Towards a Newer Laocoon

The essay titled "Towards a Newer Laocoon," explains the author's view of his time period. In he majority of this essay, Clement Greenberg is summarizing the history of art in the past century, and trying to explain what he thinks happened to it. Art was changing during this time period, and he was trying to make sense of it all by producing some of his own theories.

During this time period, art was going through cycles of imitation. This immitation was occuring in painting, literature and music. The reason for this imitation was driven by the desire to combine all of the appealing elements of each type of art into the others. They each took something from each other and incorporated it into themselves.

Greenberg describes these art forms as trying to find themselves outside of themselves. This was a losing battle, and only after they had no other option did they return to their true nature. He believed that that these art forms made unnecessary attempts to try to go "outside the box," if you will. He believes that they didn't have to deny their fundamental values for such a period of time just to arrive at their true recognition. Painting took the steepest fall of all of the art forms in his eyes. It was no longer fundamentally sound. The fundamentals of painting are canvas and paint. It started as a fight against the medium, working to be categorized as an illusion, an imitation. This soon subsided and it returned to its true fundamental state with the help of some admirable painters.

Greenbergs argument that the "prensent supremacy" of abstract art had to do with music being the dominant form of art during this period. Previously, the dominance of literature caused painting to closely relate to literary characteristics. During the 19th century, literature reigned as the dominant form of art. During this time literature was influenced by the Romantic Revolution. The Romantic theory of art was "that the artist feels something and passes on this feeling-not the situation or thing which stimulated it-to his audience." During this period, painters lost respect for their mediums, and for the first time academicism was born. Greenberg describes painting as being at an "all time low" during this period. Greenberg's opinion for art during this period is shown in the quote, " the fate of our particular tradition of art depends upon that into which abstract art develops." He believed that a good painting does not have to be successful. Rather it should be "stimulating," "interesting," "original," and "creative."

Despite his criticisms, Clement Greenberg did have a few excpetions to his dismay. He approved of some artists who held true to the virtue, and rather than imitating, expressed emotion and character in their pieces. He was fond of the work of such artists as Miró, Léger and Kandinsky.

Clement Greenberg outlined the course of art for the future. After this essay was written, Abstract Expressionist paintings were produced and became extremely popular. The purpose of this type of art parallels the way Greenberg felt art needed to be, and how it needed to change. Greenberg wrote this essay about the natural course of change in art, and the outburst of Abstract Expressionsim exemplifies a natural course of change.