Visual Shock

A History of Art Controversies in American Culture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10023947
AutoresHarriet F Senie (City University of New York, autor de correspondencia), Michael Kammen
Año2009
Volumen96
Número1
Páginas205-205
Fecha de publicación2009-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of American History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/27694774
OpenAlexW4301516738
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2

Michael Kammen's purpose in this ambitious book is to “indicat[e] the nature, diversity, and persistence of major disputes generated by art since the 1830s, but also to reveal what has changed and why” (p. xvi). Organized “topically within a chronological framework,” the chapters alternate focus among art forms, controversial subjects, problematic styles, and changing museum paradigms (p. xxvi). Sequentially, Kammen addresses memorials; nudity; problems prompted by modernist styles; murals; ideological issues; the 1960s; controversies prompted by large-scale public sculpture; the transformation of the art museum; diversity and inclusion; and a comparison of U.S. and European controversies. Without question Kammen demonstrates that art controversies have always been a part of our culture. Kammen's key themes are the struggle to define a distinctively American art; the evolving “role and expectations for art in a democratic society”; the expanded and increasingly inclusive nature of controversy; and the question of whether controversy is necessarily a negative condition (pp. xi–xii). Given the shifting focus of the chapters and the multitude of examples in each, it is hard to track themes and judge their relative significance. A chronological history arranged according to themes, such as problematic stylistic issues (say, classicism, modernism, distinctly “American” characteristics); controversial subjects (the nation, the body); and contentious issues (public funding, freedom of speech), might have worked better

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Democracy · Diversity (politics · Ideology · Modernism (music · Multitude · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Sculpture · Sociology · Visual arts · Visual culture · Anthropology · History · Law · Visual Culture and Art Theory