Art beyond Itself: Anthropology for a Society without a Story Line - Hardcover

"Art Beyond Itself...probes art's struggles to redefine itself in a globalized world in which previously discrete categories of aesthetic and social experience are ever more blurred. With this book Garcia Canclini, one of Latin America's foremost intellectuals, both expands his already considerable presence for English-speaking audiences and provides a powerful new analytical approach to contemporary art." -- Robin Adele Greeley * Critical Inquiry * "Garcia Canclini's insightful study crosses disciplinary divides and hence will appeal to scholars in the social sciences and humanities from a wide range of academic backgrounds. Anthropologists, sociologists, art historians and cultural critics, particularly those focused on Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, have much to gain from reading this book. Literary critics, historians, philosophers and economists whose interests rest in contemporary aesthetics and the art market will also find value in this study." -- Resha Cardone * The Latin Americanist * "Nestor Garcia Canclini's Art beyond Itself is an addition to the literature that believes that art and artistic movements may be understood 'only in connection with social processes' (p. xi). It examines how artistic projects become part of other logics (e.g., the market, the media, politics, social movements) and how art is modified in the process." -- Nigel Rapport * American Anthropologist *

First published in Spanish in 2010, Art beyond Itself is Nestor Garcia Canclini's deft assessment of contemporary art. The renowned cultural critic suggests that, ideally, art is the place of imminence, the place where we glimpse something just about to happen. Yet, as he demonstrates, defining contemporary art and its role in society is an ever more complicated endeavor. Museums, auction houses, artists, and major actors in economics, politics, and the media are increasingly chummy and interdependent. Art is expanding into urban development and the design and tourism industries. Art practices based on objects are displaced by practices based on contexts. Aesthetic distinctions dissolve as artworks are inserted into the media, urban spaces, digital networks, and social forums. Oppositional artists are adrift in a society without a clear story line. What, after all, counts as transgression in a world of diverse and fragmentary narratives? Seeking a new analytic framework for understanding contemporary art, Garcia Canclini is attentive to particular artworks; to artists including Francis Alys, Leon Ferrari, Teresa Margolles, Antoni Muntadas, and Gabriel Orozco; and to efforts to preserve, for art and artists, some degree of independence from religion, politics, the media, and the market.