Overview

Art today is in deep crisis. Criticism seems to have abandoned any notion of evaluation, the public has been denied the possibility of understanding, and aesthetics have lost all legitimacy. Formerly, artists claimed their right to decide for themselves what counted as a work of art, thanks to the subversion of the established criteria of aesthetic judgment. But that very subversion is today the object of subsidy and support by museums and galleries, anxious to display their liberalism. A new and ambiguous game of complicity and antagonism has united artists and institutions. Yet, however much the alliance of subversion and subsidy aims to exclude it, aesthetic judgment remains a necessity. Whatever the nature of a work of art, it can only be one if the artistic quality it claims for itself can be justified and shared. As symbol it cannot be reduced to a symptom; as an object of judgment it cannot depend on simple individual preferences. Thus it is now urgent to find aesthetic arguments that pay proper attention to the internal logic of artworks, arguments that are rigorous without claiming absolute truth.

Full Product Details

Author:   Rainer Rochlitz ,  Rainer Rochlitz
Publisher:   Seagull Books London Ltd
Imprint:   Seagull Books London Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 16.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 19.90cm
Weight:   0.426kg
ISBN:  

9781905422708

ISBN 10:   1905422709
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   01 November 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Unknown
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

IntroductionPART ONE: SITUATION1. The conquestand abandonment of aesthetic sovereignty Fractures in the logic of ModernismStages on the road to autonomySovereignty and inner heteronomy2. Criticism's dereliction of dutyCriticism, aesthetics, history of artThe collapse of judgmentTowards an aesthetic logicPART TWO: ARGUMENT3. Aesthetic rationalityBetween magic and reasonRationality and sovereigntyThe limits of aesthetic rationality4. Symbol and symptomThe symbolic intelligibility of singular experienceConfusionsInterferences5. Judgments and preferencesAesthetic pragmaticsAesthetic judgment and idiosyncratic judgmentThe question of criteria6 Aesthetic criteriaCriteria of exclusion Criteria of excellencePART THREE: POLITICS7. InstitutionsA hegemonic tasteGeneralised suspicionConsequences of the institutional turn8. Political strategiesThe public character of art and the question of political engagementAesthetic principles and political implicationsThe Sixties turnConclusionThe demands of the medium and their reward

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Author Information

Rainer Rochlitz (1946-2002) is a philosopher, aesthetician and translator. Translated from the French by Dafydd Roberts. Dafydd Roberts is a translator from French and German, mainly in the fields of art, architecture and cultural history. He has translated catalogues and guides for many French and German galleries and museums and for the past decade has been principal translator into English for the Centre Georges Pompidou. His translations include books and essays by Chantal Beret, Didier Ottinger, Michel Serres, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. He lives in London.

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