Updated and reorganized to offer the best collection of state-of-the-art readings on the role of critical theory in contemporary art, this second edition of Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985 brings together scholarly essays, artists' statements, and art reproductions to capture the vibrancy and dissonance that define today's art scene.
Incorporates new and updated topics that have become central to art theory and practice over the past decade
New and updated chapters cover such topics as: international biennials, historicizing of the term "contemporary art", aesthetics, art and politics, feminism and pornography, ecology and art, the Middle East and conflict studies, Eastern European art and politics, gender and war, and technology
Features a thematic reconfiguration of sections and new introductions to make readings user-friendly
Extensively illustrated throughout with an expanded color-plate section
New contributions to this edition include those by Alexander Alberro, Claire Bishop, T.J. Demos, Anthony Downey, Liam Gillick, Marina Gr?iniæ, Mary Kelly, Chantal Mouffe, Beatriz Preciado, Jacques Ranciere, Blake Stimson, and Chin-Tao Wu.
Text, Figure, and Plate Credits viii
How To Use this Book xvi
Notes on Contributors xix
Introduction 1
Part I The Field of Contemporary Art 7
1 The Intellectual Field: A World Apart (1990) 13
Pierre Bourdieu
2 When Form Has Become Attitude - And Beyond (1994) 21
Thierry de Duve
3 One Place After Another: Notes on Site Specificity (1997) 34
Miwon Kwon
4 Biennials without Borders? (2009) 56
Chin-Tao Wu
5 Periodising Contemporary Art (2009) 64
Alexander Alberro
6 Contemporary Art and the Politics of Aesthetics (2009) 72
Jacques Rancière
Part II Practices and Models/Rethinking Form and Medium 87
7 A Note on Gerhard Richter's October 18, 1977 (1989) 94
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh
8 Notes on Surface: Toward a Genealogy of Flatness (2000) 102
David Joselit
9 Informe without Conclusion (1996) 118
Rosalind Krauss
10 Video Projection: The Space Between Screens 131
Liz Kotz
11 How to Provide an Artistic Service: An Introduction (1994) 146
Andrea Fraser
12 Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art (2003) 153
Grant Kester
13 Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics (2004) 166
Claire Bishop
Part III Culture/Identities/Political Agency 195
14 The War on Culture (1990) 203
Carole S. Vance
15 AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism (2002) 211
Douglas Crimp
16 Architecture of the Evicted (1990) 220
Rosalyn Deutsche
17 Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion (1993) 235
Judith Butler
18 Looking for Trouble (1993) 252
Kobena Mercer
19 The Mythology of Difference: Vulgar Identity Politics at the Whitney Biennial (1993) 263
Charles A. Wright, Jr
20 Haunted TV (1992) 280
Avital Ronell
21 The Architecture of Porn: Museum, Urban Detritus, and Cinematic Stag-rooms (2012) 289
Beatriz Preciado
22 Cultural Workers as Organic Intellectuals (2008) 299
Chantal Mouffe
Part IV Postcolonial Critiques 309
23 The Marco Polo Syndrome: Some Problems around Art and Eurocentrism (1993) 314
Gerardo Mosquera
24 In the "Heart of Darkness" (1993) 322
Olu Oguibe
25 The Syncretic Turn: Cross-Cultural Practices in the Age of Multiculturalism (1996) 329
Jean Fisher
26 Authenticity, Reflexivity, and Spectacle: Or, the Rise of New Asia is not the End of the World (2004) 338
Lee Weng Choy
27 All-Owning Spectatorship (1991) 354
Trinh T. Minh-Ha
28 Ruins, Fragmentation, and the Chinese Modern/Postmodern (1998) 371
Wu Hung
Part V Art Subjects/Historical Subjects 381
29 Re-politicizing Art, Theory, Representation and New Media Technology (2008) 388
Marina Gr?inic
30 Miming the Master: Boy-Things, Bad Girls, and Femmes Vitales (1996) 395
Mary Kelly
31 Zones of Indistinction: Giorgio Agamben's 'Bare Life' and the Politics of Aesthetics (2009) 416
Anthony Downey
32 The Database (2001) 435
Lev Manovich
33 For the Love of Abstraction (2008) 455
Blake Stimson
34 The Politics of Sustainability: Art and Ecology (2009) 466
T. J. Demos
Appendix: Letters and Responses Contingent Factors: A Response to Claire Bishop's "Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics" 486
Liam Gillick
Index 498
