Bernard Smith's Formalesque and the end of the history of art

Berryman, J. (2014) Bernard Smith's Formalesque and the end of the history of art. Thesis Eleven, 123(1), pp. 3-16. (doi: 10.1177/0725513614543429)

Abstract

The concept of the Formalesque preoccupied Bernard Smith during the last decades of his life. First propounded in Modernism’s History (1998), the Formalesque is a proposed period style describing the art of the 20th century. Yet, despite his ambitions for the Formalesque as a new classification for modern art, the idea failed to appeal to academic art history. This paper does not attempt to salvage the Formalesque from art-historical obscurity. But it does argue Smith’s work on this topic is relevant by virtue of the contribution it makes to debates about modernism and art history. Although Smith’s thesis emphasizes the necessity of period styles and the perennial development of art history, paradoxically, the Formalesque also highlights the limitations of art history. If the Formalesque has a place in art historiography, it belongs to a speculative discourse describing the end of the history of art.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Berryman, Dr Jim
• Authors: Berryman, J.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Information Studies
• Journal Name: Thesis Eleven
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 0725-5136
• ISSN (Online): 1461-7455
• Published Online: 05 August 2014