Modern Art - A Very Short Introduction

When Rachel Whiteread’s sculpture Monument (Plate I) was installed on the empty fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square on 4 June 2001, the response reported in, and offered by, British national newspapers the next day was entirely predictable. Like the two previous temporary incumbents of this site (works by contemporary artists Mark Wallinger and Bill Woodrow), Monument – a clear resin cast of the plinth itself, inverted and set on top of it – was immediately pilloried: condemned as ‘banal’, ‘gimmicky’, and ‘meaningless’ by the Daily Mail, and disparagingly likened to a fishtank and a bathroom cubicle by members of the public, according to the Times. Some newspapers also quoted the supportive – but also vague and defensive – comments of members of the cultural establishment. The then Culture Secretary Chris Smith, Director of Tate Modern Lars Nittve, and the Tate’s Director of Programmes Sandy Nairne praised Monument variously as ‘beautiful’, ‘intelligent’, and ‘dazzling’ in its simplicity and conceptual clarity. They made no effort, though, to answer the condemnations. Nor did they point to the meanings about monuments and their purposes that Whiteread’s piece had provocatively suggested by echoing and inverting the plinth itself. List of illustrations and plates viii Introduction: modern art – monument or mockery? 1 1 Tracking the avant-garde 17 2 Modern media, modern messages 43 3 From Picasso to pop idols: the eminence of the artist 71 4 Alchemical practices: modern art and consumerism 97 5 Past the post: whatever next? 125 Further reading 142 Index 147