Art Is Not What You Think It Is (eBook)

Donald Preziosi is Emeritus Professor of Art History and Critical Theory at UCLA, and Former Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford. He trained in art history, classics, and linguistics at Harvard, and is the author and co-author of many books including The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (2009). Claire Farago is Professor of Renaissance Art Theory and Criticism at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is author and co-author of many books on art theory, historiography, and museums, and is an authority on the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci. Her numerous publications include Re-Reading Leonardo: The Treatise on Painting across Europe 1550-1900 (2009). Donald Preziosi and Claire Farago have previously collaborated as co-editors of Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum (2004).

List of Figures vi

Preface: Art Is Not What You Think It Is viii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: Art and/as Manifesto 1

First Incursion: Artistry and Authorship 19

Second Incursion: The Dangers of Art and the Trap of the Visual
33

Third Incursion: To See the Frame that Blinds Us 52

Fourth Incursion: Deconstructing the Agencies of Art 74

Fifth Incursion: Intersections of the Local and the Global
94

Sixth Incursion: Into the Breach of Art and Religion 121

Seventh Incursion: The Art of Commodifying Artistry 142

Index 165

"Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and
researchers/faculty." (Choice, 1 August
2012)

"Preziosi and Farago present us with an invaluable series of
provocations aimed at traversing, motivating, and unsettling the
discourse of art and its histories. "

- Jae Emerling, University of North Carolina,
Charlotte



"Art is Not What You Think is a groundbreaking book
that provides a cutting-edge theoretical take on the conundrum of
artistic authorship and meaning today."

- Amelia Jones, McGill University