Aesthetic/Anti-Aesthetic: An Introduction

Abstract

The following cluster of essays addresses the contemporary art world's renewed engagement with aesthetics, a debate that emerged in the early 1990s and, as yet, shows little sign of abating. Three of the essays, by Alexander Alberro, Anna Dezeuze, and Margaret Iversen, are revised versions of papers from the “Aesthetic/Anti-Aesthetic” session organized by James Meyer and Toni Ross for the 2003 College Art Association annual conference. The contribution by Arthur Danto was developed for this issue. The aim of this effort has been to bring anti-aesthetic and aesthetic positions into closer proximity than has typically been the case. Our working assumption or hope is that the historical split between the aesthetic's focus on visual affect or pleasure and the critical or political aims of the anti-aesthetic may not be reconciled, perhaps, but calibrated in a less polarized way. We have sought out essays that forestall an automatic equation between aesthetics and conservative taste, or vested ideological interests, as well as the often unreflective appeals to visual pleasure so prominent in the recent beauty revivalism.