Download or read book Contemporary Sculpture and the Critique of Display Cultures written by Dan Adler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Dan Adler addresses recent tendencies in contemporary art toward assemblage sculpture and how these works incorporate tainted materials – often things left on the side of the road, according to the logic and progress of the capitalist machine – and combine them in ways that allow each element to retain a degree of empirical specificity. Adler develops a range of aesthetic models through which these practices can be understood to function critically. Each chapter focuses on a single exhibition: Isa Genzken’s "OIL" (German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2007), Geoffrey Farmer’s midcareer survey (Musée d’art contemporain, Montréal, 2008), Rachel Harrison’s "Consider the Lobster" (CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, 2009), and Liz Magor’s "The Mouth and Other Storage Facilities" (Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, 2008).
Download or read book Contemporary Cultures of Display written by Emma Barker and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contiene:
Download or read book The Politics of Contemporary Art Biennials written by Panos Kompatsiaris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary art biennials are sites of prestige, innovation and experimentation, where the category of art is meant to be in perpetual motion, rearranged and redefined, opening itself to the world and its contradictions. They are sites of a seemingly peaceful cohabitation between the elitist and the popular, where the likes of Jeff Koons encounter the likes of Guy Debord, where Angela Davis and Frantz Fanon share the same ground with neoliberal cultural policy makers and creative entrepreneurs. Building on the legacy of events that conjoin art, critical theory and counterculture, from Nova Convention to documenta X, the new biennial blends the modalities of protest with a neoliberal politics of creativity. This book examines a strained period for these high art institutions, a period when their politics are brought into question and often boycotted in the context of austerity, crisis and the rise of Occupy cultures. Using the 3rd Athens Biennale and the 7th Berlin Biennale as its main case studies, it looks at how the in-built tensions between the domains of art and politics take shape when spectacular displays attempt to operate as immediate activist sites. Drawing on ethnographic research and contemporary cultural theory, this book argues that biennials both denunciate the aesthetic as bourgeois category and simultaneously replicate and diffuse an exclusive sociability across social landscapes.
Download or read book Subject to Display written by Jennifer A. Gonzalez and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-03-04 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the visual culture of “race” through the work of five contemporary artists who came to prominence during the 1990s. Over the past two decades, artists James Luna, Fred Wilson, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Pepón Osorio, and Renée Green have had a profound impact on the meaning and practice of installation art in the United States. In Subject to Display, Jennifer González offers the first sustained analysis of their contribution, linking the history and legacy of race discourse to innovations in contemporary art. Race, writes González, is a social discourse that has a visual history. The collection and display of bodies, images, and artifacts in museums and elsewhere is a primary means by which a nation tells the story of its past and locates the cultures of its citizens in the present. All five of the American installation artists González considers have explored the practice of putting human subjects and their cultures on display by staging elaborate dioramas or site-specific interventions in galleries and museums; in doing so, they have created powerful social commentary of the politics of space and the power of display in settings that mimic the very spaces they critique. These artists' installations have not only contributed to the transformation of contemporary art and museum culture, but also linked Latino, African American, and Native American subjects to the broader spectrum of historical colonialism, race dominance, and visual culture. From Luna's museum installation of his own body and belongings as “artifacts” and Wilson's provocative juxtapositions of museum objects to Mesa-Bains's allegorical home altars, Osorio's condensed spaces (bedrooms, living rooms; barbershops, prison cells) and Green's genealogies of cultural contact, the theoretical and critical endeavors of these artists demonstrate how race discourse is grounded in a visual technology of display.
Download or read book The Contemporary Art Gallery written by David Carrier and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone who looks at contemporary art is familiar with galleries. But visual features of these mysterious temples tend to be taken for granted. The basic purpose of this book is to enliven the reader’s latent knowledge of galleries, including architectural motifs, the intended impression that is conveyed to the visitor, and human interactions within them. The contemporary art world system includes artists’ studios, art galleries, homes of collec-tors and public art museums. To comprehend art, one needs to understand these settings and how it travels through them. The contemporary art gallery is a store where luxury goods are sold. What distinguishes it from stores selling other luxuries – upscale clothing, jewelry, and posh cars – is the nature of the merchandise. While much has been written about the art, this book uncovers the secretive culture of the galleries themselves. The gallery is the public site where art is first seen – anyone can come and look for free. This store, a commercial site, is where aesthetic judgments are made. Art’s value is determined in this marketplace by the consensus formed by public opinion, professional re-viewers and sales. The gallery, then, is the nexus of the enigmatic, billion dollar art world, and it is that space that is dissected here. The first chapter briefly describes the beginnings of the present contemporary art gallery. The second presents the experience of gallery going, presenting summary accounts of vis-its to some contemporary galleries. The third expands and extends that analysis, with de-tailed close up descriptions and comparative evaluations of many diverse contemporary galleries, in order to identify the challenges provided by these marvelous places. Then the fourth chapter indicates why, in the near future, due to the proliferation of myriad art fairs and online platforms extant today, such galleries might disappear altogether.
Download or read book Contemporary Cultures of Display written by Emma Barker and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contiene:
Download or read book From Museum Critique to the Critical Museum written by Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late nineteenth century, museums have been cited as tools of imperialism and colonialism, as strongholds of patriarchalism, masculinism, homophobia and xenophobia, and accused both of elitism and commercialism. But, could the museum absorb and benefit from its critique, turning into a critical museum, into the site of resistance rather than ritual? This book looks at the ways in which the museum could use its collections, its cultural authority, its auratic space and resources to give voice to the underprivileged, and to take an active part in contemporary and at times controversial issues. Drawing together both major museum professionals and academics, it examines the theoretical concept of the critical museum, and uses case studies of engaged art institutions from different parts of the world. It reaches beyond the usual focus on western Europe, America, and ’the World’, including voices from, as well as about, eastern European museums, which have rarely been discussed in museum studies books so far.
Download or read book Creative Enterprise written by Martha Buskirk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of unparalleled growth and a truly global audience, the popularity of contemporary art has clearly become a double-edged affair. Today, an unprecedented number of museums, galleries, biennial-style exhibitions, and art fairs display new work in all its variety, while art schools continue to inject fresh talent onto the scene at an accelerated rate. In the process, however, contemporary art has become deeply embedded not only in an expanding art industry, but also the larger cultures of fashion and entertainment. Buskirk argues that understanding the dynamics of art itself cannot be separated from the business of presenting art to the public. As strategies of institutional critique have given way to various forms of collaboration or accommodation, both art and museum conventions have been profoundly altered by their ongoing relationship. The escalating market for contemporary art is another driving force. Even as art remains an idealized activity, it is also understood as a profession, and in increasingly obvious ways a business, particularly as practiced by star artists who preside over branded art product lines.
Download or read book Deconstructing Contemporary Chinese Art written by Paul Gladston and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-08-21 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents a range of articles and discussions that offer critical insights into the development of contemporary Chinese art, both within China and internationally. It brings together selected writings, both published and unpublished, by Paul Gladston, one of the foremost international scholars on contemporary Chinese art. The articles are based on extensive first-hand research, much of which was carried out during an extended residence in China between 2005 and 2010. In contrast to many other writers on contemporary Chinese art, Gladston analyses his subject with specific reference to the concerns of critical theory. In his writings he consistently argues for a “polylogic” (multi-voiced) approach to research and analysis grounded in painstaking attention to local, regional and international conditions of artistic production, reception and display.
Download or read book Holography A Critical Debate within Contemporary Visual Culture written by Andrew Pepper and published by MDPI. This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artists have been exploring the spatial, conceptual and three-dimensional qualities of holography for over fifty years. Why, then, is there so little sustained critical pressure placed on this process, methodology and mode of visualisation which underpins the developing practice?In 1994, pioneering British artist Margaret Benyon, in her doctoral thesis, posed the question “How is Holography Art”, and offered a range of answers, by applying critical pressure to her considerable work in the field. Over 25 years later, we have used Benyon’s investigation as an invitation to ask more questions. This Special Issue in Arts brings together artists working with holography, as well as curators and long-term expert observers with an interest in the medium, to open up a more comprehensive discussion. They have reflected on the development of their work and its place within a cultural and critical framework. The curators and observers have employed a wider lens from their standpoints outside the field, but this is located firmly within current cultural discussions.There are more questions and certainly a need to increase the critical pressure around why holography could be one of the most significant ways of seeing and representing worlds and ideas today. We are surrounded by terrible art (painting, sculpture, print, photography, performance, digital, moving image), and holography has undoubtedly contributed to the visual flotsam clogging our vision. This publication aims to identify the importance of critical conversation, and the place holography holds within our current and complex media landscape.
Download or read book Exhibition written by Lucy Steeds and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology provides a multivocal critique of exhibitions of contemporary art, bringing together the writings of artists, curators and theorists. Collectively these diverse perspectives are united by the notion that if the focus for modernist discussion was individual works of art, it is the exhibition that is the prime cultural carrier of contemporaneity. The texts encompass exhibition design and form; exhibitions that are object-based, live or discursive; projects that no longer rely on a physical space to be visited in person; artists' responses to being curated, and their reflections on the potential of acting curatorially. Set against the rise of the curator as an influential force in the contemporary art world, this volume underlines the crucial role of artists in questioning and shaping the phenomenon of the exhibition.
Download or read book Sculpture and Archaeology written by Andrew Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years the intersections between art history and archaeology have become the focus of critical analysis by both disciplines. Contemporary sculpture has played a key role in this dialogue. The essays in this volume, by art historians, archaeologists and artists, take the intersection between sculpture and archaeology as the prelude for analysis, examining the metaphorical and conceptual role of archaeology as subject matter for sculptors, and the significance of sculpture as a three-dimensional medium for exploring historical attitudes to archaeology.
Download or read book Contemporary Curating Artistic Reference and Public Reception written by Stéphanie Bertrand and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-31 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary Curating, Artistic Reference and Public Reception undertakes a unique critical survey and analysis of prevailing group exhibition-making practices in Europe, the UK and North America. Drawing on curatorial literature and two in-depth case studies of group exhibitions, Bertrand advocates for a mode of curatorial practice that secures the content of artworks, in contrast to prevailing open-ended, indeterminate approaches. Proposing a third exhibition type beyond the current binary exhibition ontology that opposes art historical narratives to curatorial installations or Gesamtkunstwerk, the book directly tackles the enduring critique of curating as a mediating activity that produces sameness in group-exhibition contexts by establishing artistic equivalences. The book relies on the principles of analytical philosophy to assess how different exhibition-making approaches fix reference and determine artistic reception, reintroducing a standard to evaluate exhibitions beyond personal taste and thematic coherence. Bertrand ultimately proposes an alternative conception of practice that affirms the renewed relevance of the institutional group show in the present context. Contemporary Curating, Artistic Reference and Public Reception will be of interest to academics, researchers and students working in museum and curatorial studies, visual cultures, art theory and art history programmes. Art theorists and critics, as well as curators of contemporary art with a research-based practice, should also find much to interest them within the pages of the book.
Download or read book The Anthropology of Art written by Howard Morphy and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-02-04 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology provides a single-volume overview of the essential theoretical debates in the anthropology of art. Drawing together significant work in the field from the second half of the twentieth century, it enables readers to appreciate the art of different cultures at different times. Advances a cross-cultural concept of art that moves beyond traditional distinctions between Western and non-Western art. Provides the basis for the appreciation of art of different cultures and times. Enhances readers’ appreciation of the aesthetics of art and of the important role it plays in human society.
Download or read book Scale in Contemporary Sculpture written by Rachel Wells and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to devote serious attention to questions of scale in contemporary sculpture, this study considers the phenomenon within the interlinked cultural and socio-historical framework of the legacies of postmodern theory and the growth of global capitalism. In particular, the book traces the impact of postmodern theory on concepts of measurement and exaggeration, and analyses the relationship between this philosophy and the sculptural trend that has developed since the early 1990s. Rachel Wells examines the arresting international trend of sculpture exploring scale, including American precedents from the 1970s and 1980s and work by the 'Young British Artists'. Noting that the emergence of this sculptural trend coincides with the end of the Cold War, Wells suggests a similarity between the quantitative ratio of scale and the growth of global capitalism that has replaced the former status quo of qualitatively opposed systems. This study also claims the allegorical nature of scale in contemporary sculpture, outlining its potential for critique or complicity in a system dominated by quantitative criteria of value. In a period characterised by uncertainty and incommensurability, Wells demonstrates that scale in contemporary sculpture can suggest the possibility of, and even an unashamed reliance upon, comparison and external difference in the construction of meaning.
Download or read book A Companion to Modern Art written by Pam Meecham and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Modern Art presents a series of original essays by international and interdisciplinary authors who offer a comprehensive overview of the origins and evolution of artistic works, movements, approaches, influences, and legacies of Modern Art. Presents a contemporary debate and dialogue rather than a seamless consensus on Modern Art Aims for reader accessibility by highlighting a plurality of approaches and voices in the field Presents Modern Art’s foundational philosophic ideas and practices, as well as the complexities of key artists such as Cezanne and Picasso, and those who straddled the modern and contemporary Looks at the historical reception of Modern Art, in addition to the latest insights of art historians, curators, and critics to artists, educators, and more
Download or read book Looking In written by Mieke Bal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.