ISBN: 9780140000000
PUBLISHER: PENGUIN
FORMAT: Trade Paperback
EDITION:
SIGNED: No
PAGES: 320
RELEASE DATE: 1995
ITEM CONDITION: Good
CATEGORY: Criticism
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments
Why are the paleolithic Venus of Willendorf, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes, and Marcel Duchamp's ready-made urinal all considered works of art? Why, strictly speaking, is a Cindy Sherman photograph more "art-like" than a Da Vinci portrait? How did the painters and sculptors of the Renaissance see their creations? And who decides what art is today? In the tradition of Marshall McLuhan and John Berger, this learned and deliciously subversive book gives us a new way of seeing our artistic heritage. Believing Is Seeing is a work of multicultural scope and glittering intelligence that bridges the gulf between classical Japanese painting and the films of Spike Lee, between high theory and pop culture. Probing beyond the rhetorical surface of standard art histories and drawing on a panoramic array of illustrative material, Mary Anne Staniszewski throws a fresh light on individual works and the often mystifying criteria by which they are valued.
Table of Contents
Instructions for Use
What Is Art?
Art and the Modern Subject
The Term "Art"
Aesthetics: The Theory of Art
The Privilege: Creating Art
The Academy
The Museum
The Discipline: Art History and the Development of Modernism
The Avant-Garde, Popular Culture and the Creation of the Mass Media
Art and Culture Today
Selected Bibliography
Picture Credits