled form; 7. Howard Hodgkin: the carnal presence of emotion; 8. A. R. Penck: the import of the real; 9. Don Van Vliet: coherent deformation; Part III. Theoretical Interlude: 10. After Nihilism; Part IV. Is There A Presence of Difference?: 11. Francesco Clemente: be a curtain and tear your self apart; 12. Donald Baechler: on line; 13. Julian Schnabel’s intensity program; 14. Walter Dahn: the painter in revolt; 15. Georg Dokoupil: the trivial position; 16. Dahn and Dokuouil: masks of (dis) enchantment; 17. Martin Kippenberger: filthy truth; 18. David Salle: on stages; 19. Ross Bleckner: traces of deathlessness; 20. Andreas Schulze: the family idiot; 21. Gunther Forg/Philip Taaffe: we are not afraid; 22. Philip Taaffe: the other (and the) ornament; 23. Rosemarie Trockel’s encore; 24. Georg Herold: over-exposing and counter-illuminating the theater of meaning; 25. Cindy Sherman: portraits of becoming ano(r)mal; 26. Siegfried Anzinger: pre-figures of (possible) painting; 27. George Condo: (ir)real presences; 28. Albert Oehlen: beauty is a rare thing; 29. Frances Scholz: to a Line; Part V. Pragmatical Apreslude: 30. Blindmen, throw away your canes; Notes.