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Books > Arts & Architecture > Art forms, treatments & subjects > Art treatments & subjects > General
Written from the perspective of a practising artist, this book
proposes that, against a groundswell of historians, museums and
commentators claiming to speak on behalf of art, it is artists
alone who may define what art really is. Jelinek contends that
while there are objects called 'art' in museums from deep into
human history and from around the globe - from Hans Sloane's
collection, which became the foundation of the British Museum, to
Alfred Barr's inclusion of 'primitive art' within the walls of
MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art - only those that have been made
with the knowledge and discipline of art should rightly be termed
as such. Policing the definition of art in this way is not to
entrench it as an elitist occupation, but in order to focus on its
liberal democratic potential. Between Discipline and a Hard Place
describes the value of art outside the current preoccupation with
economic considerations yet without resorting to a range of
stereotypical and ultimately instrumentalist political or social
goods, such as social inclusion or education. A wider argument is
also made for disciplinarity, as Jelinek discusses the great
potential as well as the pitfalls of interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary working, particularly with the so-called
'creative' arts. A passionate treatise arguing for a new way of
understanding art that forefronts the role of the artist and the
importance of inclusion within both the concept of art and the art
world.
When thinking about the Mediterranean, Fernand Braudel's haunting
words resound like an echo of the sea and its millenary history.
From Prehistory until today, the Mediterranean has been setting,
witness and protagonist of mythical adventures, of encounters with
the Other, of battles and the rise and fall of cultures and
empires, of the destinies of humans. Braudel's appeal for a long
duree history of the Mediterranean challenged traditional views
that often present it as a sea fragmented and divided through
periods. This volume proposes a journey into the bright and dark
sides of the ancient Mediterranean through the kaleidoscopic gaze
of artists who from the Renaissance to the 21st century have been
inspired by its myths and history. The view of those who imagined
and recreated the past of the sea has largely contributed to the
shaping of modern cultures which are inexorably rooted and embedded
in Mediterranean traditions. The contributions look at modern
visual reinterpretations of ancient myths, fiction and history and
pay particular attention to the theme of sea travel and travellers,
which since Homer's Odyssey has become the epitome of the discovery
of new worlds, of cultural exchanges and a metaphor of personal
developments and metamorphoses.
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