A Reappraisal of Modernity from Shakespeare to the Age of Duchamp
Exploring the evolution of modern art and literature, this book examines the key ideas and influential "legends" that have defined modernity. It seeks to clarify what constitutes modern art and the cultural narratives that have influenced its appreciation, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the movement's significance and impact.
Didier Maleuvre argues that works of art in Western societies from Ancient Greece to the interconnected worlds of the Digital Age have served to rationalize and normalize an engagement with bourgeois civilization and the city. Maleuvre details that the history of art itself is the history civilization, giving rise to the particular aesthetics and critical attitudes of respective moments and movements in changing civilizations in a dialogical mode. Building a visual cultural account of shifting forms of culture, power, and subjectivity, Maleuvre illustrates how art gave a pattern and a language to the model of social authority rather than simply functioning as a reflective one. Through a broad cultural study of the relationship between humanity, art, and the culture of civilization, Maleuvre introduces a new set of paradigms that critique and affirm the relationship between humanity and art, arguing for it as an engine of social reproduction that transforms how culture is inhabited.
What is a horizon? A line where land meets sky? The end of the world or the beginning of perception? In this title, the author journeys to the outer reaches of human experience and explores philosophy, religion, and art to understand our struggle and fascination with limits - of life, knowledge, existence, and death.
Exploring the tension between modern rationality and the transcendental, this book challenges the notion that contemporary life is devoid of religious feeling. It argues that the autonomous self, central to modern existence, is rooted in a leap of faith and cannot fulfill our deeper spiritual needs. By examining the relationship between art and religion, the text reveals how artistic expression serves as a means to transcend human limitations. Ultimately, it highlights the spiritual dimensions present in both religious and secular art, advocating for a deeper understanding of their interconnectedness.
The author shows how museum culture offers a unique vantage point on the 19th and 20th centuries' preoccupation with history and subjectivity, and demonstrates how the constitution of the aesthetic provides insight into the realms of technology, industrial culture, architecture, and ethics.