Aesthetics, Disinterestedness, and Effectiveness in Political Art

Maria Alina Asavei

doi:10.5771/9781498566803

Summary

Should politically concerned and engaged artistic production disregard questions or/and requirements of aesthetic reception and value? Whether art should be “aesthetic” or “political” is not a new question. Therefore, in spite of those several contemporary approaches of this issue, the answer is not set in stone and the debate is still going on. This volume aims to broaden these debates and it stems from numerous conversations with politically engaged artists and artist collectives on issues related to the “aesthetitzation of politics” versus the “politicization of art,” as well as the phenomenon of the so-called “unhealthy aestheticism” in political art. Thus, this study has three interrelated aims: Firstly, it aims to offer an interdisciplinary account of the relationship between art and politics and between aesthetics and the political. Secondly, it attempts to explore what exactly makes artistic production a strong – yet neglected – field of political critique when democratic political agency, history from below and identity politics are threatened. Finally, to illuminate the relationship between critical political theory, on the one hand, and the philosophy of art, on the other by highlighting artworks’ moral, political and epistemic abilities to reveal, criticize, problematize and intervene politically in our political reality.

Keywords

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2018
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4985-6679-7
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4985-6680-3
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 176
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
3. Introduction No access
1. What Is Art? No access
2. Is All Art Political? No access
3. Art and Politics: Can They Mix? Should They Mix? No access
4. What Is Political in Art? No access
5. Propaganda Art versus Political-Critical Art: In Totalitarian Regimes and in Liberal Democracies No access
6. Propaganda Art versus Political Critical Art in Totalitarian Regimes No access
7. Political-Critical Art in Liberal Democracies No access
8. Notes No access
1. The Aesthetic No access
2. The Gap between the Aesthetic and Political in Art: “This Is too Political” versus “This Is too Aesthetic” No access
3. The Aesthetic and Political-Critical Art: Bridging the Gap No access
4. Aesthetically Meaningful Form: Political-Critical Art as a Matter of Form No access
5. Notes No access
1. Disinterestedness in Light of the Eighteenth Century and After No access
2. Is Disinterestedness Any Longer an Operational Term for Contemporary Aesthetics and Art Theory? No access
3. Cognitive Interests Cannot Be Ruled Out by “Aesthetic” Disinterestedness No access
4. Disinterestedness and Engagement: Reflective Contemplation No access
5. Is There Any Disinterestedness Suitable for Political-Critical Art’s Spectator? No access
6. Rethinking Disinterestedness in Political-Critical Art’s Appreciation No access
7. Notes No access
1. Narrow Aesthetic Theories of Beauty No access
2. The Deliberate Avoidance of Beauty in Contemporary Political Art No access
3. Revisiting the Kantian Theory of Dependent Beauty No access
4. Functional Beauty: Beauty and Function in Political Art No access
5. Notes No access
1. Political Art’s Effectiveness: What Does “Effective” Mean? No access
2. What Reasons are there for Denying or Affirming the Political Effectiveness of Political Art? No access
3. Effectiveness: Within an Institutional Setting or Outside of It? No access
4. To Whom Must Political-Critical Art Be Addressed? No access
5. The Means of Production and Distribution No access
6. Social Movements and Critical-Political Art No access
7. Notes No access
Conclusion No access Pages 157 - 160
Bibliography No access Pages 161 - 168
Index No access Pages 169 - 174
About the Author No access Pages 175 - 176