Art Is Not What You Think It Is

Art Is Not What You Think It Is utilizes original research to present a series of critical incursions into the current state of debate on the idea of art, making manifest what has been largely missing or unsaid in those discussions. Links museology, history, theory, and criticism to the realities of contemporary social conditions and shows how they have structurally functioned in a variety of contexts Deals with divisive and controversial problems such as blasphemy and idolatry, and the problem of artistic truth Addresses relations between European notions about art and artifice and those developed in other and especially indigenous cultural traditions

List of Figures vi Preface: Art Is Not What You Think It Is viii Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Art and/as Manifesto 1 First Incursion: Artistry and Authorship 19 Second Incursion: The Dangers of Art and the Trap of the Visual 33 Third Incursion: To See the Frame that Blinds Us 52 Fourth Incursion: Deconstructing the Agencies of Art 74 Fifth Incursion: Intersections of the Local and the Global 94 Sixth Incursion: Into the Breach of Art and Religion 121 Seventh Incursion: The Art of Commodifying Artistry 142 Index 165