Research Catalog

Title

Objects of authority : a postformalist aesthetics / Jakub Stejskal.

Author

Stejskal, Jakub

Publication

• New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023.
• ©2023

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 121 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

"This book develops a postformalist aesthetics and explains its relevance to art history, the archaeology and anthropology of art, and philosophical aesthetics. It represents a rare effort at bringing together methods and concepts that are often addressed by separate disciplines. Drawing on postformalist art history, the book applies the philosophical idiom of contemporary analytic aesthetics to a problem formulated and discussed in art history, archaeology, and anthropology: how to go about the aesthetic relevance of artefacts from temporally and culturally distant contexts. The author argues from the position that when art historians, anthropologists, or archaeologists position themselves as remote observers involved in an aesthetic analysis of artefacts, they make themselves part of a broader endeavour, one of discovering reasons for the artefacts' appearance. The author claims that crucial for this endeavour as well as the narrower goal of aesthetic analysis is the central postformalist notion of format, locating its points of contact and friction with the more traditional concepts of design, form, and medium. He rehabilitates the largely abandoned project of analysing universal styles and provides tools for a better grasp of the central role visual conspicuousness of artefacts plays in public life. In the process, he assesses famous cases of ascribing or denying aesthetic status to remote objects, including Cycladic marble figures, Papuan headhunters' shields, and Late Gothic monochrome wooden sculptures. Objects of Authority will appeal to scholars and advanced students working on philosophical, art-historical, and anthropological theories of visual art and material culture"--

Series Statement

Routledge research in aesthetics

Uniform Title

Routledge research in aesthetics.

Subject

• Aesthetics
• Formalism (Art)
• Art > Philosophy
• Art

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [107]-118) and index.

Contents

Postformalism : an introduction -- Aesthetic suspicions -- What is a format? -- A theory of image format -- Universal style -- Aesthetic analysis and its formats.

Call Number

JQE 22-968

ISBN

• 9781032072098
• 1032072091

LCCN

2022009555

OCLC

1333438396

Author

Stejskal, Jakub, author. Author

Title

Objects of authority : a postformalist aesthetics / Jakub Stejskal.

Publisher

New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023.

Copyright Date

©2023

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Routledge research in aesthetics

Routledge research in aesthetics.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [107]-118) and index.

Other Form:

Online version: Stejskal, Jakub. Objects of authority New York : Routledge, 2022 9781003213406 (DLC) 2022009556

Research Call Number

JQE 22-968