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Art Objects (art + object)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%
Education	33%

Selected Abstracts

Art and Agency: A Reassessment

THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2003
Robert Layton
In his book, Art and agency, Alfred Gell presents a theory of art based neither on aesthetics nor on visual communication. Art is defined by the distinctive function it performs in advancing social relationships through ,the abduction of agency'. Art objects are indexes of the artist's or model's agency. This article examines Gell's use of agency, particularly in relation to the ritual art that is central to his argument. Focusing on Gell's employment of Peirce's term ,index' (out of his triad of index, icon, and symbol), I note that Peirce's approach deflects attention from signification towards the link between art works and the things to which they refer. I consider what Peirce meant by abduction, and conclude that while Gell makes a good case for the agency of art objects he does not explain the distinctive ways in which art objects extend their maker's or user's agency. Gell lacked the time to make detailed revisions before publication and I acknowledge that, given more time, he might have revised some parts of the book. [source]

What is Art in Education?

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 2 2007
New Narratives of Learning
Abstract In this paper I address some questions pertinent to the development of school art education. I begin by considering how we relate to art and how we might understand the notion of this relation in terms of human subjectivity and the art object. To do this I describe particular art practices that have broadened social conceptions of art, which in turn, become part of art itself and shape performances of understanding, learning and practice. Implicit to this discussion is a change in how artists, art practice and engagement with art are conceived. I then consider some art events in school art education and analyse how human subjects, art practices and objects are understood in this context. This leads to further remarks about how learners and practice in school art education might be discerned in the light of the preceding discussion. [source]

Domain Poisoning: The Redundancy of Current Models of Assessment through Art

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 3 2006
Tom Hardy
With the National Foundation for Educational Research concluding that schools which include Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) in their curriculum add significant value to their students' art experience, [1] and at a time when much of the discussion around contemporary art questions the value of the art object itself, this article addresses the question: how are we to engage students with the contemporary and, at the same time, make value judgments of their own work? And, while the professional fine art world subscribes increasingly to the ,rhizomatic' [2] template of art processes, how do we square this with current assessment criteria which require that students produce work where the preparation and finished product occupy separate domains and rely on ,procedures and practices that reach back to the nineteenth century'? [3] By way of a postscript to the inconclusive findings of the Eppi-centre art and design review group [4], this article will also address what we have lost in the drive for domain-based assessment and how to regain some of the ground lost since the introduction of Curriculum 2000. [source]

Cultural Sovereignty in a Global Art Economy: Egyptian Cultural Policy and the New Western Interest in Art from the Middle East

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2006
Jessica WinegarArticle first published online: 7 JAN 200
The post-1989 transformation of the Egyptian art world reveals the particular tenacity of colonial logics and national attachments in culture industries built through anticolonial nationalism and socialism. Tensions emerged between and among Western and Egyptian curators, critics, and artists with the development of a foreign-dominated private-sector art market and as Egyptian art begins to circulate internationally. This international circulation of art objects has produced rearranged strategies of governance in the cultural realm, collusions and conflicts between the public and private sector, and, most importantly, a new articulation of cultural sovereignty. [source]

A Raman spectroscopic and combined analytical approach to the restoration of severely damaged frescoes: the Palomino project

JOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY, Issue 4 2008
Howell G. M. Edwards
Abstract The deterioration of art objects is normally relatively minor, controllable and attributable to environmental changes or bacterial invasion, and until now there has not been any recorded attempt to analyse an artwork that has been deliberately and significantly destroyed. The analytical problems are correspondingly larger but the potential reward from any information that can be forthcoming is thereby proportionately greater. The 17th Century Palomino frescoes on the vaulted ceiling of the Church of Sant Joan del Mercat in Valencia were largely destroyed by insurgents in the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The ensuing gunfire and a series of seven conflagrations inside the church had a devastating effect upon the artwork, and the surviving areas were also rendered unstable with respect to their detachment from the substrate. During the current restoration project being undertaken on these frescoes, an opportunity was provided for the application of several analytical techniques to secure information about the original pigment palette employed, the technology of application used by Palomino and the changes consequent upon the destruction process. Here, we report for the first time the use of analytical Raman spectroscopy, supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and voltammetry of microparticles, for the combined identification of pigments, binders, substrate treatments and pigment alteration in an important, although badly damaged, wall painting for the informing of the ongoing conservation and restoration strategy. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]