The Spirit of Secular Art (special offer)
Robert Nelson
Monash University ePress
ISBN:
9780980361605
Special price 20% discount (RRP $37.95)
The Spirit of Secular Art explains the spiritual prestige of art. Various theorists have discussed how art has an aura or indefinable magic. This book explains how, when and why it gained its spiritual properties. The idea that all art is somehow spiritual (even though not religious) is often assumed; but in the best texts, the fundamental supposition remains vague, woolly, sometimes uncritical and unsatisfying. This book, while narrating the historical trajectory of art in the most accessible language, reveals how the mysteries of religious practice are abstracted and saved through all stages of secularization in European culture. The Spirit of Secular Art presents a coherent theory defining the sacred basis of Western aesthetics. It evocatively describes the afterlife of the holy from Ancient Greece to the present, and outlines how the mysterious institution of art can be explained in material terms. Unlike other books in the genre The Spirit of Secular Art radically deconstructs traditional art history in terms of 'prestige' or the value of the non-material.
The book functions as:
- an alternative critical history of art, integrated with the histories of literature and belief;
- a philosophical essay on the fundamental values of art and religion;
- a critique of the spiritual conceits of contemporary aesthetics and art appreciation.
About the Author
Robert Nelson is Associate Dean in the Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University, Australia, where he lectures in art history and research methods. He is the author of many scholarly and polemical essays and reviews in journals such as Photofile and Artlink. He is also the art critic for The Age, a major Australian newspaper, and is the author of over 700 published newspaper articles. Robert Nelson is the author of The Visuality of Painting (forthcoming, IB Tauris). In 2000 he was the recipient of the national Pascal Prize, which recognizes the contribution of arts criticism to Australian culture.
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