The texts range from conceptual art to critical theory, from installation art to cinema, from conceptual art to the rise of the digital world. The authors also address such pressing issues as representation, science, globalization and technology.
In the first part of the book, Alfred Gell reveals the processes and structures of art after 1980. The essays set out the social and political shifts that transformed the art world, and the professional and political obligations of artists that accompanied these changes. They discuss the "return of art" in the wake of the re-emergence of the concept of the avant-garde after 1960, and how artists responded to a widened sense of their own agency and the increasing importance of the gallery, museum, and art school as sites of production, reproduction and consumption. Gell examines the shifting relations between artists and their audiences, noting the rise of "star" artists and "celebrity culture" and looking at the ideological dimensions of the art world as a space of representation and the creation of meaning.
In the second part of the book, Tim Ankersen focuses on three critical ideas: Conceptual Art, Representation, and Nature. Within Conceptual Art, he examines the concepts of the Avant-Garde and Art as Research and the use of languages in artworks. Ankersen shows how these ideas were used and re-used by artists during the late twentieth century, and how they became important tools for understanding art after 1980. Within Representation, he examines how artists have attempted to find ways of representing themselves, and how this has been complicated by the rise of the Digital and Net art. Finally, Ankersen shows how artists have made use of the idea of Nature in the visual arts during the second half of the twentieth century. He also considers whether this has become a naïve or problematic concept.
In the third part, Vicky Westwood focuses on Critical Theory, Science, Globalization and Technology. She examines the different critical ideas that have emerged in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War. She begins with Benjamin's concept of aura, and shows how, during the 1980s, many artists became aware of the presence of a "third space" between themselves and their audience. As the twentieth century reached its end, artists became increasingly concerned with the use of language, and with different relations between art and everyday life.
"This book will interest students of art history, cultural studies and of course those of you interested in our art world today. This is a
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