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Sexed Universals in Contemporary Art

Allworth Press | Pages: 208 | 2003-12-01 | ISBN: 1581153139 | PDF | 2 MB

This interdisciplinary study of contemporary art and critical theory seeks to find new universal meaning in today's diversified, atomised art discourse. The book is written against the backdrop of the deconstructivist movements of the 1960s, when universalist notions such as race, gender, class and subjectivity were shoved aside to make room for a more diverse, inclusive culture.

Forty years into the age of difference, the author claims that with the artistic products of this new culture having reached maturity, it is safe to revise the "grand narratives" of modern times - and necessary: if we want to understand notions such as power and subjectivity in today's art, we cannot ignore the "grand narratives" of the modern age. Tracing examples of this new philosophy in contemporary painting, sculpture, film and digital arts, the author shows how gender can be the key to combine the old "universals" with today's culture of difference.

The book is not a return to modernist thought but an attempt to find new philosophical ground that combines the benefits of an interdisciplinary viewpoint with the advantages of specialization and diversification. The focus is on the British modernist sculptors - Barbara Hepworth, Lyne Lapointe and other contemporary female artists - who are juxtaposed with modernists ranging from Matisse and Picasso to Mallarme and Manet. The theoretical framework derives from work by Rosi Braidotti, Elizabeth Grosz and Luce Irigaray, as well as the author's recent research work titled "Differential Aesthetics". Artists, art critics, and art students with a knack for interdisciplinary study and an interest in a progressive philosophy should find much food for thought in this forward-thinking, visionary volume.

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