Art History After Modernism"Art history after modernism" does not only mean that art looks different today; it also means that our discourse on art has taken a different direction, if it is safe to say it has taken a direction at all. So begins Hans Belting's brilliant, iconoclastic reconsideration of art and art history at the end of the millennium, which builds upon his earlier and highly successful volume, The End of the History of Art?. "Known for his striking and original theories about the nature of art," according to the Economist, Belting here examines how art is made, viewed, and interpreted today. Arguing that contemporary art has burst out of the frame that art history had built for it, Belting calls for an entirely new approach to thinking and writing about art. He moves effortlessly between contemporary issues—the rise of global and minority art and its consequences for Western art history, installation and video art, and the troubled institution of the art museum—and questions central to art history's definition of itself, such as the distinction between high and low culture, art criticism versus art history, and the invention of modernism in art history. Forty-eight black and white images illustrate the text, perfectly reflecting the state of contemporary art. With Art History after Modernism, Belting retains his place as one of the most original thinkers working in the visual arts today. |
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abstract abstract art aesthetic Alois Riegl already American appeared art criticism art history art market art scene art theory art's artists autonomous avant-garde became become Berlin called chapter claim collection Cologne commentary concept of art contemporary art context crisis Danto debate discipline discourse discussion Documenta end of art epilogue essay Europe European exhibition catalog experience Fernand Léger fiction film frame Frankfurt am Main Gallery genres global Greenaway Heinrich Wölfflin historians history of art iconology ideal idem images installation Julius Meier-Graefe Kunst Kunstgeschichte living London longer mass media meaning memory mirror modern art Munich museum Nam June Paik painting Paris Peter Greenaway photograph Picasso pop art question Rauschenberg reality represented retrospect seemed sense society speak stage style theme tion topic tradition ture video art viewer visual West Western art world art York Yves Klein