An engaging exploration of the meaning and power of art that looks at popular theories through the ages.
One of the most astonishing aspects of the discourse on contemporary art is the firm and unwavering belief that art has the power to transform society for the better. There seems to be a consensus around the idea that art, especially visual art, is greatly suited to addressing all manner of social, political, economic, ecological, and other imbalances. Celebrated as a powerful remedy for social grievances, art finds its justification in the service it seems to provide to society.
But as art historian Leonhard Emmerling contends in this timely volume, this presumptuous heroism shows willful blindness towards art’s subjugation to contradictions inherent in social relations. He argues that the narrative of the power of art has its specific history. In trying to reconstruct this history in Art of Diremption, he discovers instead art’s fundamental powerlessness as the foundation for art’s political relevance. Art is weak, argues Emmerling. It, therefore, requires an ethics of weakness, which rejects the discourse of impact and power to enable a politics of art containing the permanence of reflection, the unreliability of thought, and the emergence of form as the event of the new. With a meticulously studied and well-argued case about the “powerlessness of art,” Art of Diremption will be an important contribution to the field of art, aesthetics, and philosophy.
By:
Leonhard Emmerling,
Parnal Chirmuley
Imprint: Seagull Books London Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 240mm,
Width: 157mm,
Spine: 16mm
Weight: 328g
ISBN: 9781803090344
ISBN 10: 1803090340
Pages: 164
Publication Date: 19 July 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Kant I Kant II: Disinterestedness and sensus communis The Sublime: Kant and Schiller Stendhal and the Promise of Joy Nietzsche I Excursus I: On Semblance Nietzsche II Hegel: Decision, Diremption, Freedom Art after the End of Art Excursus II Radicality and Community Producing Truth: Morality As Though / Propositional Content / Morality Aesthetics and Interest Aesthetic Difference / Experience / Ethics The Politics of Art
Leonhard Emmerling is an art historian who has worked as a curator and writer in Germany, New Zealand, and India. He currently serves as the director of the Goethe-Institut Chicago. Parnal Chirmuley is associate professor at the Centre of German Studies, School of Language Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
