Abstract

The main thesis of Responses to Michael Fried's Theories of Theatricality in the Visual Arts: From Modern to Postmodern Criticism by Danielle B. Lemmon is that Fried's theories of theatricality in the visual arts create a bridge between modern and postmodern criticism. His analysis of the role of the beholder in relation to the development of modern painting and postmodern art offers an important avenue for understanding some of the connections between modern and postmodern art. His theories also begin to explain the deeply interdisciplinary nature of postmodern art and criticism. ;After a close reading of Fried's ideas in his essay "Art and Objecthood" , I examine Fried's subsequent history of the development of modern painting based on his theories of theatricality in the visual arts. Then I review the responses of two schools of postmodern art critics which illuminate different aspects of Fried's work. The first group of writers includes W. J. T. Mitchell, T. J. Clark, and Donald Kuspit. The second group consists of Rosalind Krauss, Douglas Crimp, and Hal Foster. In the second half of this dissertation, I look at how writers on theatre, performance, and postmodernism have been especially adroit at embracing the concepts and potential of Fried's theatricality. ;I conclude that Fried's theories point to the inevitable theatricality of criticism itself. The recent proliferation of feminist performance criticism serves as a model for a postmodern criticism that acknowledges the politics of identity in relation to the theatricality of cultural production. Fried's theories on the relation of the beholder to art lead to an interrogation of the impact of specific identities of beholders on the production of meaning. My final chapter looks at some of the early art works of Renee Green whose installations illuminate how art and criticism have been transformed in terms of Fried's theories