Modern art operated not only as a machine of inclusion of everything that was not regarded as art before its emergence but also as a machine of exclusion of everything that imitated already existing art patterns in a naive, unrefl ective, unsophisticated—nonpolemical—manner, and also of everything that was not somehow controversial, provocative, challenging. But this means: The fi eld of modern art is not a pluralistic fi eld but a f i eld strictly structured according to the logic of contradiction . It is a fi eld where every thesis is supposed to be confronted with its antithesis. 引自 IntroductionAlready Malevich said that he was struggling against the sincerity of the artist. And Broodthaers said—when he started to do art—that he wanted to do something insincere. To be insincere means in this context to make art beyond all taste—even beyond one’s own taste. 引自 IntroductionBut the artistic embodiment of self-contradiction, of paradox, began to be especially practiced in contemporary art after World War II. At this point we are confronted with paintings that could be described as both realistic and abstract at the same time (Gerhard Richter), or objects that can be described as both traditional sculptures and as readymades at the same time (Fischli/Weiss), to mention just a few examples.引自 IntroductionBeing one-sided and aggressive is, of course, at least as modern as being moderate and seeking to maintain the balance of power. 引自 Introduction
Art functions as commodity or political propaganda? he devides it into two categories.
After the end of World War II and especially after the change of regime in the former Socialist Eastern European countries, the commercial system of art production and distribution dominated the political system. The notion of art became almost synonymous with the notion of the art market, so that the art produced under the nonmarket conditions was de facto excluded from the fi eld of institutionally recognized art. 引自 Introduction
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