About the Book
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 include: 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 include: 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.
Table of Contents:
Introduction; The Revival of Beauty; Concepts and Contexts; Positions; Biographical Notes; Bibliography; Index; Acknowledgements.
About the Author :
Dave Beech is a London-based British artist and writer. He is a member of the collective freee (www.freee.org.uk). A regular contributor to Art Monthly, he has examined the legacies of the avant-garde in essays such as 'Art's Detractors', 'Shock vs Awe' and 'The Politics of Beauty'. He teaches at Chelsea College of Art and is the co-author of The Philistine Controversy (2002).
Review :
"In his introduction to this fascinating and timely anthology, Dave Beech tackles the politics of beauty, arguing with characteristic clarity that beauty is neither purely individual and subjective, nor is it entirely socially inscribed; rather it exists at the point of tension between the individual and society. It is thus political in the true sense because we can bring about changes in our perception of beauty. If, back in 1993, Dave Hickey resurrected the idea of beauty in art from the critical 'dead zone' into which it had been consigned, then with this anthology Beech has not only revivified the debate about the politics of beauty but he has brought it up to date." - Patricia Bickers, Editor, "Art Monthly," and Principal Lecturer, History and Theory of Art, University of Westminster, London
