Art History After Modernism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226041858)

"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.


Author: Hans Belting
ISBN-10: 0226041859
ISBN-13: 9780226041858
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 08/01/2003
Pages: 226
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.99h x 6.04w x 0.67d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2004 pg. 1867