Freeland - But is it art?: an introduction to art theory

But is it art?

An introduction to art theory

Cynthia Freeland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston. She has published on topics in the philosophy of art and film, ancient Greek philosophy, and feminist theory. She is also author of The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror (1999) and co-editor of Philosophy and Film (1995).

So many of the questions that define us as a culture have been raised through and by the art of recent decades, that without coming to terms with our art, we can scarcely understand ourselves. Cynthia Freeland has written a very smart book, in which high philosophical intelligence is applied by a contemporary sensibility to difficult questions raised by real works of art. It immediately situates the reader where thought and action meet, and since the issues are inescapable, it should be required reading for everyone. I know of no work that moves so swiftly and with so sure a footing through the battle zones of art and society today.

Arthur C. Danto, Columbia University

Chapters on gender, money and the marketplace, and on the uses and abuses of primitive motifs in contemporary art making are models of judicious clarity.

Publishers Weekly

highly informative Freelands study is clearly and enthusiastically written

Gerald Cipriani, Journal of Art and Design Education

a vibrant study of a complex and contentious field of artistic endeavour and enquiry lucid, incisive, and thought-provoking.

Murray Smith, University of Kent

Freeland provides a unique and inclusive view of the past by discussing it from the vantage point of contemporary art.

Lucy R. Lippard, author of Mixed Blessings:

New Art in a Multicultural America

the court of Louis XIV, aboriginal tourist art, and the digital revolution Freeland has managed to distil theories of art, the history of aesthetics, and a selected tour of art history into a brief and eminently informative text

Carolyn W. Korsmeyer, State University of New York

a lively, eminently readable and remarkably wide ranging discussion of issues germane to the field of contemporary art. A delight.

Eleanor Heartney, author of Critical Condition:

American Culture at the Crossroads

COVER ILLUSTRATION: Painter William Conger created Crossfire Cow for the summer 1999 Chicago public art display CowParade. This exhibition, a successor of CULTURE IN ACTION in 1993 (discussed in of this book) was the most successful public art program in the citys history. More than 300 life-sized fiberglass cows were individually decorated by recognized and outsider artists, then displayed around the city. Many were later sold in a cattle auction with proceeds going to charity (to the tune of $3.4 million). Artist Conger, a Chicago-area painter and art professor, has explained that he made his cow both in fun and as a serious work with art historical references. His title alludes to the crossfire in modernist and postmodernist art criticism and theory. Originating in Zurich and then moving to America with the successful Chicago installation, CowParade has gone on to become a franchise, with parades in New York, Houston, and other cities; Cow-Parade London was postponed in summer 2001 due to sensitivities concerning the Foot and Mouth epidemic.

AN INTRODUCTION TO ART THEORY

Cynthia Freeland

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Cynthia Freeland 2001

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First published 2001

First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 2002
Also available in paperback as Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction

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To Herbert Garelick

Deepest thanks to people who read and commented on the entire manuscript: Oxfords Reader 3 (unveiled as Murray Smith), Jennifer McMahon, Mary McDonough, and my parents, Alan and Betty Freeland. Carolyn Korsmeyer made valuable suggestions, and Kristi Gedeon was a research assistant beyond comparecheery, resourceful, a packhorse for heavy books! Thanks to others for generous help with the text or illustrations: Robert Wicks, Nora Laos, Weihong Kronfied, Sheryl Wilhite Garcia, Jeannette Dixon, Eric McIntyre, Lynne Brown, Rose Lange, Anne Jacobson, William Austin, Justin Leiber, and Amy Ione. My husband, Krist Bender, supplied technical assistance and artistic opinions. I am much indebted to Oxfords capable editor, Shelley Cox. Heartfelt appreciation to the guinea pigs for this text, my students in Philosophy 1361you made a bigger difference than you suspect. A more indefinite thanks for their stimulating influence to my friends in the exciting art world of Houston. I dedicate this book to my first professor of aesthetics, Herbert Garelick, of Michigan State University.

I Andres Serrano, Piss Christ (1987)

Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

II Iznik tiles

The British Museum

Huichol bead art

Photograph: Cynthia Freeland

III Barry McGee, Hoss

Rice University Art Gallery. Photo: Tommy Lavergne

IV Tibetan monk erasing mandala painting

Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc. Tibetan monks sand-painting (18)

V Georgia OKeeffe, Red Canna

collection of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, gift of Oliver James.

ARS, NY, and DACS, London 2000

VI Francis Bacon, Triptych (MayJune 1973)

Estate of Francis Bacon/ARS, New York, and DACS, London 2000

VII Bill Viola, Chott el-Djerid

Courtesy Bill Viola Studio. Photograph: Kira Petrov

VIII Jim Clarage and dadaNetCircus: Jonah and the WWWhale