BEAUTY /ANGLAIS

Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art

by BEECH DAVE

Part of the acclaimed 'Documents of Contemporary Art' series of anthologies .

Beauty is among the most hotly contested subjects in current discussions on art and culture. After decades of disavowal, beauty's resurgence in recent art has engaged some of the most influential artists and writers. Spanning diverse positions, this anthology assembles the key texts on the cultural politics of this recent phenomenon, as well as contextualizing these debates - both for and against - in artistic practice and the broader history of aesthetics.

Artists surveyed Vito Acconci, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gustave Courbet, Marcel Duchamp, Marlene Dumas, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Gary Hume, Asger Jorn, Alex Katz, Willem de Kooning, Joseph Kosuth, Paul McCarthy, Edouard Manet, Robert Mapplethorpe, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Barnett Newman, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Robert Smithson, Nancy Spero, Frank Stella, Clyfford Still and Andy Warhol.

Writers Theodor Adorno, Alexander Alberro, Rasheed Araeen, Art & Language, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, T. J. Clark, Mark Cousins, Arthur C. Danto, Jacques Derrida, Thierry de Duve, Fredric Jameson, Christoph Grunenberg, Dave Hickey, Suzanne Perling Hudson, Caroline A. Jones, John Roberts, Elaine Scarry, Wendy Steiner and Paul Wood.

Genres: Art, Philosophy, Theory

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Amel]

An interesting variety of artists, philosophers and writers. I'm glad I stumbled across this at my university library! It has challenged my preconceptions about beauty/art. I like how one of the essays mentions that '...beauty cannot be owned like an object'
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys philosophy, art, literature and popular culture!

[Rachelmari]

especially redundant

[Desollado]

The first part is a very good collection of essays right on the point, with very diferent approaches and positions, but about the half the reader has to battle to find some relation with the main subject. Many seem very forced into the compilation. Reading the little biographies of the author, almost all are specialists in the subject of beauty, but that doesn't seem to mean that the selected essays are the best examples.

[Liz]

I LOVE this SERIES...