Research Catalog

Title

Art and agency : an anthropological theory / Alfred Gell.

Author

Gell, Alfred.

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Clarendon Press, 1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxiii, 271 p. : ill.; 25 cm.

Summary

In Art and Agency, Alfred Gell formulates an anthropological theory of visual art that focuses on the social context of art production, circulation, and reception. As a theory of the nexus of social relations involving works of art, this work suggests that in certain contexts, art-objects substitute for persons and thus mediate social agency. Diversely illustrated and based on European, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian sources, Art and Agency was completed just before Gell's death at the age of fifty-one in January 1997. It embodies the intellectual bravura, lively wit, vigor, and erudition for which he was admired, and will stand as an enduring testament to one of the most gifted anthropologists of his generation.

Subject

• Art and anthropology
• Art and society

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliography (p. [259]-264) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The problem defined: The need for an anthropology of art -- The theory of the art nexus -- The art nexus and the index -- The involution of the index in the art nexus -- The origination of the index -- The critique of the index -- The distributed person -- Style and culture -- Conclusion: The extended mind.

ISBN

• 0198280149 (hbk.)
• 0198280130 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^97051845^

OCLC

38120660

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library