Synopses & Reviews
Review
andquot;Art beyond Itself offers one of the most potent accounts of artand#39;s reach into and interaction with other realms (media, fashion, social action, investment funds, urban revitalization, new technologies, security, recovery programs for at-risk youth, etc.), offering insights into that transit that neither Bourdeiuand#39;s reduction notion of autonomous spheres nor Ranciandegrave;reand#39;s politics of dissensus and and#39;distribution of the sensibleand#39; adequately theorize.andquot;
Review
andquot;Any book by Nandeacute;stor Garcandiacute;a Canclini is a major publishing event. In Art beyond Itself, he takes on received wisdom about art from inside the art world and from the perspective of the social sciences, updating the sociological nostra of Becker and Bourdieu for the contemporary moment, invoking an array of artistic and philosophical works in the process. No one else could have written this book. It is brilliantly conceived and executed and well-translated. Absolutely superior.andquot;
Review
andquot;No one profiled the paradoxes, the volatility and the limits of the Latin American experience of modernity with more precision and subtlety than Nandeacute;stor Garcia Canclini. Few have matched his trenchant and poignant readings of the more recent impacts of economic and political globalization. It will delight the reader that the same qualities that infuse his engagement with contemporary art. As an anthropologist of contemporary cultures, he is exact in identifying artand#39;s current structures, and in exposing the art worldand#39;s prevailing mystifications concerning autonomy, relationality, and critical correctness. A passionate observer of the work of artists such as Leandoacute;n Ferrari, Antoni Muntadas, Santiago Sierra, Carlos Amorales, and Teresa Margolles, he describes, with elegance and precision, their capacity to grasp, show, and build and#39;immanenceand#39; within our contemporary conditions.andquot;
Synopsis
First published in Spanish in 2010, Art beyond Itself is Nand#233;stor Garcand#237;a Canclini's deft assessment of contemporary art. The renowned cultural critic is attentive to particular artworks; to artists including Francis Aland#255;s, Leand#243;n Ferrari, Teresa Margolles, Antoni Muntadas, and Gabriel Orozco; and to efforts to preserve, for art and artists, some degree of independence from religion, politics, the media, and the market.
Synopsis
First published in Spanish in 2010, Art beyond Itself is Nestor Garcia Canclini's deft assessment of contemporary art. The renowned cultural critic suggests that, ideally, art is the place of imminence, the place where we glimpse something just about to happen. Yet, as he demonstrates, defining contemporary art and its role in society is an ever more complicated endeavor. Museums, auction houses, artists, and major actors in economics, politics, and the media are increasingly chummy and interdependent. Art is expanding into urban development and the design and tourism industries. Art practices based on objects are displaced by practices based on contexts. Aesthetic distinctions dissolve as artworks are inserted into the media, urban spaces, digital networks, and social forums. Oppositional artists are adrift in a society without a clear story line. What, after all, counts as transgression in a world of diverse and fragmentary narratives? Seeking a new analytic framework for understanding contemporary art, Garcia Canclini is attentive to particular artworks; to artists including Francis Alÿs, Leon Ferrari, Teresa Margolles, Antoni Muntadas, and Gabriel Orozco; and to efforts to preserve, for art and artists, some degree of independence from religion, politics, the media, and the market.
About the Author
Nandeacute;stor Garcandiacute;a Canclini is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Universidad Autandoacute;noma Metropolitana in Mexico City. Born in Argentina, he has lived in Mexico for many years. He is an anthropologist and cultural critic originally trained as a philosopher. Among the many books that he has written, those available in English are Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflict, Transforming Modernity: Popular Culture in Mexico, and Imagined Globalization, which is published by Duke University Press.