AshehougAgency

Art

Full title: Art - a liquidation of a concept

What does it mean that something is art? Is it at all possible to tell the difference between art and non-art today? Lars Svendsen attempts to answer these questions by presenting an introduction to the main characteristics of 20th century's art. In doing this, he focuses on the development - or rather the liquidation - of the concept art. From Plato's aesthetics to postmodernism, he writes about Marcel Duchamp, abstract expressionism and pop-art. Svendsen's aim is to draw our attention to the possibilites of art after the death of Great Art - and to explain why the question "What is interesting about this piece?" is a more constructive alternative than the much-discussed "Is this art?"

Translations: Danish (Klim, Århus)

First published: 2000, Universitetsforlaget

Lars Svendsen: Biography and bibliography