nichole habermas

I have to start by writing that this class is, or should I now say WAS (hear me out on this one), on a topic of great interest to me. The reason I say was, is because of reading this article. Habermas poses a strong argument against surrealist art. My favorite favorite favorite artist is Salvatore Dali (remember the second day of class when we were shown a slideshow of things that are considered postmodern, the painting was by Dali). Habermas writes that "modernity revolts against the normalizing functions of tradition" (100). This isnt what turned me away from Dali, I actually agree with this statement. Anything modern is something that has broken the rules which hegemony dictates as the social norm. Thus, surreal artists were, at the time, ultra modern. There was nothing like surrealist paintings before and it was taken first as a shock at what some people were calling art but later accepted as being avant garde and simply ahead of the times. HOWEVER, He also continues on to say that, "although avant-garde is still considered to be expanding, it is supposedly no longer creative." In essence what he is telling us is that this notion of what once was so creative and off the wall, is now old news. I sort if get the sense through Habermas' diction that he accuses those artists that were once ahead of their time as only becoming famous and notable because they followed the trend of doing something that has never been done before which is, when it comes down to it, hypocritical. He finishes the section by saying, "Modenism is dominant but dead."
So for now my opinion stands the same, my favorite artist is Dali. I suppose I dont necessarily agree with Habermas in the sense that once famous avant-garde artists are on the outs, but perhaps I see where he is coming from in saying that nobody can make modern art anymore because that name was dedicated to a period that has now passed.