FORUM MASTER NIGHT:
MATHIAS DANBOLT
Firstly, Gonzalez-Torres is presented as a typical postmodern artist, as his relational works requires participation from gallery visitors. This is by several texts understood as deconstructing the myth of the artist as an expressive and creative subject, and connected to ideas about ”the death of the artist” in postmodern art theory.
On the other hand, the person Felix Gonzalez-Torres, his life, and especially his premature death caused by AIDS-related illness, has made an important impact on interpretations of his works. Again and again, critics are turning to the personal story of Gonzalez-Torres to explain the themes, motives and intentions of his art. This biographical reading, where the works themselves are shadowed by the light of the artist genius, has been central to Art History ever since Giorgio Vasari wrote his Lives of the artists in the sixteenth century. Exactly this tradition of glorifying the artist-subject is criticized by postmodern theories on “the death of the artist”, and we can therefore speak of a contradiction between the different readings of Gonzalez-Torres’ art.
On Master-night, Danbolt will talk about this tension between the biographical tradition in the discipline of Art History and the postmodern critique of the artistic genius. He will also discuss how the death of the artist, both the real and the theoretical one, has influenced the readings of Gonzalez-Torres and his works.
Mathias Danbolt has studied literature and art history at the University of Bergen, where he received his MA-degree in 2007. He is now a PhD-student at the same institution, working on the project Touching History: The Affective Economies of Queer Archival Activism. Danbolt started Trikster – Nordic Queer Journal in 2007, and he has edited a number of magazines, as well as the book Lost and Found: Queerying the Archive (2009).
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Master-night is a series of lectures where both MA students and recently graduated art historians present their MA dissertations to a public. With Master-night Hordaland Art Centre wishes to bridge the gap between the academic and practicing art scenes in Bergen, and create a place for interaction between students and professionals.
Eva Rem Hansen is responsible for this program and Master-night is made possible due to good help from the study committee of Art History at the University of Bergen.