Ambitious Form a General Theory of Visual Culture
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68 Art Ambitious Form A General Theory Giambologna, Ammanati, and Danti in Florence of Visual Culture Michael W. Cole Whitney Davis Ambitious Form describes the transformation of Italian What is cultural about vision—or visual about culture? sculpture during the neglected half-century between In this ambitious book, Whitney Davis provides new the death of Michelangelo and the rise of Bernini. The answers to these difficult and important questions by book follows the Florentine careers of three major presenting an original framework for understanding sculptors—Giambologna, Bartolomeo Ammanati, and visual culture. Grounded in the theoretical traditions Vincenzo Danti—as they negotiated the politics of the of art history, A General Theory of Visual Culture argues Medici court and eyed one another’s work, setting new that, in a fully consolidated visual culture, artifacts and aims for their art in the process. Only through a com- pictures have been made to be seen in a certain way; parative look at Giambologna and his contemporaries, what Davis calls “visuality” is the visual perspective it argues, can we understand them individually—or from which certain culturally constituted aspects of understand the period in which they worked. artifacts and pictures are visible to informed viewers. Michael Cole shows how the concerns of central In this book, Davis provides a systematic analysis of Italian artists changed during the last decades of the visuality and describes how it comes into being as a Cinquecento. Whereas their predecessors had focused historical form of vision. on specific objects and on the particularities of materi- Expansive in scope, A General Theory of Visual als, late sixteenth-century sculptors turned their atten- Culture draws on art history, aesthetics, the psychology tion to models and design. The iconic figure gave way of perception, the philosophy of reference, and vision to the pose, individualized characters to abstractions. science, as well as visual-cultural studies in history, Above all, the multiplicity of master crafts that had sociology, and anthropology. It provides penetrating once divided sculptors into those who fashioned gold new definitions of form, style, and iconography, and or bronze or stone yielded to a more unifying aspira- draws important and sometimes surprising conclu- tion, as nearly every ambitious sculptor, whatever his sions (for example, that vision does not always attain training, strove to become an architect. to visual culture, and that visual culture is not always wholly visible). The book uses examples from a variety Michael W. Cole is associate professor of art history of cultural traditions, from prehistory to the twentieth at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of century, to support a theory designed to apply to all Cellini and the Principles of Sculpture and the coeditor human traditions of making artifacts and pictures— of The Idol in the Age of Art, among other books. that is, to visual culture as a worldwide phenomenon. JANUARY Whitney Davis is professor of history and theory of Cloth $49.50S 978-0-691-14744-4 ancient and modern art at the University of Califor- 400 pages. 167 halftones. 8 x 10. nia, Berkeley. He is the author of many books, most recently Replications: Archaeology, Art History, Psy- ART choanalysis and Queer Beauty: Sexuality and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Freud and Beyond (forthcoming). MARCH Cloth $55.00S 978-0-691-14765-9 432 pages. 45 halftones. 35 line illus. 7 x 10. ART Art 69 Art of the Deal AN EYE-OPENING LOOK AT COLLECTING AND INVESTING IN TODAY’S ART MARKET Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market Noah Horowitz Art today is defined by its relationship to money as never be- “This book is extremely stimulating and fore. Prices of living artists’ works have been driven to unprec- thoroughly enjoyable. Horowitz brings deep edented heights, conventional boundaries within the art world insight to his analysis, and he weaves in have collapsed, and artists now think ever more strategically beautiful historical examples. His discus- about how to advance their careers. Artists no longer simply sion of front- and backroom business by make art, but package, sell, and brand it. dealers, loss leaders, and profit makers is Noah Horowitz exposes the inner workings of the con- telling. Think about the art world using his temporary art market, explaining how this unique economy concepts. Your views will change.” came to be, how it works, and where it’s headed. He takes a —Richard J. Zeckhauser, coauthor of The unique look at the globalization of the art world and the chang- ing face of the business, offering the clearest analysis yet of Patron’s Payoff: Conspicuous Commissions in how investors speculate in the market and how emerging art Italian Renaissance Art forms such as video and installation have been drawn into the commercial sphere. “Art of the Deal is cogently argued, thor- By carefully examining these developments against the oughly researched, and richly documented. backdrop of the deflation of the contemporary art bubble in It is also, to my knowledge, highly original, 2008, Art of the Deal is a must-read book that demystifies col- and not only in its subject matter—giving a lecting and investing in today’s art market. textured financial analysis of contemporary art, in all its market manifestations—but Noah Horowitz is an art historian and expert on the interna- in the rigor of its financial analysis. I don’t tional art market. He has edited and contributed to publica- tions on contemporary art and economics for institutions know of another book like it in the field.” including the Serpentine Gallery, London; the Astrup Fearnley —James Cuno, editor of Whose Culture? Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; and the United Kingdom’s Intel- The Promise of Museums and the Debate lectual Property Office. He holds a PhD from the Courtauld over Antiquities Institute of Art and is the coeditor of The Uncertain States of America Reader. FEBRUARY Cloth $39.50S 978-0-691-14832-8 304 pages. 40 halftones. 3 tables. 6 x 9. ART ❚ ECONOMICS PRESS.PRINCETON.EDU 70 Art ARTiculations Inner Sanctum Undefining Chinese Contemporary Art Memory and Meaning in Princeton’s Faculty Room at Nassau Hall Edited by Jerome Silbergeld & Dora C. Y. Ching Edited by Karl Kusserow What does it mean to say that some of the best Chi- Inner Sanctum takes readers inside the Faculty Room nese contemporary art is made in America, by Ameri- of Princeton University’s historic Nassau Hall. It ex- cans? Through words and images, this book chal- plores the Faculty Room’s role as the symbolic center lenges the artificial and narrowly conceived definitions of Princeton and venerable repository of its institution- of Chinese contemporary art that dominate current al memory, and looks at how the room and its portraits discussion, revealing the great diversity of Chinese art reflect and helped shape the University’s identity. today and showing just how complex and uncertain Located at the very heart of the Princeton campus, the labels “contemporary,” “Chinese,” and “American” the Faculty Room served variously as a prayer hall, have become. library, and museum, until University president Wood- This volume features contributions from six row Wilson had it remodeled in 1906 for executive artists and eight scholars who participated in a 2009 and ceremonial use. The room is distinctive for its fine symposium held in conjunction with the Princeton architectural features, stately design, and remarkable University Art Museum exhibition Outside In: Chinese collection of portraits depicting University founders, × American × Contemporary Art. These ethnically American presidents, British monarchs, clergymen, Chinese and non-Chinese artists work or have worked scholars, scientists, and others. This book traces in America—indeed, all of them are U.S. citizens—but how the Faculty Room’s changing function and the they are steeped in Chinese artistic traditions in terms diverse portraits on its walls tell an evocative story of of style, subject matter, and philosophical outlook. Princeton’s evolution from a small school of dissident Here they discuss their art and careers with rare depth theologians to the world-renowned research university and candor, addressing diversity, ethnicity, identity, and it is today. It demonstrates how the room’s contents other issues. The academic contributors bring a variety and design, as well as its long and varied history, invite of perspectives—Chinese and American, art historical interpretation across a range of narratives, including and political—to bear on the common, limiting prac- those of memory, religion, history, race, biography, tice of classifying such art and artists as “Chinese,” portraiture, and architecture. “American,” or “Chinese American.” Revealing and The accompanying volume to a 2010 exhibition celebrating the fluidity of who can be considered a Chi- in the Faculty Room itself, Inner Sanctum features a nese artist and what Chinese art might be, these artists foreword by University president Shirley M. Tilghman and scholars broaden and enrich our understanding of and essays by Toni Morrison, Sean Wilentz, Eddie S. Chinese contemporary art. Glaude Jr., and volume editor Karl Kusserow, as well as a closing poem by Paul Muldoon. Jerome Silbergeld is the P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Pro- fessor of Chinese Art History at Princeton University Karl Kusserow is associate curator of American art at and director of Princeton’s Tang Center for East Asian the Princeton University Art Museum. Art. Dora C. Y. Ching is associate director of the Tang Center for East Asian Art. JUNE Cloth $40.00S PUBLICATIONS OF 978-0-691-14861-8 THE DEPARTMENT OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, 128 pages. 50 color illus. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 30 halftones. 9 x 10. ART SEPTEMBER Distributed for the Paper $29.95S Princeton University Art Museum 978-0-691-14860-1 248 pages.