Art Debate Research Articles

Expanding the Boundaries of Feminist Understanding of Art in the Posthumanist Era: Art and Care

In this article, the characteristics that make a work of art feminist in the posthumanist period will be analysed through artworks in which artists show a specific ort his both the materials of their medium and non-human living and non-living things. In addition, a discussion will be carried out about the fact that when the medium and the material become the work itself in a way that reveals different content and expression potentials, it can be characterised as feminist. This discussion will be addressed through the complex relationship between instrumental reason, which can be defined as the determination of the most effective and efficient means to sustain one’s life and for the benefit of one's material interests, and the concept of patriarchy, which expresses the domination of men over women in the axis of education, employment, domestic labour, wages and care. For this reason, firstly, the positions in feminist art debates, then the conditions of attribution of care to women and the struggles initiated against this, and finally the place of artworks that are shaped within the framework of feminism, care and notions of imagination and that are interested in revealing the autonomy of the material in posthumanism discussions will be explained.

‘Homegrown and national culture’: the cultural policies of Erdogan’s ‘New Turkey’

ABSTRACT The events that have happened since 2002, when the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power, contain rich research topics that need to be examined for many years by social scientists who work on Turkey. However, AKP’s cultural policies have not yet received sufficient attention in academic studies. The dissolution of the moderate atmosphere created by the EU accession negotiations and liberal policies in the early 2000s had a direct impact on AKP’s cultural policies in the 2010s. This article argues that the cultural policies implemented in the last decade, which I will define as yerli ve milli (homegrown and national) cultural policy, emerged intending to fill the cultural hegemony gap that manifested after the conservative art debates (2012), Gezi Park Protests (2013) and the termination of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process (2015). By analysing the formation and implementation levels of the yerli ve milli culture, the article shows that this unofficially implemented yerli ve milli cultural policy seeks to construct a neoliberal cultural space in which the Islamic elements are integrated into the traditional national cultural policies centred on Turkishness.

By the People, for the People: People’s Art Debates and the Rise of the Proletariat, 1916–1918

By the People, for the People: People’s Art Debates and the Rise of the Proletariat, 1916–1918

The Primacy of Form over Color: On the Discussion of Primary and Secondary Qualities in Herder’s Pygmalion

Abstract A key question in the art debate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was whether color should be used for sculpture. Recent archaeological research had shown that the sculpture in ancient Greece was polychrome, but skepticism about applying paint to one’s own work was widespread among modern sculptors. Some scholars explain this reluctance as a consequence of racial prejudice: the Greek athlete was an image of white Europeans. This article will try to show that a re-reading of Johann Gottfried Herder’s book on sculpture can give us a different and more probable explanation. Herder shared Roger de Piles’s view that the essence of sculpture was form, while color was most characteristic of painting. What set Herder apart from his predecessor, however, was his attempt to give the theory a scientific rationale. He found this in contemporary accounts of visually impaired persons’ relationship to the sensory world and not least in empiricist philosophy’s distinction between primary and secondary sensory properties.

Modernism/Murderism: The Modern Art Debate in Kumar

Modernism/Murderism: The Modern Art Debate in Kumar

Study on the Improvement of Debate Education in University Considering Prior Experience Before College

This research starts from recognizing the fact that a new direction is necessary in order to operate the basic liberal arts debate curriculum. The data has been empirically analyzed through online surveys - from January to February, 2021. 220 students used critical thinking skills in a debate class. Based on these findings, this research paper tries to discover areas for improvement when it comes to critical thinking in debate class. It does so by comparing the debate experiences of the students before and after they have engaged in debate education at university.</br/>The research shows that students thought that current critical thinking and debate class had educational effects to some degree, regardless of whether or not they had good or bad experiences with debating before entering university. Rather than merely acquiring knowledge, students wanted to develop capabilities like critical thinking, problem solving, and practical utilization through the debate class activities. Furthermore, we learned that the teaching materials need to be supplemented with practically available theory when teaching students real debate techniques.<br/>Thus, this research emphasized the fact that debate education should be connected with the education undertaken by the students before they entered university. Also, learner-centered competency training should be done in the classroom in order to move forward to practical education, which can be applicable to real life.

Architecture and Sites

Several contemporary architects have designed architectural objects that are closely linked to their particular sites. An in-depth study of the relevant relationship holding between those objects and their sites is, however, missing. This paper addresses the issue, arguing that those architectural objects are akin to works of site-specific art. In section (1), I introduce the topic of the paper. In section (2), I critically analyse the debate on the categorisation of artworks as site-specific. In section (3), I apply to architecture the lesson learned from the analysis of the art debate.

A “great priest of civilization”: Reinterpreting Victor Meirelles’ A Primeira Missa through newspapers

Using newspapers as primary sources, this article presents an innovative analysis of Victor Meirelles’ A primeira missa no Brasil (1860). Beyond canonical interpretations of Meirelles’ work as an erudite depiction of the beginning of Brazil’s history in 1500, the article demonstrates that for viewers of that time the painting also, and above all, represented the beginning of the history of Brazilian art in the 1800s. It demonstrates this by following general art debates in newspapers of the period, specifically in the years before and after the highly anticipated return of the young Meirelles from his European sabbatical. Debates in the press illustrate how Meirelles’ significance for nineteenth-century audiences in particular, and for Brazilian art history as whole, can only be fully decoded by situating the artist within Brazilian elites’ political-intellectual efforts to achieve European-style civilisational progress during the first decades of the post-independence period.

Must Interculturalists misrepresent multiculturalism?

Statements of and advocacy for interculturalism always seems to begin with a critique of multiculturalism and aspire to offer a new and alternative paradigm of diversity and citizenship. With particular reference to a recent publication, which marks the current state of the art debate between the two ‘isms’, I suggest that the critique is often not based on an engagement with multiculturalist authors but targets popular (mis)perceptions of multiculturalism. A consequence of this is that interculturalists fail to appreciate the limitations of their critique and of their claim to novelty. The newness of interculturalism may relate to the normative significance of the majority but less to intercultural dialogue or to an anti-essentialism. While interculturalism has a contribution to offer, eg, by a focus on micro-level interactions, on superdiversity and by challenging multiculturalists to think about the majority, it is best understood as a version of multiculturalism rather than as an alternative paradigm. Multiculturalism can benefit from the contribution of interculturalism but this may involve moderating interculturalist ideas so, for example, not abandoning an anti-essentialism that is consistent with the sociological reality of groups, or by taking on board the normative significance of the majority but without accepting the idea of a majority precedence. In this way what is of value in interculturalism can be taken on board within existing multiculturalist theoretical frameworks.

The art of design: Curriculum policy and the fine art vs. design debate at Michaelis School of Fine Art, 1925–1972

This article opens by questioning the narrowness of our modern usage of the term ‘art’, and the consequences for our understanding of the ‘art school’. It takes as its case study the curriculum policy of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art, from its inception up to 1972. Specifically, it examines the institution's longstanding resistance to the idea of a broad curriculum including a range of design subjects, closely allied to a school of architecture. This resistance is attributed to the widespread belief of the time that, outside of the ‘hard’ sciences, universities should not teach primarily vocational skills and that design belonged within the social and educational world of technical colleges instead. It is noted that Michaelis modeled itself for many years on the Slade School of Fine Art and that only one director, Rupert Shephard, seriously attempted to question this model. After Shephard's departure, it is argued, Michaelis reverted to a relatively narrow fine art curriculum, divorced from most aspects of design practice as well as from architecture—a curriculum which persists to the present day.

Cross-Species Comparison in the Evolutionary Study of Art: A Cognitive Approach to the Ape Art Debate

Aside from humans, artistic behavior has been attributed to species varying from bowerbirds to elephants. The most notable case are nonhuman primate species, and chimpanzees in particular. Some researchers have stated that the latter provide us with a window to the evolution of human art via the phylogenetic tree. However, little argumentation has been developed to substantiate these claims. This article undertakes a joint examination of empirical studies on ‘ape art’ and literature on human artistic cognition, with a focus on the capacities of intentionalist thinking, symbolism, and aesthetic sensitivity. Although aesthetic sensitivity turns out to be a potential parallel between human and nonhuman cognition with regard to art-making, little or no evidence surfaces to support the presence of intentionalist thinking and symbolic cognition among, for example, chimpanzees, in their response toward painting and drawing material. As a result, few reasons remain to consider chimpanzee painting and drawing as art. The evolutionary study of art is therefore unlikely to prosper much through primatology and comparative psychological analysis of humans and their primate cousins. Several implications of the present analysis are discussed.

A Sign of the Times: Sheila Hicks, the Fiber Arts Movement, and the Language of Liberation

The fiber arts movement as it developed in the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s has generally been explored as if it operated outside of the historical conditions that defined these years. Scholarship has by and large focused on the still ongoing debate over whether fiber art is more appropriately aligned with art than craft. This is certainly the case regarding the scholarship on Sheila Hicks (b. 1934), one of the most celebrated fiber artists and active during the time period under consideration here. However, an essay by art historian Whitney Chadwick in the 2010 retrospective's catalog, Sheila Hicks: 50 Years, provides a refreshing alternative to this reading of Hicks's work. The words of Chadwick are a call to historians of the fiber arts movement to move beyond the limited lens of analysis that has consistently positioned the movement within the fine art vs. craft debate. Building upon Chadwick's historical analysis, my own article considers Hicks's work through the lens of the language of liberation that defined the 1960s and 1970s. It aims to expand the discourse that has come to define the fiber arts movement through asserting the importance of historical conditions that were, and continue to be, integral to it.

The Commerce of Dance: A Postmodern Analysis of the Firm’s Role in Shaping Dance in Brisbane

Theatre dance (notably ballet) can be seen as part of the domain of high culture and the social elite. However, through a historical postmodern analysis of one major company's role (the Firm) in Brisbane (Australia) between 1926 and 1960, it becomes evident that the Firm, when faced with the commercial reality of running a theatre business, blurred social classes when it came to the promotion of theatre dance. The first part of this paper will provide the theoretical background of historiography, cultural theory, and notions of class, as well as the popular high art debate. The research method adopted will then be outlined before discussing the results. Through this postmodern analysis of what occurred in Brisbane, a greater appreciation of the influential link between commerce and dance is established. In particular, it will be argued that this commercial impact (or influential link) related to the major influence of the Firm in running a production company and the blurring of classes involved. It was this commercial link that was critical in the shaping of ballet in Brisbane as it occurred at a time prior to any systematic government support.

Archaeological art debates and Polynesian images in place

This essay addresses debates over the study of archaeological art objects. I review and recognise value in Gell's ideas about the social agency of art, Scott's challenge to consider local significance in evaluating ancient artistic expressions, and Meskell, Gosden et al. on notions of biography or life history as applied to cultural objects. In the last regard, it is recognised that many indigenous communities continue to care for and recreate ancestral images as culturally active productions at historical and more recent sites of significance. Taking this lead, I argue that the analysis of cultural historical space is critical to achieve a meaningful social understanding of archaeological images in place. I illustrate the point with reference to Polynesian studies involving historical and contemporary interpretations of erect archaeological images, including biologically and culturally live Moriori tree carvings on Rēkohu (Chatham Island).

Great art for everyone? Engagement and participation policy in the arts

New Labour began its administration with a commitment to bring democracy to culture. However, a decade later the Arts Council England (ACE)'s mission statement of “Great art for everyone” suggested a continued emphasis on access to mainstream culture rather than on cultural democracy. The argument in this paper is that Labour's vision has resulted in little change to the basis upon which arts institutions receive regular funding, or the social composition of those who participate in the arts in Britain today – who remain predominantly white and middle class. Public consultation through The arts debate provides evidence that the arts are still perceived as elitist, and policy too insular and self-reflective. The report clearly identified the public's desire for not only greater transparency in decision-making processes but also involvement in the decisions themselves, in order to democratise the arts. This paper draws on research investigating the extent to which participatory decision-making schemes affect cultural democracy and the subsequent impact on artistic policy and practice. In addition to documentary analysis, this study involved interviews with policymakers, practitioners and the public, focusing on two projects using participatory decision-making in England.

A Voluntary Medical Humanities Module in a Medical College in Western Nepal: Participant Feedback

Background : A pioneering, voluntary Medical Humanities (MH) module was conducted at the Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal using small-group interactive sessions, literature and art excerpts, case scenarios, role-plays, and debates. Description : Participant feedback was obtained using focus-group discussions and reflective writing assignments. Medicine and the Arts, Ethics and Medicine, and Social Issues in Medicine were the three main units. Students from the third, fifth, and sixth semester and “interested” faculty members participated. Evaluation : Learning the humanities had a number of advantages. Role-plays were an enjoyable and effective learning methodology. The module would be of help in individualizing treatment to specific patients. Other topics can be considered. Faculty and students learning together was an enjoyable experience. Conclusions : The participants enjoyed being a part of the module. More literature and art excerpts from Nepal and South Asia should be used. MH can help to orient practice in a Nepalese/South Asian sociocultural context.

Complexities, Discrepancies and Ambiguities: Assessing the disciplinarity of Herzog & de Meuron’s architecture through Judd’s generic art

Focusing on the 2002 architecture exhibition ‘Herzog & de Meuron: Archaeology of the Mind’, the paper examines the disciplinary issues at stake for Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron when engaging with art praxis, using the work of Donald Judd as a theoretical framework for the discussion. The trans-disciplinary practices of both Herzog & de Meuron and Judd had and continue to have the ability to question the disciplinary limits of architecture and the arts, and indeed, the presence of the modernist arrangement of disciplines as a whole. The paper argues that, through assessing Judd’s theoretical and practical position on disciplinary distinctions within the arts after the minimal art debates of the 1960s, it might be possible to more clearly understand what sort of conditions may have been inherited in some way by the twenty-first century and Herzog & de Meuron’s claim to conducting trans-disciplinary practices.

The Arts Council England's “Arts Debate”

This article examines the methodology and thinking behind Arts Council England's “Arts Debate”, a public value inquiry conducted from October 2006 to September 2007. It considers the ways in which methodology might have been shaped by the current discourse of public value, examines the different stages of the debate, and asks how the findings might inform future policy and research.

Understanding arts audiences: existing data and what it tells us

Increasing public engagement with the arts is a core part of Arts Council England's mission. It is also a key objective of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The need for evidence based policy in this area has led to the production of a number of new data sources, including the commissioning of the Taking Part survey, an in-depth survey of how people in England attend and participate in the arts, and the “arts debate”, a wide-reaching programme of qualitative research and consultation into people's attitudes to the arts and their funding. This article examines the benefits and pitfalls of the different kinds of data available, and what these new sources of evidence add to policy makers' understanding of how people engage with the arts in England. In particular, it explores how findings from the arts debate complement and build on the quantitative findings from Taking Part, and what implications this has for future research priorities.

Yes, there is a ‘shamanism and rock art debate’

This paper is a detailed response to a series of misrepresentations and mischaracterisations of our work by David Whitley (Before Farming 2006/4 article 7), a proponent of Lewis-Williams and Dowson's (1988) ‘Neuropsychological Model’ (NPM). We have been pointing out numerous flaws in this model since 2002 when we published a booklet outlining the many neuropsychological and shamanistic factual errors. Indeed, we responded to many of Whitley's points in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal (Helvenston & Bahn 2003, 2004), as we discuss herein. Unfortunately, none of the proponents of the model has ever addressed what we have actually written, a matter of public record: they have only quoted each other's egregious distortions of our work. Actually, it takes more words to correct distortions than it does to create them, thus we will discuss some of the errors that Whitley, as well as other proponents of the NPM have made in order to provide a context for our remarks. We also seek to correct the record by taki...