Publication details Hard cover, 325 pages, 15 plates, 978-0-367-18441-4 (paperback edition available)
Author and/or Editor name/s Tony Bennett FAHA FAcSS, Deborah Stevenson FASSA, Fred Myers, Tamara Winikoff (eds.)
Author and/or Editor bio/s Tony Bennett FAHA FAcSS is Emeritus Professor in Social and Cultural Theory in Western Sydney University’s Institute for Culture and Society and Honorary Professor in the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University. Deborah Stevenson FASSA is Research Professor in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. Fred Myers is Silver Professor of Anthropology at New York University. Tamara Winikoff OAM, cultural advocate, previously CEO of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA).
Year of publication 2020
Publisher Routledge, New York and London
Abstract This collection articulates a conversation between sociologists, anthropologists, art historians, policy analysts, arts activists and artists to take stock of the frictions that currently beset the Australian art field. It takes its main theoretical bearings from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu who developed the concept of ‘art field’ to investigate how the production and consumption of art are affected by the relations between art institutions, policy agencies and cultural markets in the context of broader social relations. Published at a time when neoliberal conceptions of the value of the arts hold increasing sway in Australia, the collection looks beyond the practices officially defined and sanctioned as the ‘art world’. It explores a wider range of art practices and their engagements with regimes of value — civic, national, regional, community — exceeding the compass of neoliberal rationales. Specific topics considered include the operations of national and international art markets; the social factors informing the development of Australian art practices; the role of art institutions in shaping the production, distribution and appreciation of Australian art; the tensions of discourse and value informing the production, distribution and reception of Indigenous art; and the policy regimes and funding programmes of Australian governments that set agendas for the ascription of aesthetic and market value. Essays on these topics are complemented by interviews with seven Australian artists who, reflecting on their development and training, identify the issues — of gender, class, ethnicity, Indigeneity, sexuality — that have provided the most significant points of engagement for their practice.
You must be logged in to post a comment.