Description for Art and Agency
Paperback. Completed just before Alfred Gell's death in January 1997, this book embodies the characteristics for which he was admired. The book aims to challenge the basis of the way art has been viewed in the human sciences. It presents a fundamental theory for an anthropology of art. Num Pages: 296 pages, numerous black and white halftones and line drawings. BIC Classification: ABA; HPN; JFC; JHM. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 233 x 157 x 16. Weight in Grams: 460.
Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns ... Read more
Alfred Gell puts forward a new anthropological theory of visual art, seen as a form of instrumental action: the making of things as a means of influencing the thoughts and actions of others. He argues that existing anthropological and aesthetic theories take an overwhelmingly passive point of view, and questions the criteria that accord art status only to a certain class of objects and not to others. The anthropology of art is here reformulated as the anthropology of a category of action: Gell shows how art objects embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency. He explores the psychology of patterns ... Read more
Product Details
Publisher
Oxford University Press United Kingdom
Number of pages
296
Format
Paperback
Publication date
1998
Condition
New
Number of Pages
296
Place of Publication
Oxford, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780198280149
SKU
V9780198280149
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-3
Reviews for Art and Agency
This book changes the very basis of the way art has been viewed in the human sciences. It presents what is the first fundamental theory for an anthropology of art. Its publication is a major event.
Maurice Bloch, FBA, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics.
This is a remarkable work ... witty, elegant, broad in its compass ... Read more
Maurice Bloch, FBA, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics.
This is a remarkable work ... witty, elegant, broad in its compass ... Read more