Critique has long been a central concept within art practice and theory. Since the emergence of Conceptual Art, artists have been expected by critics, curators, and art school faculty to focus their work on exposing and debunking ideologies of power and domination. Recently, however, the effectiveness of cultural critique has come into question. The appearance of concepts such as the "speculative," the "reparative," and the "constructive" suggests an emerging postcritical paradigm. Beyond Critique takes stock of the current discourse around this issue. With some calling for a renewed criticality and others rejecting the model entirely, the book's contributors explore a variety of new and recently reclaimed criteria for contemporary art and its pedagogy. Some propose turning toward affect and affirmation; others seek to reclaim such allegedly discredited concepts as intimacy, tenderness, and spirituality. With contributions from artists, critics, curators and historians, this book provides new ways of thinking about the historical role of critique while also exploring a wide range of alternative methods and aspirations. Beyond Critique will be a crucial tool for students and instructors who are seeking to think and work beyond the critical.

Since 2010 Greece has been experiencing the longest period of austerity and economic downturn in its recent history. Economic changes may be happening more rapidly and be more visible than the cultural effects of the crisis which are likely to take longer to become visible, however in recent times, both at home and abroad, the Greek arts scene has been discussed mainly in terms of the crisis. While there is no shortage of accounts of Greece's economic crisis by financial and political analysts, the cultural impact of austerity has yet to be properly addressed. This book analyses hitherto uncharted cultural aspects of the Greek economic crisis by exploring the connections between austerity and culture. Covering literary, artistic and visual representations of the crisis, it includes a range of chapters focusing on different aspects of the cultural politics of austerity such as the uses of history and archaeology, the brain drain and the Greek diaspora, Greek cinema, museums, music festivals, street art and literature as well as manifestations of how the crisis has led Greeks to rethink or question cultural discourses and conceptions of identity.

The perfect Father's Day gift Tolkien's works have inspired artists for generations and have given rise to myriad interpretations of the rich and magical worlds he created. The Illustrated World of Tolkien gathers together artworks and essays from expert illustrators, painters and etchers, and fascinating and scholarly writing from renowned Tolkien expert David Day, and is an exquisite reference guide for any fan of Tolkien's work, Tolkien's world and the imaginative brilliance his vision inspired. Published to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the publication of the international bestseller The Tolkien Bestiary, The Illustrated World of Tolkien revisits the work of some of the original illustrators but also features works from artists who have contributed to David Day's more recent books. This work is unofficial and is not authorized by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.

The presentation of bodies in pain has been a major concern in Western art since the time of the Greeks. The Christian tradition is closely entwined with such themes, from the central images of the Passion to the representations of bloody martyrdoms. The remnants of this tradition are evident in contemporary images from Abu Ghraib. In the last forty years, the body in pain has also emerged as a recurring theme in performance art. Recently, authors such as Elaine Scarry, Susan Sontag, and Giorgio Agamben have written about these themes. The scholars in this volume add to the discussion, analyzing representations of pain in art and the media. Their essays are firmly anchored on consideration of the images, not on whatever actual pain the subjects suffered. At issue is representation, before and often apart from events in the world. Part One concerns practices in which the appearance of pain is understood as expressive. Topics discussed include the strange dynamics of faked pain and real pain, contemporary performance art, international photojournalism, surrealism, and Renaissance and Baroque art. Part Two concerns representations that cannot be readily assigned to that genealogy: the Chinese form of execution known as lingchi (popularly the "death of a thousand cuts"), whippings in the Belgian Congo, American lynching photographs, Boer War concentration camp photographs, and recent American capital punishment. These examples do not comprise a single alternate genealogy, but are united by the absence of an intention to represent pain. The book concludes with a roundtable discussion, where the authors discuss the ethical implications of viewing such images.

At the same time that arts funding and programming in schools are declining, exciting community-based art programs have successfully been able to build community, foster change, and enrich children's lives. Engaging Classrooms and Communities through Art provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to the design and implementation of community-based art programs for educators, community leaders, and artists. The book combines case studies with diverse groups across the country that are using different media - including mural arts, dance, and video - with an informed introduction to the theory and history of community-based art. It is a perfect handbook for those looking to transform their communities through art.

Church Woodwork in the British Isles, 1100-1535: An Annotated Bibliography is a thoroughly researched bibliographic guide to monographic, serial, archival, and graphical resources that deal with all aspects of late Romanesque, Gothic, and early Renaissance ecclesiastical woodwork in churches throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Dealing with both the decorative and structural elements of wooden church furnishings fittings, this authoritative reference tool includes more than 900 annotated citations for works published from the mid-19th century to the present. The extensive and informative annotations provide a synopsis of each cited resource. Resources are categorized in separate chapters by their specific location in the church, their decorative features, their structural function, or other pertinent criteria. This annotated bibliography represents the most comprehensive reference tool for material that deals with church woodwork that has yet been published.

Looking and Listening: Conversations between Modern Art and Music invites the art and music lover to place these two realms of creative endeavor in an open dialog with one another. While the worlds of music and visual art often seem to take separate path, they are commonly parallel ones. In Looking and Listening, conductor and art connoisseur Brenda Leach takes unique pairings of well-known visual art works and musical compositions from the 20th century to identify the shared sources of inspiration, as well as similarities in theme, style and technique to explore the historical and cultural influences on the great artists and composers in the 20th century. For readers, Looking and Listening asks and answers: What does jazz have in common with paintings by Stuart Davis and Piet Mondrian? How did Gershwin s Rhapsody in Blue impact the work of artist Arthur Dove? How did painter Georgia O Keeffe and composer Aaron Copland capture the spirit of a youthful America entering the 20th century in their works? What did Kandinsky and Schoenberg share in their artistic visions? Leach takes readers on a whirlwind tour of the lives of these artists and others, surveying many of the key movements in the 20th century, from pop art to minimalism, cubism to atonalism, by comparing representative works from modern master of the visual arts and music. Leach s refreshing and innovation approach will interest those passionate over 20th century art and music and is ideal for any student or instructor, museum docent or music programmer seeking to draw the lines of connection between these two art forms."

Used for self-exploration or divination, Tarot has, for more than a 500 years, been the most popular and accessible of all esoteric tools, looming large in today's mainstream culture. Why? Because the cards are inexpensive and easy to carry-a perfect traveling companion and, therefore, an invitation to a journey inward and out. Humans are drawn to playing games and feel driven to find meaning in the chaos of paradoxical signs. The vivid iconography of the "arcanas" speak to us like no other language, moving us to the core, weaving through each cards a universal story, a metaphorical pathway of transformation. This 400 page book presents for the first time a close look at 500 years of figurative card decks created or used for fortune telling, divinations, and oracle purposes and will explore, one card at the time, their iconographic roots at the cross-roads of the medieval imaginarium, Western esoteric wisdom, folklore, and also contemporary art and pop culture. With hundreds of images drawn from more than 100 decks, rarely published and often forgotten in library archives, it will offer the first visual history of tarot.

In Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs Fourth Edition, scholar C.A.S. Williams offers concise explanations of the important symbols and motifs relevant to Chinese literature, arts and crafts, and architecture. This reference book has been a standard among students of Chinese culture and history since 1941 and, in its Fourth Edition, has been completely reset with Pinyin pronunciation of Chinese names and words. Organized alphabetically, enhanced by over 400 illustrations, and clearly written for accessibility across a variety of fields, this book not only explains symbols and motifs essential to any designer, art collector, or historian, but delves into ancient customs in religion, food, agriculture, and medicine. Some of the symbols and motifs explicated are: The Eight Immortals, The Five Elements, The Dragon, The Phoenix, Yin and Yang. With Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, you can access hidden insights into the intentions behind works of Chinese craftsmanship, and the thorough explanations of each symbol, accompanied by the historical origins from which they arose, will complement your existing knowledge of any area of Chinese culture, or help you confidently explore new topics within the realm of Asian art and history.

This volume is an in-depth and exquisitely illustrated guide to the Second Age of Middle-earth, one of the least-explored periods of Arda's history. The Illustrated World of Tolkien: The Second Age, is the follow up companion to the best-selling The Illustrated World of Tolkien, and gathers together artwork, charts, and fascinating and scholarly writing from renowned Tolkien expert David Day. Exploring the languages, poetry and elements of the heroic ages of Norse, Greek and Roman mythologies that may have influenced Tolkien's writing, it is a reference guide for any fan of Tolkien's work, Tolkien's world and the imaginative brilliance his vision inspired. The Second Age is made up of two great narrative channels: on the one hand the rise and cataclysmic downfall of the island-kingdom of Númenor and its aftermath, and on the other the forging of the Rings of Power and the rise to power of the new dark lord. Tolkien's sources for his Second Age are, of course, as rich and varied as ever and this book delves into some of these influences and shows how the power of Tolkien's imagination is manifest even in the lesser-known parts of his legendarium. This work is unofficial and is not authorised by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.

An introduction to the theatrical art of comic storytelling that originated in the Edo period, Rakugo sheds light on Japanese culture as a whole: its aesthetics, social relations, and learning styles. Enriched with personal anecdotes, Rakugo explicates the art's contemporary performance culture: the image, training and techniques of the storytellers, the venues where they perform, and the role of the audience in sustaining the art. Laurie Brau inquires into how this comic art form participates in the discourse of heritage, serving as a symbol of the Edo culture, while continuing to appeal to Japanese today. Written in an accessible manner, this book is appropriate for all levels of student or researcher.

Why do people attack monuments and other public objects charged with authority by the societies that produced them? What do open assaults on images and artworks mean? Iconoclasm, the principled destruction of images, has recurred throughout human history as theory and practice. This book contains seven historical studies of the changing causes and meanings of iconoclasm and the radical transformations in the function of images it has brought about in societies around the world, from Ancient Egypt to Islamic India and Revolutionary Mexico, as well as Medieval and Reformation Europe. Scholars of art history, history and archaeology explore shifting definitions of art and the forms of representation in delineating varied forms of 'iconoclasm'.

Conflicting Visions: War and Visual Culture in Britain and France, c. 1700-1830 offers the first systematic reappraisal of the cultural representation of war in Britain and France during the 'long' eighteenth century. This radical collection of essays explores the relation of visual imagery and aesthetics to conflict during this important period, drawing upon a wealth of materials including paintings and prints, maps and topographical drawings, commemorative sculpture and historical artefacts. The intriguing case studies reveal that military conflict was not a sphere of social activity separated from artistic culture but rather a determining factor in cultural production, and that war itself was largely comprehended, debated and experienced through those products. Key themes and preoccupations - how differing ideas of the public were predicated by the representation of war; how such notions were shaped by the imperial contexts of war; the relations between conflict, national identity and historical memory - are addressed to show that war served as a primary vehicle for the representation of numerous associated and contested issues, including patriotism and the idea of the nation, loyalty and opposition, heroism and masculinity, sympathy and sensibility.

Art works created by indigenous people on other continents in European and American museums have become subject of controversial debate. How exactly these collections of tribal art from Africa, North and South America, Asia, and Oceania in rich countries have been amassed over centuries, and how such works continue to be sourced and traded today, is under close scrutiny and claims for their restitution to the places and people of their origin are voiced loudly. Zurich's Museum Rietberg, one of Europe's most renowned museums of non-European art, has undertaken an extensive research project to explore the history of its own collection. The essays by expert authors in this illustrated publication investigate the pathways along which objects travelled from their origins to the museum. They shed light at the shifts in meaning of these artefacts that have occurred in the course of the transfers. And they demonstrate the importance of provenance research for learning comprehensively about and taking a critical approach in the assessment of the complex biographies of artefacts. Pathways of Art offers an important contribution to the current debate about the status and impact of non-European art in the global North. It aims to foster awareness of colonial and post-colonial contexts of trading and collecting such art works and to help establishing new, more informed and just, and less Eurocentric, museum narratives.

Iago Triumphalis: The Function and Significance of Triumphal Imagery for Renaissance Rulers examines how independent rulers in fifteenth-century Italy used the motif of the Roman triumph for self-aggrandizement and personal expression. Triumphal imagery, replete with connotations of victory and splendor, was recognized during the Renaissance as a reflection of the glory of classical antiquity. Its appeal as a powerful visual bearer of meaning is evidenced by its appearance as a dominant theme in literature, architecture, and art. Rulers such as Alfonso of Aragon, Federico da Montefeltro, Sigismondo Malatesta, and Borso d'Este chose to incorporate the triumphal motif in major artistic commissions in which they were represented. They recognized that the image of the triumph could retain its classical associations while functioning as a highly personalized commentary.

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) is the most influential painter of the German Reformation. In collaboration with Martin Luther (1483-1546), Cranach produced innovative paintings which made the complex ideas of Lutheran Christianity understandable to a wide range of viewers and inspired later generations of artists. Despite Cranach's crucial role as an interpreter of Lutheran ideas, his Reformation paintings remain unfamiliar to many American scholars. Lucas Cranach the Elder: Art and Devotion of the German Reformation presents Cranach's Reformation painting to a broader audience and explains the pictorial strategies Cranach devised to clarify and interpret Lutheran thought. For specialists in Reformation history, this study offers an interpretation of Cranach's art as an agent of religious change. For historians and students of Renaissance art, this study explores the defining work of a major sixteenth-century artist. The broad implications of the Reformation and Cranach's role in transforming religious art make this study suitable for readers with a general interest in history, religion, or art history.

Contents:
Introduction 1. Antiquity; Attitudes of the Bible; Classical Antiquity; Causes of blindness; Blindness and guilt; The blind seer; Ate 2. The Blind in the Early Christian World; The healing of the blind; Blindness and revelation; the story of Paul; A concluding observation 3. The Middle Ages; The Antichrist; Allegorical blindness; The blind beggar; The blind and his guide 4. The Renaissance and its Sequel; The blind beggar; Metaphocial blindness; The revival of the blind seer; Early secularization of the blind; The blind beggar in the seventeenth century 5. The Disenchantment of Blindness: Diderot's Lettre sur les aveugles

While information science draws distinctions between 'information', signals and data, artists from the 1960s to the present have questioned the validity and value of such boundaries. Artists have investigated information's materiality, in signs, records and traces; its immateriality, in hidden codes, structures and flows; its embodiment, in instructions, social interaction and political agency; its overload, or uncontrollable excess, challenging utopian notions of networked society; its potential for misinformation and disinformation, subliminally altering our perceptions; and its post-digital unruliness, unsettling fixed notions of history and place. This anthology provides the first art-historical reassessment of information-based art in relation to data structures and exhibition curation, examining landmark exhibitions and re-examining work by artists of the 1960s to early 1980s, from Les Levine and N.E.Thing Co. to General Idea and Jenny Holzer.David Askewold, Iain Baxter, Guy Bleus, Heath Bunting, CAMP (Shaina Anand & Ashok Sukumaran), Ami Clarke, Richard Cochrane, Rod Dickinson, Hans Haacke, Graham Harwood, Jenny Holzer, Joseph Kosuth, Christine Kozlov, Steve Lambert and the Yes Men, Oliver Laric, Les Levine, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Muntadas, Erhan Muratoglu, Raqs Media Collective, Erica Scourti, Stelarc, Thomson & Craighead, Angie Waller, Stephen Willats, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Elizabeth Vander Zaag. Writers include James Bridle, Matthew Fuller, Francesca Gallo, Lizzie Homersham, Antony Hudek, Eduardo Kac, Friedrich Kittler, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, Scott Lash, Alessandro Ludovico, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Charu Maithani, Suhail Malik, Armin Medosch, Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, Craig Saper, Jorinde Seijdel, Tom Sherman, Felix Stalder, McKenzie Wark, Benjamin Weil.

A collection of essays by art historians, anthropologists and commentators on contemporary visual culture on the theme of 'Location'.
Explores the theme of 'Location', including transatlantic exchanges and global connections, and the nature of hospitality that arises in acknowledging migration and diaspora
Questions how important location is in producing, understanding and curating art.
Contributors consider such topics as site-specificity, examinations of the trans-national/trans-cultural, how images/visual forms migrate, and the repositioning of ownership

The first book in over twenty-five years devoted solely to allegory and personification in art history, this anthology complements current literary and cultural studies of allegory. The volume re-examines early modern allegorical imagery in light of crucial material, contextual and methodological questions: how are allegories conceived; for whom; and for what purposes? Contributors consider a wide range of allegorical representations in the visual arts and material culture, of both early modern Europe and the colonial "New World" 1400-1800. Essays included here examine paintings, sculpture, prints, architecture and the spaces of public ritual while discussing the process and theory of interpretation, formation of audiences, reception history, appropriation and censorship. A special focus on the medium of the body in visual allegory unites the volume's diverse materials and methods.

Tate Britain: Look Again: the National Collection of British Art reimagined for today. Empire is a vital exploration of how Britain's colonial legacy has shaped its art, by one of the UK's most influential voices on the subject. In twenty-first century Britain, 'empire' is a word we cannot ignore. Our history of war, conquest and slavery continues to shape our present, and future. In Empire, award-winning author and broadcaster Afua Hirsch explores the ways in which Britain's imperial history and its national collection of art interact, and how artists from Britain and around the world have responded to the dramas, tragedies and everyday experiences of the Empire. Featuring an array of historic and contemporary works, Empire challenges the story of art we have been led to believe. It explores how the value and meanings of some of the most recognisable and best-loved artworks have changed throughout history, and about what they still mean to us today.

Why have some of the most interesting artists of our time committed themselves to some of the most devastating conflicts on Earth? Why are some of the most interesting artists of our time committed to engaging with conflict and exploitation around the world? Beautiful, Gruesome, and True tells the stories of three of them: Amar Kanwar makes riveting films about the destruction of rural India in the drive to extract natural resources. Teresa Margolles creates haunting installations from the traces of crime scenes and drug-related violence in Mexico. The anonymous collective Abounaddara has produced more than four hundred short films chronicling the uprising and civil war in Syria. Drawing on years of research and extensive reporting, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie vividly recounts how a group of "political" artists found ways to produce remarkable works of art that demand deliberate and methodical ways of thinking-works that are contemplative, thoughtful, even redemptive. "A gifted critic and a compelling journalist, Wilson-Goldie offers many important insights into the challenges these artists face in their confrontation with authority, repressive regimes, death, and violence. The story she tells could not be more timely." -Glenn D. Lowry, David Rockefeller Director, Museum of Modern Art

What is "the artist type"? How is an artist's mind structured? What are the links between creativity and mental health? Are there particular personality traits and psychological experiences that great artists have in common? Are most artists really mad? What defines the artist's personality? This book answers these questions by way of a deep, multi-angled, psychological analysis of the personality-based roots of creativity and the creative process. It draws on decades of scientific research focused on the central, mysterious trait of Openness, the true unifying glue behind everything creative. Featuring dozens of notable creators such as John Coltrane, Diane Arbus, Francesca Woodman, David Bowie, Frida Kahlo, Jack Kerouac, John Lennon, and others, this book showcases the nuances of an artist's mind beyond oversimplified formulas that falsely connect art to mental illness, painting a more authentic picture of the structure of the artist's psychology. Ultimately, this book reveals that the "torture" in an artist's perceived image has more to do with personality, creative processes, states of mind, and a need to express trauma symbolically, repeating it in the form of art. As an eminent psychobiographer with an award-winning career as a personality and creativity psychologist, Dr. William Todd Schultz yet again offers his unique perspective on a fascinating topic that is both engaging and insightful. In exploring the precise nature of inner chaos in a wide range of renowned artists, this book takes an enchanting dive into the artistic abyss for all those interested in creativity, personality, and psychology, including both general and academic readers.