This is the third lecture of the CAFAM Lecture Series “Thoughts and Experiences”, which is co-hosted by the CAFA Art Museum and Galleria Continua, and supported by the British Council.

Born in Reichenberg in 1941, Markus Lüpertz was the rector of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1988 to 2009, having taught a great number of students including the now representative of German woodcut painting artists, Matthias Mansen, Felix Druze and Marcus Oren. Lüpertz began his creation of art in the 1960s, had gained an international reputation in the 1980s, and he is known for being a member of the German Neo-Expressionism, together with Kiefer, Immendorff, Baselitz, Penck, Polk, and he is hailed as the German national treasured artist.

As Erwin Panofsky states, ‘a spinning machine is perhaps the most impressive manifestation of a functional idea, and an abstract painting is probably the most expressive manifestation of pure form. But both have a minimum of content.’

Clement Greenberg is an influential figure in American art world in 1940s and 50s. He contributed greatly to abstract expressionist art. His influence declined since 1960s. His name was introduced to China in the end of 1980s. In 1990s, some of his important academic articles were translated into Chinese, which impacted art criticism in China. Although Greenberg’s art critic theories have lost their validity in the contemporary time in terms of art history writing and art critic practice, he has become an important research subject of modern and contemporary European and American art history. However, the study on Greenberg lacks in China, with only the book Art and Culture published in Chinese. Yet China is in the middle of a new art stage, thus how to read and refer to Greenberg becomes a theoretical and practical problem worth our thinking. This article explains the necessity to refer to Greenberg, and the importance to transcend his art theoretical frame.