Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

The sublime / edited by Simon Morley.

Contributor(s): Series: Documents of contemporary art seriesPublication details: London : Whitechapel Gallery ; Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2010.Description: 237 pages ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 9780262513913
  • 0262513919
  • 9780854881789
  • 0854881786
Subject(s):
Contents:
The unpresentable -- Transcendence -- Nature -- Technology -- Terror -- The uncanny -- Altered states.
Summary: The continuing relevance and constant reinvention of the sublime—the transcendent, the awe- inspiring, the unpresentable—in art and culture since 1945. In the contemporary world, where technology, spectacle, and excess seem to eclipse nature, the individual, and society, what might be the characteristics of a contemporary sublime? If there is any consensus, it is in the idea that the sublime represents a testing of limits to the point at which fixities begin to fragment. This anthology examines how contemporary artists and theorists explore ideas of the sublime, in relation to the unpresentable, transcendence, terror, nature, technology, the uncanny, and altered states. Providing a philosophical and cultural context for discourse around the sublime in recent art, the book surveys the diverse and sometimes conflicting interpretations of the term as it has evolved from the writings of Longinus, Burke, and Kant to present-day writers and artists. The sublime underlies the nobility of Classicism, the awe of Romantic nature, and the terror of the Gothic. In the last half-century, the sublime has haunted postwar abstraction, returned from the repression of theoretical formalism, and has become a key term in critical discussions of human otherness and posthuman realms of nature and technology. Artists surveyed include: Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys, Tacita Dean, Walter De Maria, A K Dolven, Olafur Eliasson, Jitka Hanzlová, Gary Hill, Susan Hiller, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, Mike Kelley, Anselm Kiefer, Yves Klein, Richard Long, Gustav Metzger, Henri Michaux, Barnett Newman, Tony Oursler, Cornelia Parker, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Lorna Simpson, Stelarc, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Fred Tomaselli, James Turrell, Luc Tuymans, Bill Viola, Zhang Huan.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book CGLAS Library Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art Blue 701 SUB (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 21/03/2025 01848
Book Book CGLAS Library Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art Blue 701 SUB (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 19/03/2025 01550

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The unpresentable -- Transcendence -- Nature -- Technology -- Terror -- The uncanny -- Altered states.

The continuing relevance and constant reinvention of the sublime—the transcendent, the awe- inspiring, the unpresentable—in art and culture since 1945. In the contemporary world, where technology, spectacle, and excess seem to eclipse nature, the individual, and society, what might be the characteristics of a contemporary sublime? If there is any consensus, it is in the idea that the sublime represents a testing of limits to the point at which fixities begin to fragment. This anthology examines how contemporary artists and theorists explore ideas of the sublime, in relation to the unpresentable, transcendence, terror, nature, technology, the uncanny, and altered states. Providing a philosophical and cultural context for discourse around the sublime in recent art, the book surveys the diverse and sometimes conflicting interpretations of the term as it has evolved from the writings of Longinus, Burke, and Kant to present-day writers and artists. The sublime underlies the nobility of Classicism, the awe of Romantic nature, and the terror of the Gothic. In the last half-century, the sublime has haunted postwar abstraction, returned from the repression of theoretical formalism, and has become a key term in critical discussions of human otherness and posthuman realms of nature and technology.

Artists surveyed include: Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys, Tacita Dean, Walter De Maria, A K Dolven, Olafur Eliasson, Jitka Hanzlová, Gary Hill, Susan Hiller, Shirazeh Houshiary, Anish Kapoor, Mike Kelley, Anselm Kiefer, Yves Klein, Richard Long, Gustav Metzger, Henri Michaux, Barnett Newman, Tony Oursler, Cornelia Parker, Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Lorna Simpson, Stelarc, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Fred Tomaselli, James Turrell, Luc Tuymans, Bill Viola, Zhang Huan.