Art History After Modernism

by Belting, Hans

• ISBN13: 9780226041858
• ISBN10: 0226041859
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

"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 issuesthe rise of global and minority art and its consequences for Western art history, installation and video art, and the troubled institution of the art museumand 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 Biography

Hans Belting is the Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art History at Northwestern University. He is the author of a number of books, including The End of the History of Art?, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, and The Invisible Masterpiece, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface to the English Edition	vii
I Modernism in the Mirror of Contemporary Culture
1. Epilogues for Art or for Art History?	3	(4)
2. The Meaning of Art History in Today's Culture	7	(10)
3. Art Criticism versus Art History	17	(9)
4. The Unwelcome Heritage of Modernism: Style and History	26	(11)
5. The Late Cult of Modernism: Documenta and Western Art	37	(7)
6. Western Art: The Intervention of the United States in Postwar Modernism	44	(10)
7. Europe: East and West at the Watershed of Art History	54	(8)
8. Global Art and Minorities: A New Geography of Art History	62	(12)
9. The Mirror of Mass Culture: Art's Revolt against Art History	74	(11)
10. The Temporality of Video Art	85	(11)
11. The Narrative of Art in the New Museum: The Search for a Profile	96	(19)
II The End of Art History?
12. Art and the Crisis of Modernism	115	(11)
13. Art Historiography as Tradition	126	(11)
14. Methods and Games of an Academic Discipline	137	(11)
15. Work of Art or History of Art?	148	(13)
16. Art History versus Media Studies	161	(6)
17. The Myth of Modernism in the Mirror of Art History	167	(7)
18. Postmodernism or Posthistory?	174	(12)
19. "Prospero's Books"	186	(6)
20. Marco Polo and Other Cultures	192	(9)
Bibliography	201	(20)
Index	221