A hunger for aesthetics : enacting the demands of art / Michael Kelly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelly, Mike, 1954-

Series:

Columbia themes in philosophy, social criticism, and the arts.

Columbia themes in philosophy, social criticism, and the arts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics.

Art--Philosophy.

Art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (271 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For decades, aesthetics has been subjected to a variety of critiques, often concerning its treatment of beauty or the autonomy of art. Collectively, these complaints have generated an anti-aesthetic stance prevalent in the contemporary art world. Yet if we examine the motivations for these critiques, Michael Kelly argues, we find theorists and artists hungering for a new kind of aesthetics, one better calibrated to contemporary art and its moral and political demands.Following an analysis of the work of Stanley Cavell, Arthur Danto, Umberto Eco, Susan Sontag, and other philosophers of the 1960s who made aesthetics more responsive to contemporary art, Kelly considers Sontag's aesthetics in greater detail. In On Photography (1977), she argues that a photograph of a person who is suffering only aestheticizes the suffering for the viewer's pleasure, yet she insists in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) that such a photograph can have a sustainable moral-political effect precisely because of its aesthetics. Kelly considers this dramatic change to be symptomatic of a cultural shift in our understanding of aesthetics, ethics, and politics. He discusses these issues in connection with Gerhard Richter's and Doris Salcedo's art, chosen because it is often identified with the anti-aesthetic, even though it is clearly aesthetic. Focusing first on Richter's Baader-Meinhof series, Kelly concludes with Salcedo's enactments of suffering caused by social injustice. Throughout A Hunger for Aesthetics, he reveals the place of critique in contemporary art, which, if we understand aesthetics as critique, confirms that it is integral to art. Meeting the demand for aesthetics voiced by many who participate in art, Kelly advocates for a critical aesthetics that confirms the power of art.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION: THE DEWEY EFFECT

ONE. The Pop Effect

TWO. The Sontag Effect

THREE. The Richter Effect

FOUR. The Salcedo Effect

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780231526784

0231526784

OCLC:

818854361