Aesthetics, Arts, and Politics in a Global World

Description

A different set of purposes define culture today than those that preoccupied the world in the immediate decades of decolonization. Focusing on art and music in diverse parts of the world, Daniel Herwitz explores a world that has largely shifted from the earlier days of nationalism, decolonization and cultural exclusion, to one of global markets and networks. Using examples from India and Mexico to South Africa, Australia and China, Herwitz argues that the cultural politics and art being produced in these places are now post- postcolonial. Where the postcolonial downplayed formerly Eurocentric forms and celebrated art with national consciousness, the rules for 21st century cultural authenticity are quickly disappearing. Young people think of themselves in relation to global culture rather than nation--building; the project of producing a new and modern art for the incipient and rising postcolonial nation is out of date. By examining the shift in which art accesses the past and the rise of trends such as hitching consumer culture to celebrity forms and branding, Herwitz's original and engaging exploration of contemporary art captures the ways in which art has given way to a new form of production, altering everything from the role of tradition and heritage in contemporary art to the terms of its vision and circulation.

Daniel Herwitz is Fredric Huetwell Professor of Philosophy, History of Art and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan, USA where for a decade he directed the Institute for the Humanities. His previously published books include Aesthetics: Key Concepts in Philosophy (2008) as well as the award winning Star as Icon (2008), and M.F. Husain (1988). Herwitz frequently writes for galleries in New York City, London, Cape Town and other places.

[A] wide-ranging exploration of visual art, architecture, and opera in India, South Africa, Australia, and China ... The author's descriptions of his experience living in South Africa and being with artists and artworks at exhibitions and performances are particularly rich and insightful. * CHOICE * Daniel Herwitz has produced an elegant and thoughtful set of polemics on cultural evolution in our age. On every page of this lively presentation I heartily agreed or heartily disagreed, but always enjoyed the argument. He makes out his case for a post-post-colonial analysis neither in sorrow nor in anger. His writing conveys the quiet joy of a cultural activist who is stimulated rather than perturbed by noting that the world refuses to fit itself into the very conceptual frameworks that over the years he himself has helped to establish. -- Albie Sachs, activist, writer, and former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa.