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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Art Incorporated, September 15, 2007
This review is from: Art Incorporated: The Story of Contemporary Art (Hardcover)
In Art Incorporated: The Story of Contemporary Art Julian Stallabrass unpacks the "peculiar economy" that is the international contemporary art world using the premise that "free" art and free trade form a dominant global system. This book is an indictment of contemporary art as an unavoidable participant in a deadening and homogenizing neoliberal economy. The strength of Art Incorporated is Stallabrass' use of historical examples to tie social and theoretical changes to specific events within the art world occurring between 1989 and the first years of the 21st century.
First, Stallabrass attacks the notion of a `zone of freedom' within which art is produced and sold by demonstrating the links between the economy of art and that of finance capital. He reveals the strangeness of the perpetuation of the mantra of the unknowability of art and asserts that it is `pure propaganda'. The rise of the multicultural show coincides with the end of the cold war and the rise of `unrestrained' capitalism.
In the second chapter of the book, Stallabrass discusses the growing phenomenon of the international art biennial. This compilation of information on biennales around the world, the impetus behind their creation and the analyses of work displayed, effectively caution the reader against an uncritical adherence to "cultural mixing and hybridity". Stallabrass is highly critical of conglomerates of art, especially installation and site-specific work, as mobilized for "regional or urban development". He aptly calls biennale curators "nomadic specialists" who perpetuate a false notion of diversity within the globalized art world. The author's intension here is expose biennales as often highly problematic shams, unworthy of the social and political caché typically ceded to them.
Next, Stallabrass takes on the issue of art's complicated relationship with commodity culture. In particular, he situates art production in relation to postmodern theory in the 1990s, technological changes of the decade such as the digitization of data and the increased power of branding. This topic leads nicely into a chapter on the uses and prices of art in which Stallabrass details the ebbs and flows of the international art market. His discussion of the corporate sponsorship of museums and other art exhibitions is especially good at conveying the difficult positions of many art institutions.
In the next to last chapter, Stallabrass writes "the rules of art now" by tracing the development of theory integrated well with examples of specific artists. He also compares and critiques the different routes U.S. art writers Arthur Danto, Thomas McEvilley, and Dave Hickey all take to concluding that the contemporary art world is "almost alright". Stallabrass ends his book with a summation of the contradictions in contemporary art.
The value of this book definitely lies in its usefulness as a primer and as a resource for understanding the theoretical and economic filtering mechanisms of the art world system. It is an impressive characterization of a period of contemporary art in the neoliberal terms of economic inequality, the politics of deregulation and privatization and the culture of unrestrained consumerism. Art Incorporated, while offering a bleak image of the international art world, also provides a vital template for the critical evaluation its future developments.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Art Incorporated by Julian Stallabrass, September 16, 2007
This review is from: Art Incorporated: The Story of Contemporary Art (Hardcover)
Julian Stallabrass tries to capture the art world from the advent of neoliberalism in the 1940's. Moving internationally, the art world is forced to embrace consumerist culture. Culture wars between the political right and the left, the merging of fine art and mass produced materials (that of kitsch), and the beginning of art forms such as installation art has all had profound effects on the movement of the art market.
Stallabrass approaches these issues very broadly and expects his audience to view it as an overview of topics to research more closely. Stallabrass jumps right in to relating artists to the art world but does not provide any foundation for what neoliberalism is in context to the globalized art market. I suggest to do some research first on that term. In short however, neoliberalism pertains to the privatization of the art market i.e .: the corporations. This foundation is free in some respects but the consumer and the artist always need to be thinking about who is funding them and therefore, censoring themselves. Stallabrass talks about privatization in length and stresses it's dismal effects in the art world.
One topic that worldwide privatization has affected is biennials. Reaching out to struggling countries runs the risk of being ill received such as in South Africa (38). Overall, the outreach into other countries pushes western ideals instead of embracing the culture of the land. This may just mean that these countries are not ready for an elitist cultural arena. The interesting aspect of this dialogue, however, was the idea that artists in struggling countries are dealing with issues that can jump through history. The extreme social differences in terms of wealth might very well produce some of the most interesting work. Instead of dealing with petty ironies and pure aesthetic conditions, the artist in a struggling country might have more to say.
Another effect of privatization was brought up describing Tracey Emin's work in chapter 4: uses and prices of art. Stallabrass compares her work to that of a robot that spits out predictable work.
"Such artists as brands are again allegorical figures that, like robots, deliver particular and predictable behavior along with other outputs (145)." Corporate sponsorship of exhibitions is a danger because it leads to less radical thought and content. If museums create themselves with restrictions including branding themselves in color, text, and style, the likelihood of the exhibitions to be extremely dry is much greater. Stallabrass also mentions Damien Hirst 'Absolut Hirst' add that backs up his claim that advertising and corporations might filter too much of the "art" out of the art (133).
Stallabrass's observations are sarcastic and quite apocalyptic. Free expression is a luxury from the past. It is impossible now to make artwork that is free from the burden of the art world. One can take talking points and further research from Stallabrass and choose whether or not to leave the doomsday feeling behind.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Zone of Freedom?, September 21, 2008
This review is from: Art Incorporated: The Story of Contemporary Art (Hardcover)
Julian Stallabrass's Art Incorporated: The story of Contemporary Art is audacious beginning with it's own subtitle. THE Story of Contemporary Art... and what a story it is. Leaping directly into the fire, Stallabrass ties the seemingly opposed forces of neo-liberal economics to the "Zone of Freedom" we assume the art world to be. Using the Jonathan Richman lyrics, "We gotta rock at the government center to make the secretaries feel better when they put the stamps on the letter..." to break the ice, Stallabrass argues that despite its revolutionary and humanist ideals art, like rock and roll, has been relegated to a commodity.
He asserts this through various lenses. Among them are analysis of international biennales and the effects of consumer culture on the arts.
Stallabrass contrasts the stated ambitions of international Biennales against their actual implementation. He runs through examples of curators boldly acknowledging that the biennales have been tailored to tourists specifically, exhibitions extolling "a glimpse of transnational utopia," yet excluding local artists in favor of established blue-chip art stars, and exhibitions where video and new media works cease to be maintained or projected after the global visitors fly home. This overwhelming set of observations leaves our "Zone of Freedom" in shambles. We are left with an art world in a new role internationally, "it's core function [is] as a propagandist of neoliberal values." (p.72)
He moves to addressing how consumer culture has affected art, particularly through artists' use of appropriating the presentational gestures of products and commodities. Warhol's Brillo boxes are an explicit example of this, but artists such as Takashi Murakami, Vanessa Beecroft and Sylvie Fleury have continued this trend. He observes, "Postmodern theory itself, as it moved from being an account of potential utopia or dystopia to being a flat description on an existing reality, lost its critical and ethical force." (p.78) Stallabrass points out the tenuous position artists operate from when choosing this tactic, "Such work is modest and weak if taken as critique, strong and strident if taken as celebration since after all... what is glossily and cannily produced is another set of commodities." (P.89)
Stallabrass concludes with a list of contradictions and artists who employ various strategies to undermine and assault the commodification of art. His examples are cursory, and a vast text could be dedicated to this subject. But his conclusion needs not be complete; it serves as an appendix to the books primary offering, awareness. Awareness of a system that would prefer our collective ignorance.
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