Critical Appraisal: Abstraction after Modernism Re-examining the case for the Baroque

The Critical Appraisal, 'Abstraction after Modernism: Re-examining the case for the Baroque', supports the presentation of selected paintings and curated projects' made from 1999 to 2005. These paintings inhabit a position beyond mere modernist pastiche and postmodern irony-they aim to embody and communicate with the contemporary world, whilst arguing for the continued vitality of a distinct idea of abstract painting. The Critical Appraisal examines how the paradigm of the historical baroque informs these paintings. Through contemplating the architecture of Francesco Borromini and the paintings of Annibale Carracci, a model for understanding the dilemmas facing a given period's relationship to preceding art history and received artistic styles-that I call a 'baroque mode of inheritance'-is built. Through this examination a parallel is drawn between the impasses felt by artists working immediately after Vasari wrote his Lives ofthe Artists and those working after Clement Greenberg's criticism. This model is then used to reflect upon my paintings and to define a position for both my own work and what I believe to be the most relevant recent abstract painting more generally. The use I make of the baroque is not principally derived from the movement's formal or stylistic qualities; rather, it is built on an understanding or methodology that I detect in the baroque, and which allows a multifaceted and fluid relationship to preceding history. This relationship with the baroque is then shown to underpin the paintings that constitute the published work and to be different to that utilised by other contemporary abstract painters who have been drawn to the movement. The Critical Appraisal refers to artworks and criticism from the historical periods under consideration and the present.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo