Synopses & Reviews
The Invisible Dragon made a lot of noise for a little book When it was originally published in 1993 it was championed by artists for its forceful call for a reconsideration of beautyandmdash;and savaged by more theoretically oriented critics who dismissed the very concept of beauty as naive, igniting a debate that has shown no sign of flagging.
With this revised and expanded edition, Hickey is back to fan the flames. More manifesto than polite discussion, more call to action than criticism, The Invisible Dragon aims squarely at the hyper-institutionalism that, in Hickeyandrsquo;s view, denies the real pleasures that draw us to art in the first place. Deploying the artworks of Warhol, Raphael, Caravaggio, and Mapplethorpe and the writings of Ruskin, Shakespeare, Deleuze, and Foucault, Hickey takes on museum culture, arid academicism, sclerotic politics, and moreandmdash;all in the service of making readers rethink the nature of art. A new introduction provides a context for earlier essaysandmdash;what Hickey calls his andquot;intellectual temper tantrums.andquot; A new essay, andquot;American Beauty,andquot; concludes the volume with a historical argument that is a rousing paean to the inherently democratic nature of attention to beauty.
Written with a verve that is all too rare in serious criticism, this expanded and refurbished edition of The Invisible Dragon will be sure to captivate a new generation of readers, provoking the passionate reactions that are the hallmark of great criticism.
Synopsis
Esteemed critic, painter, and writer Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe offers a provocative critique of beauty in relation to the contemporary notion of the sublime, which is now found in technology and a high-powered economy rather than in nature. Refuting established views, this book questions today's ideas of beauty, including those applied to contemporary art, and proposes a secular theory of beauty as glamorous rather than good, frivolous rather than serious. An illuminating read, this book provides excellent course material for classes in philosophy, cultural studies, art history, and aesthetics.
About the Author
Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe is a critic, painter, and author of several books, including Beyond Piety: Critical Essays on the Visual Arts 1986-1993 and Immanence and Contradiction: Recent Essays on the Artistic Device. He has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in painting and criticism as well as a Guggenheim fellowship in painting, and was presented the 1998 Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism by the College Art Association. He teaches in the graduate program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Table of Contents
Dragon Days: Introduction to the New Edition
Enter the Dragon: On the Vernacular of Beauty
Nothing like the Son: On Robert Mapplethorpeand#8217;s X Portfolio
Prom Night in Flatland: On the Gender of Works of Art
After the Great Tsunami: On Beauty and the Therapeutic Institution
American BeautyAcknowledgments