\"Pictures\" by Douglas Crimp Reading Response PDF

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Summary

A reading response entitled "Pictures" that goes into the usage of the word "pictures" for a gallery show that also seems to be a jab at what art really is and how it's perceived....

Description

Pictures The word pictures stands as a word for many things, as seen in the way Douglas Crimp introduces his article in his brief. It is a great way to jump into his writing by defining "pictures" not only as a word, but as a title of a relevant exhibition as well as the essay itself. He went on to say that he chose the word alone because he "hoped to convey not only the work’s most salient characteristics—recognizable images—but also and importantly the ambiguities it sustains (Crimp 75)." Even past that, when you break down the word "pictures" and compare it to the way he discussed Michael Fried and that famous attack on art of his, it still stands as an interesting word. Basically, Michael Fried had claimed that art was coming to an end, and that painters and sculptors were beginning to focus on things that were far more theatrical and reaching far beyond the boundaries of the individual arts. Fried had said that "the concept of art itself…[is] meaningful, or wholly meaningful, within the individual arts (Crimp, 76)," in direct reference to that aforementioned attack. He was one to think that more traditional art was realer than more modern styles as seen in photography, performance, and video art. It brings back to mind the usage of the word "pictures," then, and the correlation it has within all of these realms. Pictures can be still images, paintings, anything flat with recognizable, visual imagery as seen in a frame, or on a wall. That said, pictures can also be moving images, as seen in film and video, whether traditionally, or digitally created. The word almost seems like a joke, or a jab at this critic in particular. It is saying that, in true postmodernist fashion, these things are very much art. That said, the essay continues to draw upon the age-old question, "what even is art?" while continually adding a new one: who gets to define it?...