Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetics

Bill Beckley

oct 2001 · Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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The notion of beauty and its relationship to contemporary art is once again arousing passionate discussion and wide-spread debate among artists, writers, critics, and curators. Uncontrollable Beauty is the first anthology to capture this new wave of critical discourse, examining the role of beauty in twentieth-century art and culture in order to redefine it for a new generation of artists and writers. Encompassing three central themes: Theory, Ownership, and Practice, the thirty essays, writings, and poems explore how we define beauty, where we locate it in art, and its complex links to issues of gender, morality, and universalism. Included are works by John Ashbery, Agnes Martin, and Carter Ratcliff, as well as a conversation with Julia Kristeva and an exclusive interview with Louise Bourgeois. Anyone wanting to stay current with contemporary art criticism will find this book a stimulating selection of dialogue, debate, and philosophical insight. Contributors: John Ashbery; Louise Bourgeois; Hubert Damisch; Arthur Danto; Max Fierst; David Freedberg; Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe; John Hejduk; Dave Hickey; James Hillman; Ariane Lopez-Huici; Kenneth Koch; Julia Kristeva; Donald Kuspit; Jaqueline Lichtenstein; Agnes Martin; Thomas McEvilley; Robert Morgan; Frank O'Hara; Carter Ratcliff; William Rubin; Meyer Schapiro; Peter Schjeldahl; David Shapiro; Robert Farris Thompson; Kirk Varnedoe; Marjorie Welish; John Yau. Uncontrollable Beauty is co-published with the School of Visual Arts as part of the Aesthetics Today series.

Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Acerca del autor

Bill Beckley is an artist who has exhibited widely in America and Europe since l970. His works are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, and the Guggenheim in New York; The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He teaches semiotics and film at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and is the editor for the "Aesthetics Today" series from Allworth Press, which includes "Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime" by Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, "Redeeming Art and The Dialectic of Decadence" by Donald Kuspit, "Sculpture in the Age of Doubt" by Thomas McEvilley, and "Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art, 1965-1975" by Carter Ratcliff.