A Hunger for Aesthetics: Enacting the Demands of Art

271 Pages·2012·1.509 MB·English

by  Michael Kelly

PRAISE FOR A HUNGER FOR AESTHETICS
“In elegant and trenchant commentaries on influential twentieth-century art-
(CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP) ists, art movements, and art theories (ranging from John Dewey to Susan Sontag For decades, aesthetics has been subjected
and from Pop art to Doris Salcedo), Michael Kelly interrogates the ‘anti-aesthetic’ A A to a variety of critiques, often concerning
H
stance among certain artists and critics and in recent histories and philosophies H UN its treatment of beauty or the autonomy of
Salcedo’s enactments of suffering caused by of the arts, and reinvigorates the possibility of a robust critical aesthetics of art. U GE art. Collectively, these complaints have gen-
social injustice. Throughout A Hunger for Weaving careful attention to the aesthetic, social, and ethical claims of particular N R F
Aesthetics, he reveals the place of critique artworks with an investigation of a range of philosophical and critical responses G OR erated an anti-aesthetic stance prevalent in
in contemporary art, which, if we under- to them, Kelly shows that the very possibilities of art as critique and of the cri- E AE the contemporary art world. Yet if we ex-
R E ST amine the motivations for these critiques,
stand aesthetics as critique, confirms that it tique of art demand—even ‘hunger for’—an aesthetics that addresses the moral- N H
is integral to art. Meeting the demand for political stakes and limits of art. Kelly’s explication and defense of aesthetics as the F A ETI Michael Kelly argues, we find theorists and
O CS artists hungering for a new kind of aesthet-
aesthetics voiced by many who participate grounds of art critique—rather than inimical to it—will interest not only philoso- C
in art, Kelly advocates for a critical aesthet- phers of art and aestheticians of all stripes. In developing theoretical resources R T ics, one better calibrated to contemporary
ics that confirms the limitless power of art. to renew the relations between aesthetics and ethics, social theory, and political A IN art and its moral and political demands.
economy, it will command the close attention of curators, historians, sociologists, E G
S
and practitioners of the arts, especially those who have been tempted to abandon Following an analysis of the work of Stan-
T T
Michael Kelly is professor of philosophy at aesthetics.” H H ley Cavell, Arthur Danto, Umberto Eco, Su-
—whitney davis, university of california, berkeley E E san Sontag, and other philosophers of the
the University of North Carolina, Charlotte,
T
and has served as executive director of the I D 1960s who made aesthetics more respon-
“For artists, critics, theoreticians, and the like, this book is a call to engage with C
E sive to contemporary art, Kelly considers
American Philosophical Association and as philosophy’s numerous critical resources. Michael Kelly takes a significant first stab S M
managing editor of the Journal of Philoso- Sontag’s aesthetics in greater detail. In On
at healing the deleterious rift between philosophical aesthetics, on the one hand,
A Photography (1977), she argues that a pho-
phy. He is the author of Iconoclasm in Aes- and art, art criticism, art history, and ‘theory’ on the other. This is an ambitious
N tograph of a person who is suffering only
thetics and editor in chief of the Encyclo- and important book! No other work in the literature—art historical or philosophi- D
aestheticizes the suffering for the viewer’s
pedia of Aesthetics. He is also the editor of cal—makes such an attempt.” S
pleasure, yet she insists in Regarding the
three books: Critique and Power: Recasting —a. w. eaton, university of illinois at chicago KE O Pain of Others (2003) that such a photo-
the Foucault / Habermas Debate; Hermeneu- L
L F
tics and Critical Theory in Ethics and Politics; “Michael Kelly turns philosophy and art history toward the seriousness of aesthet- Y A graph can have a sustainable moral-politi-
and (with Daniel Herwitz) Action, Art, His- ics in the contemporary world by locating his argument in works of art by artists R cal effect precisely because of its aesthetics.
tory: Engagements with Arthur C. Danto. and in the views of critics who insist on the importance of ethics and politics. T Kelly considers this dramatic change to be

Rejecting the universalist claims of a generation of critics, Kelly offers aesthetics symptomatic of a cultural shift in our un-

as the ideal ground on which to build a critical thinking about the very complexi- C derstanding of aesthetics, ethics, and poli-
M
O
ties of art today. In his book, acute theoretical analyses of texts and works of art L tics. He discusses these issues in connection
U I
provide a historiographical argument for the power of aesthetic thinking in the M C with Gerhard Richter’s and Doris Salcedo’s
twenty-first century’s ever-widening world of art.” B H
I art, chosen because it is often identified
—catherine m. sousloff, university of british columbia A A
with the anti-aesthetic, even though it is
E
L clearly aesthetic. Focusing first on Richter’s
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A K Baader-Meinhof series, Kelly concludes with
Jacket image: Doris Salcedo, Noviembre 6 y 7 (2002). (Photo Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts
by Sergio Clavijo. © Doris Salcedo. Courtesy of Alexander E
and Bonin, New York) Columbia University Press / New York L
L
Jacket design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee cup.columbia.edu Y (CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP)
A Hunger for Aesthetics
Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts

A HU NGER
FOR AESTHETI CS
Enacting the Demands of Art
Michael Kelly
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2012 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Kelly, Michael
A hunger for aesthetics : enacting the demands of art / Michael Kelly.
pages cm. — (Columbia themes in philosophy,
social criticism, and the arts)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 231-1 5292- 1 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978- 0- 231-5 2678- 4 (e-book)
1. Aesthetics. I. Title.
N66.K42 2012
111'.85—dc23
2011047620
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable
acid- free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of
writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible
for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript
was prepared.
Annabel Manning and Sonia Kelly- Manning, my wife and daughter,
have enriched me daily for many years already, whether in a loft in
Manhattan, on a farm in Pennsylvania, or now in Charlotte. May
there be as many years ahead for our party of three.

But what role can the visual arts play in reexamining one of Amer-
ica’s greatest social failures [New Orleans after Katrina]? “Not
much” is the pessimistic conclusion I came to, followed by a close
examination of a line of thinking familiar to Blacks, as expressed
by my grandmother: “All you have to do in this world is stay Black
and die.” This phrase sums up multilayered experiences of suppres-
sion, resentment, and rage. I have asked the objects in this book to
do one more thing. Instead of sitting very still, “staying Black,” and
waiting to die, I have asked each one to take a step beyond its own
borders to connect a series of thoughts together related to fl uidity
and the failure of containment.
Kara Walker, After the Deluge

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Ac know ledg ments xxi
INTRODUCTION
The Dewey Effect 1
ONE
The Pop Effect 25
TWO
The Sontag Effect 56
THREE
The Richter Effect 84
FOUR
The Salcedo Effect 129
Notes 175
Index 225