Believing Is Seeing: Creating the Culture of Art (Paperback)

by Mary Anne Staniszewski (Author) "This is a book about Art, what is not Art, and how things come to have meaning and value..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is a look at the principles of art history. Working from the thesis that modernity is the culture that invented what art is, the author by means of the pictorial essay offers a cultural critique of the contemporary circumstances that have influenced our notions of what art actually is, how we attempt to value it, how we have come to make a business of it. Like film, photography and other forms of mass culture, the author studies how popular taste influences the aesthetic criteria that determine its worth.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140168249
• ISBN-13: 978-0140168242
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #185,050 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Counterpoint to Traditional Art History, August 1, 2000

By A Customer

Mary Anne Staniszewski's "Believing is Seeing" is a clearly written, carefully illustrated, thought provoking overview of the meaning of "Art". Distilled from introductory lectures on contemporary art, culture and critical theory delivered at the Rhode Island School of Design more than a decade ago, "Believing is Seeing" provides a useful counterpoint to mainstream art history texts by challenging traditional, transhistorical views of aesthetic value.

Appropriately subtitled "Creating the Culture of Art", Staniszewski's book demonstrates that Art is something "that has a specific history and belongs to a particular era." What our culture generally calls "Art" is an invention of the past two hundred years. Thus, modern culture has appropriated the paintings, frescoes, sculptures, and artifacts of earlier times and cultures (where they had historically specific meanings) and labelled them "Art". Modern culture applies this label even though the original creators of these representations and objects would not have regarded their creations as Art in the way we commonly use the term.

The task of defining and identifying Art in contemporary Western society is largely a function of the institutional structures--the museums, galleries, auction houses, and publications--that create the culture of Art. In this way, Marcel Duchamp can mount a urinal on a pedestal and this plumbing fixture becomes "Art", acquires meaning and value, through validation by these institutional arbiters of the Art world. Rejecting essentialism, Staniszewski argues that aesthetic value and meaning are socially constructed, the products of a particular historical moment and culture. As individuals, we may not consider Duchamp's urinal anything more than that--a urinal--but that does not obviate the fact that cultural institutions have conferred (rightly or wrongly) some greater meaning (and value) on the object.

"Believing is Seeing" is not an important book; it is a book which, like its thesis, is the product of a particular historical moment and culture. It is, however, full of provocative and challenging ideas about how culture creates meaning and value. And for this reason alone, it is worth careful reading.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Post-modernism finally nakes sense!, March 31, 1997

By A Customer

From Michelangelo to Madonna, when it comes to making sense of art, Staniszewski explains it all. Whether you are a student or just someone perplexed by the money, attitudes, or direction that the art world takes, I could not recommend a more readable yet comprehensive beginning. Over half of the well-designed book is a panorama of cleverly chosen pictures, but the text is a clear and simply put construction of contemporary ideas of art history. A term that is especially bandied about these days like a crowbar is post-modernism, but without much explanation. After reading this book, I am now a true believer (and hopefully a truer see-er). It has been hard to keep this book out of the hands of friends. I may have to order a case to give out as gifts!

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing take on Art, March 1, 2000

By A Customer

First of all, I find that most of the reviews of this book are one star because the readers didnt agree with Staniszewski's ideas, however they ignored how well written this book is. She takes the way we typically view "art" and shows us how fraudulent it is. In doing so she challenges not only are view of art, but also our view of the world around us. Even if you dont like her ideas its no reason not to acknowledge the intelligence with which she has written this book.