Companion To Contemporary Art Since 1945, A

Description:
A Companion to Contemporary Art is a major survey covering the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context. * Collects 27 original essays by expert scholars describing the current state of scholarship in art history and visual studies, and pointing to future directions in the field. * Contains dual chronological and thematic coverage of the major themes in the art of our time: politics, culture wars, public space, diaspora, the artist, identity politics, the body, and visual culture. * Offers synthetic analysis, as well as new approaches to, debates central to the visual arts since 1945 such as those addressing formalism, the avant-garde, the role of the artist, technology and art, and the society of the spectacle.

Review:
'This Companion represents a move away from the more traditionally conceived broad surveys of contemporary art available to date, and is refreshing in its innovative approach to this complex subject ... essential reading for students and scholars of contemporary art history, visual culture, and visual theory, and general readers just wishing to develop their understanding of this complex subject.' Reference Reviews 'Provocative, wide-ranging, and impressively inclusive...a welcome and important addition for the understanding of the art of our historical present and a boon companion for the general reader, the artist, the student, the art historian and the critic alike.' Abigail Solomon-Godeau, University of California, Santa Barbara 'By keeping its finger on the pulse of the present, while commenting on the recent past, this book reminds us why contemporary art, and contemporary art history, matters.' Geoffrey Batchen, City University of New York

Table of Contents:
List of Figures. Notes on Contributors. Series Editor's Preface. Acknowledgments. Part I: Introduction. 1. Writing Contemporary Art into History, a Paradox?: Amelia Jones (University of Manchester). Part II: Decades. 1945-1960. 2. 'America' and its Discontents: Art and Politics 1945-1960: Gavin Butt (Goldsmiths College). 1960-1970. 3. '1960-1970': A Decade Out-of-Bounds: Anna Dezeuze (University of Manchester). 1970-1980. 4. 'I'm sort of sliding around in place... ummm...': Art in the 1970s: Sam Gathercole (University of Essex). 1980-1990. 5. Pictures and Positions in the 1980s: Howard Singerman (University of Virginia). 1990-2004. 6. 1990-2004: In the Clutches of Time: Henry M. Sayre (Oregon State University). Part III: Aesthetics. Formalism. 7. Form and Formless: Caroline A. Jones (MIT). Art as Idea. 8. Re-Thinking the 'Duchamp Effect': David Hopkins (University of Glasgow). Beauty. 9. Regarding Beauty: Margaret Morgan. Part IV: Politics. Avant-Garde. 10. Avant-Garde: A Historiography of a Critical Concept: Johanne Lamoureux (Universite de Montreal). Activism. 11. Facture for Change: U.S. Activist Art since 1950: Jennifer Gonzalez (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Adrienne Posner (University of California, Santa Cruz). Culture Wars. 12. 'The Senators Were Revolted': Homophobia and the Culture Wars: Jonathan D. Katz (State University of New York at Stony. Brook). Art and Its Public(s). 13. Crowds and Connoisseurs: Art and the Public Sphere in America: Grant Kester (University of California, San Diego). Part V: Identity/ Subjectivity. The Artist. 14. The Writerly Artist: Beautiful, Boring and Blue: Carol Mavor (University of North Carolina). Diaspora. 15. Diaspora: Multiple Practices, Multiple Worldviews: Steven Nelson (UCLA). Feminism. 16.Power and Pleasure: Feminist Art Practice and Theory in the United States and Britain: Laura Meyer (California State University, Fresno). Queer. 17. Queer Wallpaper: Jennifer Doyle (University of California, Riverside). Race/ Ethnicity. 18. Ethnicity: Alternative Black Art theories in Contemporary Art: Pauline de Souza (University of East London). Embodiment. 19. The Paradoxical Bodies of Contemporary Art: Christine Ross (McGill University). Part VI: Methods/ Theories. Marxism. 20. A Shadow of Marx: Neil Cummings (Chelsea College of Art and Design) and Marysia Lewandowska(Konstfack, Stockholm). Poststructuralism. 21. Postructuralism and Contemporary Art, Past, Present, Future...:Sarah Wilson (University of London). Postcolonial Theory. 22. 'Fragments of Collapsing Space': Postcolonial Theory and Contemporary Art. Mark Crinson (University of Manchester). Visual Culture. 23. Visual Culture Studies: Questions of History, Theory, and Practice: Marquard Smith (Kingston University). Part VII: Technology. Mass Culture, High/Low. 24. 'That's All Folks': Contemporary Art and Popular Culture: Nick Mirzoeff (New York University). Photography/Index. 25. Image + Text: Reconsidering Photography in Contemporary Art: Liz Kotz (University of Minnesota). Spectacle/Appropriation. 26. Imagine There's No Image (It's Easy If You Try): Appropriation in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Dore Bowen (California College of the Arts). Digital Media. 27. 'Life-like': Historizing Process and Responsiveness in Digital Art: Maria Fernandez (Cornell University). Index

Author Biography:
Amelia Jones is Pilkington Professor in the History of Art at the University of Manchester. She has curated many exhibitions and is the author of Postmodernism and the En-Gendering of Marcel Duchamp (1994), Body Art/Performing the Subject (1998), and Irrational Modernism: A Neurasthenic History of New York Dada (2004).