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The author explores how and why the impoverished and mentally tormented Van Gogh came to be glorified shortly after his suicide at the age of 37. Apart from describing his life she also explores the economics of the art market. In an appendix attention is given to Van Gogh and art criticism in France, 1888- 1901.
At a time when a pile of bricks is displayed in a museum, when music is composed for performance underwater, and the boundaries between popular and fine art are fluid, conventional understandings of art are strained in describing what art is, what it includes or excludes, whether and how it should be evaluated, and what importance should be assigned the arts in society. In this book, Vera Zolberg examines diverse theoretical approaches to the study of the arts. Ranging over humanistic and social scientific views representing a variety of scholarly traditions, American and European, she then develops a sociological approach that evaluates the institutional, economic, and political influences ...
This broad-ranging reader uses extracts form the core foundational and most influential contemporary writers in the field to present a productive interdisciplinary dialogue between sociology and art history as well as a fascinating introduction to the subject.
Reflection on the history and practice of art history has long been a major topic of research and scholarship, and this volume builds on this tradition by offering a critical survey of many of the major developments in the contemporary discipline, such as the impact of digital technologies, the rise of visual studies or new initiatives in conservation theory and practice. Alongside these methodological issues this book addresses the mostly neglected question of the impact of national contexts on the development of the discipline. Taking a wide range of case studies, this book examines the impact of the specific national political, institutional and ideological demands on the practice of art history. The result is an account that both draws out common features and also highlights the differences and the plurality of practices that together constitute art history as a discipline.
Divided into four sections: Asian-Western Intersections, Intercultural Memory, Intercultural Perspectives on Women, Genre Studies, and The Intercultural Arts, these essays from diverse hands and multiple perspectives illuminate the intersections, the cross-sections, and the synergies that characterize significant literary texts and artistic productions. Individually, they exemplify the insights available in an intercultural perspective; together they remind us that no culture - even those that claim to be pure or those that might be regarded as isolated - has escaped the influence of external influences. As a result, this volume is doubly synergistic: one, because it focuses on intercultural phenomena within a specific culture, and two, because they represent multiple perspectives on these phenomena.
A melancholy defeatism has become a hallmark of critical thought and leftist politics. A consequence of this has been an exaggerated focus on domination among critical theorists, leaving emancipation—along with questions of political organization and strategy—undertheorized at best, or disregarded as delusional, at worst. If emancipation still plays a role in critical reflection, it is most often in a “domesticated” form, made into a bedfellow of centrist liberalism. Recent events necessitate a different outlook, especially since the financial collapse of 2008 and the myriad movements—emancipatory as much as reactionary—it has spawned throughout the world. Through a series of dialogues and reflections by leading thinkers, scholars, and activists, Domination and Emancipation: Remaking Critique seeks to rebuild the emancipatory pole of critique and bring forward theoretical work that is in step with the struggles and aspirations of the moment.
How the valorization of artistic and political dissidence has contributed to the rise of Chinese contemporary art in the West. Interest in Chinese contemporary art increased dramatically in the West shortly after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Sparked by political sympathy and the mediatized response to the event, Western curators, critics, and art historians were quick to view the new art as an expression of dissident resistance to the Chinese regime. In this book, Marie Leduc proposes that this attribution of political dissidence is not only the result of latent Cold War perceptions about China, but also indicative of the art world's demand for artistically and politically provocative...
Hans van Maanen is professor of art and society at the Department of Arts, Culture & Media Studies of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
This volume examines the multifaceted ways in which textual material in nineteenth-century European cultures intersected with non-literary cultural artefacts and concepts. The essays consider the presence of such diverse phenomena as the dandy, nationhood, diasporic identity, operatic and dramatic personae and effects, trapeze artists, paintings, and the grotesque and fantastic in the work of a variety of writers from France, Germany, Spain, Britain, Russia, Greece and Italy. The volume argues for a view of the long nineteenth century as a century of lively cultural dialogue and exchange between national and sub-national cultures, between 'high' and popular art forms, and between different genres and different media, and it will be of interest to general readers and scholars alike.