The Invention of Art: A Cultural History

by Shiner, Larry

• ISBN13: 9780226753430
• ISBN10: 0226753433
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

WithThe Invention of Art, Larry Shiner challenges our conventional understandings of art and asks us to reconsider its history entirely, arguing that the category of fine art is a modern inventionthat the lines drawn between art and craft resulted from key social transformations in Europe during the long eighteenth century."Shiner spent over a decade honing what he calls 'a brief history of the idea of art.' This carefully prepared andgiven the extent and complexity of what he's discussingadmirably concise, well-organized book is the result. . . . Shiner's text is scholarly but accessible, and should appeal to readers with even a dabbler's interest in art theory."Publishers Weekly"The Invention of Artis enjoyable to read and provides a welcome addition to the history and philosophy of art."Terrie L. Wilson,Art Documentation"A lucid book . . . it should be a must-read for anyone active in the arts."Marc Spiegler,Chicago Tribune Books

Author Biography

Larry Shiner is a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He is the author of The Secularization of History and The Secret Mirror.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Preface	xv
Introduction	3	(2)
The Great Division	5	(5)
Words and Institutions	10	(7)
Part I: Before Fine Art and Craft
Overview	17	(2)
The Greeks Had No Word for It	19	(9)
Art, techne, ars	19	(3)
The Artisan/Artist	22	(2)
Beauty and Function	24	(4)
Aquinas's Saw	28	(7)
From ``Servile'' to ``Mechanical'' Arts	28	(2)
Artificers	30	(3)
The Idea of Beauty	33	(2)
Michelangelo and Shakespeare: Art on the Rise	35	(22)
Opening up the Liberal Arts	35	(3)
The Changing Status of Artisan/Artists	38	(7)
The Ideal Qualities of the Artisan/Artist	45	(2)
Shakespeare, Jonson, and the ``Work''	47	(6)
A Proto-Aesthetic?	53	(4)
Artemisia's Allegory: Art in Transition	57	(22)
The Artisan/Artist's Continuing Struggle for Status	60	(5)
The Image of the Artisan/Artist	65	(2)
Steps toward the Category of Fine Art	67	(4)
The Role of Taste	71	(4)
Part II: Art Divided
Overview	75	(4)
Polite Arts for the Polite Classes	79	(20)
Constructing the Category of Fine Art	80	(8)
The New Institutions of Fine Art	88	(6)
The New Art Public	94	(5)
The Artist, the Work, and the Market	99	(31)
The Separation of the Artist from the Artisan	99	(12)
The Ideal Image of the Artist	111	(4)
The Fate of the Artisan	115	(6)
The Gender of Genius	121	(2)
The Ideal of the ``Work of Art''	123	(3)
From Patronage to the Market	126	(4)
From Taste to the Aesthetic	130	(27)
Learning Aesthetic Behavior	133	(4)
The Art Public and the Problem of Taste	137	(3)
The Elements of the Aesthetic	140	(6)
Kant and Schiller Sum up the Aesthetic	146	(7)
Part III: Countercurrents
Overview	153	(4)
Hogarth, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft	157	(12)
Hogarth's ``Hedonist Aesthetics''	157	(2)
Rousseau's Festival Aesthetics	159	(5)
Wollstonecraft and the Beauty of Justice	164	(5)
Revolution: Music, Festival, Museum	169	(20)
The Collapse of Patronage	169	(2)
The Revolutionary Festivals	171	(4)
Revolutionary Music	175	(5)
The Revolution and the Museum	180	(7)
Part IV: The Apotheosis of Art
Overview	187	(2)
Art as Redemptive Revelation	189	(8)
Art Becomes an Independent Realm	189	(5)
The Spiritual Elevation of Art	194	(3)
The Artist: A Sacred Calling	197	(16)
The Exalted Image of the Artist	197	(9)
The Descent of the Artisan	206	(7)
Silences: Triumph of the Aesthetic	213	(16)
Learning Aesthetic Behavior	213	(6)
The Rise of the Aesthetic and the Decline of Beauty	219	(2)
The Problem of Art and Society	221	(4)
Part V: Beyond Fine Art and Craft
Overview	225	(4)
Assimilation and Resistance	229	(17)
The Assimilation of Photography	229	(5)
Varieties of Resistance: Emerson, Marx, Ruskin, Morris	234	(5)
The Arts and Crafts Movement	239	(7)
Modernism, Anti-Art, and the Bauhaus	246	(23)
Modernism and Purity	246	(5)
The Case of Photography	251	(2)
Anti-Art	253	(5)
The Bauhaus	258	(5)
Three Philosopher-Critics on the Division of Art	263	(3)
Modernism and Formalism Triumphant	266	(3)
Beyond Art and Craft?	269	(34)
``Primitive'' Art	270	(4)
Crafts-as-Art	274	(4)
Architecture as Art	278	(4)
The Photography-as-Art Boom	282	(2)
The ``Death of Literature''?	284	(2)
Mass Art	286	(3)
Art and Life	289	(8)
Public Art	297	(6)
Conclusion	303	(6)
Notes	309	(10)
References	319	(24)
Index	343