Description
This volume examines the motives behind rejections of beauty often found within contemporary art practice, where much critically acclaimed art is deliberately ugly and alienating. It reflects on the nature and value of beauty, asking whether beauty still has a future in art and what role it can play in our lives generally. The volume discusses the possible âend of art,â what art is, and the relation between art and beauty beyond their historically Western horizons to include perspectives from Asia.
The individual chapters address a number of interrelated issues, including: art, beauty and the sacred; beauty as a source of joy and consolation; beauty as a bridge between the natural and the human; beauty and the human form; the role of curatorial practice in defining art; order and creativity; and the distinction between art and craft. The volume offers a valuable addition to cross-cultural dialogue and, in particular, to the sparse literature on art and beauty in comparative context. It demonstrates the relevance of the rich tradition of Asian aesthetics and the vibrant practices of contemporary art in Asia to Western discussions about the future of art and the role of beauty.
Table of Contents
1: Introduction, K. Higgins and S. Maira.- I. What Happened to Beauty?- 2: âBeauty: A Promise of Enduring Art,â R. Lorand.- 3: âThe Hollowing of Art and the Call of Beauty,â S. Maira.- 4: âIconoclasm and the Demise of Aesthetics,â A. Menon.- II. Judging Beautiful Bodies.- 5: âWestern Theories of Beauty and Non-Western Peoples,â P. Mitter.- 6: Valli and Devasena,â A. Pande.- 7: âFemale Bodies in China: Literati Fantasies, Iron Girls and Olympics Hoopla,â E. Man.- III. Beauty, Virtue, and Happiness.- 8: âBuddhism, Beauty, and Virtue,â D. Cooper.- 9: âConfucian Aesthetics of Persons,â E. Mullis.- 10: âBeauty and the Sense of Life,â K. Higgins.- 11: âDwelling with Beauty,â S. Sikka.- IV. Beauty and the Self.- 12: âArtistic Creativity,â S. Miri.- 13: âLetting Objects Speak: Beauty in the Japanese Artistic Tradition,â Y.Saito.- 14: âPerceiving Beauty, Recognizing Self,â Y. Lochan.- V. Beauty as Daily Practice.- 15: âArt, Craft and Beauty â A Subjective Vision?â L. Tyabji.- 16: âThe Beatiful in Bali,â S. Davies.- 17: âThe Aesthetics of Everyday Life: An Exploration through the Buddhist Concept of Vikalpa,â P. Patnaik.- 18: âDaoist Aesthetics of the Everyday and the Fantastical,â S. Mattice.



