History of Abstract Art diagram by Alfred Bar, "an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City".
Art became a pseudo-autonomous discipline limited by its own ideology, however the avant-garde brought art away from this and into the social fabric of every day life.
Modernism became a critical tradition, form (colour, shape, line, perspective) over content (subject matter).
Essays published in the 1960's theorising this time line that led to abstraction.
Greenberg said criticism in art was lagging behind other disciplines such as music, theatre and writing. He noted the 2 dimensionality and direct mass culture influences in painting. He thought art transcended mass culture by means of abstraction, transcend the taint of political ideology.
1968 - political unrest, Vietnam war, protest. Nancy Spero, Leon Golub, influenced by the war. Alot of images were shown on television, less censorship than current day media.
Art and the Left (1991 inteviews with new york artists, critics and curators exploring the impact of social and political change circa 1968) :
Discussion: The Burden of responsibility of the artist: who speaks for whom and how?
- Trends engulf such ideals as making art for the self. Trends are set by those who do things for themselves without care of outside input or views.
