藝術社會史家T.J.克拉克依循馬克思主義路線,堅持從政治和社會視角來解析現代藝術。本文通過分析和比較,提煉出其現代主義藝術理論。克拉克認為,現代主義是在由資產階級、技術理性、景觀社會和社會主義運動所構成的歷史坐標系中興起、發展和衰微的;現代主義藝術是對現代性的回應,是以視覺形式檢驗現代性之再現性的結構性模式,也是對現代性體驗之根源的索求和表現。現代主義藝術既希望符指處于表征危機中的社會現實,又包含著對于資本主義社會的否定,它意圖以媒介的形式實驗建構"藝術的烏托邦",卻又因堅守主體性、抵抗同一性而退行。克拉克的現代主義理論有力地挑戰了格林伯格和弗雷德的學說,產生了廣泛影響。

Sticking to Marxism, art historian T.J. Clark analyzes modern art from perspectives of politics and society. Through comparative analysis, this article extracts his theory on modernist art. According to Clark, modernism arose, developed and declined in the historical coordinate system which consisted of the bourgeoisie, technological reason, the society of spectacle and socialist movement. As a response to modernity, modernist art was a structural model to examine the representation of modernity by visual form, which also explored and embodied the origin of the experience of modernity. Modernist art intended to signify the social reality in the crisis of representation, and to negate the capitalist society as a whole. Although aiming to create an "Artistic Utopia", it regressed because of its sticking to subjectivity and resistance to identity. T.J. Clark’s modernist theory has challenged the theories of Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried and produced far-reaching impact.