Post 7. The important of the Experience in Literalist art

In Fried's 'Art and Objecthood' the idea I was most engaged with was the overlapping concepts of minimal art becoming theatrical through the experience of an audience and how this 'experience' is the most crucial element of the work itself.

Fried equates that ‘the literalist espousal of object hood amounts to nothing other than a plea for a new genre of theatre; and theatre is now the negation of art.’ Through this we can argue that there is a transcendence between art to become, theatre, or a theatrical and exaggerated version of it, as we must experience and engage the artwork rather than just look at it. ‘the experience of literalist art is of an object in a situation one that virtually by definition includes the beholder. Fried uses the example of Tony Smith driving on the unfinished NJ Turnpike as validation for the importance of the ‘experience.’ Smith says that despite the fact the road was artificial it could not be called art, and yet, it left a more profound effect on him than had any piece of art because he was physically experiencing it and gave him the impression that ‘there had been a reality there that had not had any expression in art.

In essence what Fried is arguing is that the literalist approach to art heightens the experience of art itself. Our relationship to the piece becomes stronger and thus we react more thoroughly with it due to the fact that, on account of the different angels of the shape we can appreciate all aspects of the aesthetic, rather than just one view.