'What do we mean by "art"? As a category of objects, the concept belongs to a Western cultural tradition, originally European and now increasingly global, but how useful is it for understanding other traditions? To understand art as a universal human value, we need to look at how the concept was constructed in order to reconstruct it through an understanding of the wider world.

Western art values have a pervasive influence upon non-Western cultures and upon Western attitudes to them. This innovative yet accessible new text explores the ways theories of art developed as Western knowledge of the world expanded through exploration and trade, conquest, colonisation and research into other cultures, present and past. It considers the issues arising from the historical relationships which brought diverse artistic traditions together under the influence of Western art values, looking at how art has been used by colonisers and colonised in the causes of collecting and commerce, cultural hegemony and autonomous identities.

World Art questions conventional Western assumptions of art from an anthropological perspective which allows comparison between cultures. It treats art as a property of artefacts rather than a category of objects, reclaiming the idea of 'world art' from the "art world".' - from back cover.
Access level

Onsite

author
Location code
REF.BUB3
Language

English

Publication/Creation date

2013

No of pages

253

ISBN / ISSN

9781847889430

No of copies

1

Content type

monograph

Chapter headings

Part I: Western Perspectives

Chapter 1 - The Origins of Art

Chapter 2 - Classical Art

Chapter 3 - Oriental Art

Chapter 4 - Primitive Art

Chapter 5 - Prehistoric Art

Part II: Cross-cultural Perspectives

Chapter 6 - Form

Chapter 7 - Meaning

Chapter 8 - Performance

Chapter 9 - Archaeology

Chapter 10 - The Work of Art

Part III: Artistic Globalisation

Chapter 11 - The Art World

Chapter 12 - The Exotic Primitive

Chapter 13 - Marketing Exotic Art

Chapter 14 - Artistic Colonialism

Chapter 15 - The Global and the Local

World Art: An Introduction to the Art in Artefacts
分享
引用
Rights statement

In Copyright

What does this mean?

This item is covered by one or more copyrights. It is available for research only or use within Hong Kong’s fair dealing rules. Please do not copy, re-use or reproduce this item without the permission of the copyright holder.

World Art: An Introduction to the Art in Artefacts