Art Power by Boris Groys

Art Power by Boris Groys

A new book by Boris Groys acknowledges the problem and potential of art's complex relationship to power.Art has its own power in the world, and is as much a force in the power play of global politics today as it once was in the arena of cold war politics. Art, argues the distinguished theoretician Boris Groys, is hardly a powerless commodity subject to the art market's fiats of inclusion and exclusion. In Art Power, Groys examines modern and contemporary art according to its ideological function. Art, Groys writes, is produced and brought before the public in two ways--as a commodity and as a tool of political propaganda. In the contemporary art scene, very little attention is paid to the latter function.Arguing for the inclusion of politically motivated art in contemporary art discourse, Groys considers art produced under totalitarianism, Socialism, and post-Communism. He also considers today's mainstream Western art--which he finds behaving more and more according the norms of ideological propaganda: produced and exhibited for the masses at international exhibitions, biennials, and festivals. Contemporary art, Groys argues, demonstrates its power by appropriating the iconoclastic gestures directed against itself--by positioning itself simultaneously as an image and as a critique of the image. In Art Power, Groys examines this fundamental appropriation that produces the paradoxical object of the modern artwork.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262072922
ISBN 10	0262072920
Title	Art Power
Author	Boris Groys
Series	Art Power
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Mit Press
Year published	2008-03-01
Number of pages	224
Prizes	Winner of Winner of the 2009 Frank Jewett Mather Award given by the College Art Association (CAA). 2009
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.