Abstract
Postmodernism in the arts is double-faced: It not only concerns ‘neo-expressionist’ painting, but also a performative turn, initially diagnosed by Michael Fried. Influenced by poststructuralist philosophers like Roland Barthes or Michel Foucault, the art scene underwent a significant change since the late seventies: Language and other sign systems took the lead so that the authority of the author was undermined, the work became part of a relational network, the beholder turned into a producer. Photography and performance were the media to articulate the change. It is argued that seemingly traditional media like painting in fact adopted a transmedia approach. Painting itself has a performative character, but it was also used to document performances and to perform a public persona. A focus on signs suggested a practice of complicity: artists performed in the growing art market and pleaded for an ‘affirmative critique’ that would change structures by inhabiting it. At the end of the eighties, AIDS activism put an end to this kind of postmodernist opportunism and reintroduced a sense of struggle. This caused an essential critique of the language approach and brought a new understanding of critical artistic practice, again connecting to the overall development towards performativity.