Art World Research Articles

The New Media Art world in Turkey: Boundary-work in action

In an age marked by the Post-media condition, the term ‘New Media Art’ remains in use in reference to a professional territory not autonomous, but also different from the territory of Contemporary Art, and its members use various rhetorical tactics to maintain and expand their professional authority. This study aims at analyzing the professional ideology of the New Media Art territory in Turkey using Thomas F. Gieryn’s concept of the ‘boundary-work’. The data obtained via semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with a purposively sampled population of artists, curators and producers are used to assess whether a common cultural repertoire exists in this territory and whether it conforms to or contradicts its global counterpart. The study finds that since the mid-1990s, the professional ideology of the New Media Art territory in Turkey has developed in parallel with the world, but not monolithically. The curators/producers’ ideology is defined by potential for democratization, intersections of art, science and technology, interaction/interactivity and interdisciplinary collaboration. However, they exhibit two repertoire variants positively correlated with the subjects’ career orientations. The artists’ common ideology is similar to the curators’/producers’, but their cultural repertoires are more flexible thanks to the variety of their individual practices. The study concludes that this duality emerges due to the limited funding sources in Turkey.

The House of Fragile Things: Jewish Collectors and the Fall of France, written by James McAuley Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern, written by Charles Dellheim

The House of Fragile Things: Jewish Collectors and the Fall of France, written by James McAuley Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern, written by Charles Dellheim

The elegance of lacquer: Unveiling traditional lacquer techniques in East Asia

This research delves into the intricate world of lacquer art in East Asia, aiming to unravel the relationships among artisan perspectives, aesthetic values, and the contemporary relevance of this ancient craft. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive understanding of how historical development, apprenticeship traditions, and evolving aesthetic values shape the intricate landscape of lacquer artistry. Employing a qualitative approach, this study conducts in-depth interviews with artisans and experts in the field of lacquer art. The research involves a comparative analysis of past literature, drawing upon historical and contemporary works to contextualize the findings within the broader trajectory of lacquer art. Thematic analysis is also applied to unravel the nuances of artisan perspectives, the transmission of knowledge through apprenticeship traditions, and the cultural and aesthetic dimensions embedded in lacquer paintings. This mixed-methods approach enriches the study by providing a holistic and nuanced exploration of the identified variables. The findings illuminate the enduring significance of apprenticeship traditions in preserving traditional lacquer techniques, with artisans actively navigating challenges posed by globalization and digital platforms. Aesthetic values, including symbolism and visual harmony, are revealed as integral components contributing to the narrative richness of lacquer paintings. The study uncovers the dynamic relationships among these variables, emphasizing the adaptive nature of lacquer art in a contemporary context. The implications extend to cultural preservation, heritage management, and educational initiatives, offering valuable insights for practitioners, policymakers, and educators involved in the realm of traditional crafts. The study contributes to theoretical frameworks on cultural continuity, knowledge transmission, and the socio-cultural dynamics of artistic practices.

Are holograms sculpture, or is that pile of Cola cans really art?

AbstractThis article delves into the question of what constitutes art in public and discusses the changes in the art world. Although realism has gained popularity in public spaces for a long time, critics are emerging regarding the subject of art figures. Given the rapid technological advancement, various forms of art, including AI‐programmed ones, are coming into being. The example of holography is achieving what is beyond the limits of realism. Artists have been using AI to program public installations, and the trend of using data to create sculptures has been growing, particularly among younger artists. Still, one basic question is whether the new techniques, if that is the applicable term, deserve to be included in the art panoply. The other question concerns the subjects. Using examples of artworks by famous figures including Refik Anadol, Andrew Lacey, Simon Verity, Liza Lou, Kara Walker, and Scott Burton, this discussion paper contributes to the debate on the expression of diverse art forms and how public perceptions change over time.

Aestheticism in John Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn

This paper analyzes the aesthetic elements in Keats’s creative ideas by close reading to his Ode on a Grecian Urn. It is suggested that there exists a correlation between Keats’s and Wilde’s aesthetic ideas. First, both of them emphasize the effect of imagination on art; second, they separate the world of art and that of reality, confirming the autonomy and utilitarian of art; last, they both regard art as a static aesthetic activity, holding that the artist’s attitude toward everything in reality is a neutral one, and look upon the world with an artistic vision.

A critique of the ecological art research in China

Ecological art represents a novel artistic genre that melds the realms of creative expression with environmental conservation, reflecting the contemporary art world’s focus and allure towards the natural environment. Nowadays, scholarly inquiry into ecological art within China is predominantly categorized into four domains: educational practices in ecological art, aesthetics in ecological art, the innovation and utilization of ecological art forms, and interdisciplinary studies within ecological art. Within these areas, research in ecological art education accentuates the pedagogical approaches to artistic innovation and education.

Implementation of Saving Function as the Main Function in Activities of European Visual Arts Museums during World War Two

The purpose of the article is to research the saving function implemented by the personnels of the visual arts museums during the Second World War on the territory of Ukraine and of the Western European countries, research the actions of the museum workers seen as sociocultural projects from a scientific point of view. The research methodology lies in the application of historical methods due to which the origin and the development of historical processes and events are being explored in their chronological order with the scope of finding out the historical connections and patterns by means of a modern analysis of how the museum workers fulfilled their positions' tasks during the war. Empirical and theoretical methods are being used. Such methodological research allows the explorers to analyse the ways of the task fulfilment aimed at saving as the main function of all the activities carried out by European art museums during the wars in the twentieth century. The scientific novelty is in a new generalising scientific view on the fulfilment of their positions' tasks by museum workers and military men of a specially founded unit whose goal was to save the museum objects of the world's art heritage under the threat of illegal deeds of the aggressor country. Conclusions. The sociocultural planning of the activities of the European museums' workers used the stereotyped marketing methods aimed at the implementation of saving as the main function. It is necessary to point out that, due to full-scale hostilities on the European territory, the priority function the museums workers wanted to implement was saving and evacuation of museum collections from the hostilities area, as well as conservation works. After the evacuation and restoration in a safe area, the museum personnels, when it was possible, focused their attention on the function of the art works' exhibition.

“Open the world of art to residents and guests of the city” about the artistic work of N. I. Verkhoturov in the Irkutsk province at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries

“Open the world of art to residents and guests of the city” about the artistic work of N. I. Verkhoturov in the Irkutsk province at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries

From here to eternity: The rise and fall of global art worlds and the contemporary private museum

The process of converting a private collection into a public museum is often presented as a means of ensuring a collection’s future by transforming it into an enduring asset for future generations. This case study assesses contemporary collection models as well as entrepreneurial investor-collectors and their respective museum-building strategies by addressing two fundamental questions: (1) What is the role of the contemporary art collector and private museum and (2) How do their interactions with art markets challenge the established protocols and hierarchies of the global art network? It shall be argued that private collection museums often have a limited lifespan. Furthermore, the future of private collections and museums is often determined within the lifetimes of their creators. This can play out in one of four ways: first, collectors may offer artworks at high-profile auction houses; second, they may sell the art collection and close the museum or collector’s exhibition space; third, they may sell the museum or exhibition space. Alternatively, private collectors, along with their museums and art collections, can play an important role on the global stage. However, more rigorous planning is necessary for these collectors to distinguish themselves, expand the cultural landscape, and ensure their collections endure within or beyond their creators’ lifetime.

Art Market as a Factor in Shaping the Artistic Environment of Ukraine: Institutional Foundations and Development Prospects

The purpose of the article. The article is devoted to the influence of the leading persons and institutions of the Ukrainian art market on the formation of the circle of the most famous figures in the artistic environment, the dominant trends in the artistic life of the country, the tastes of the public, as well as the growing influence of representatives of the art business on the activities of state institutions in the field of culture. The methodology of the work is based on the application of methods of observation, analysis and generalisation, as well as the structural-functional method, considering the art market and the artistic environment as closely related social phenomena. A sociological approach to art as a collective activity is applied, in which not only artists are involved, but a large network of other participants in cultural life and the art market. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the study of the role of local art business in shaping the structure of the contemporary artistic environment of Ukraine. For the first time, the question of how decisive is the influence of the participants of the Ukrainian art market (primarily – art dealers, collectors and institutions related to them) on the formation of a certain hierarchical ranking of artists in the Ukrainian art environment on representatives of the mainstream and the rest of other, less well-known figures was highlighted, a significant part of which is, so to speak, on the periphery of cultural life; the impact of the art market on public tastes and the activities of state bodies in the field of culture is also outlined. Until now, the topic of close interdependence of the art world and the art market has been avoided in the Ukrainian art history discourse. Conclusions. The art market selects artists who become the most famous figures in Ukrainian artistic life and get the opportunity to represent the country at the international level. The art market shapes public tastes; the most successful participants of the art market (primarily art dealers and collectors) seek to participate in the formation of state cultural policy by integrating into state institutions. In accordance with world trends, the private sector will gain more and more influence in the modern cultural life of the country, which will have both a number of advantages for the development of the Ukrainian art market and artistic life, as well as certain, potentially possible, disadvantages.

‘Martenaut Waves’ in the Music of the French Avant-Garde Cinematographer of the First Half of the 20th Century (on the example of the creativity of A. Honegger)

The purpose of the study is to reveal the figurative, semantic and symbolic specificity of the interpretation of the timbre of "Martenaut waves" in the music of the French avant-garde cinematography of the first half of the 20th century, including in the work of A. Honegger. Research methodology. Cultural-historical, interdisciplinary historical-cultural, as well as analytical-musicological methods were essential for this work. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it introduces for the first time into the circulation of art historians the materials related to the film music of A. Honegger and its timbral specificity, marked by an appeal to the semantic and expressive features of the "Martenaut waves". Conclusions. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as a result of rapid scientific and technical progress, cinematography came to the forefront of world art. The unity of cinematography as a synthetic art and music is strengthened by the emergence of sound cinema in 1926-1927, in which music is recorded on the same film as the image. The use of electric musical instruments, including "Martenaut waves", becomes organic in this process. Thanks to their unusual timbre, they acquired the meaningful status of the embodiment of "the materialisation of the intangible." The world of hallucinations and dreams, mystical spiritual revelations and unusual natural phenomena – such was the range of images that were conveyed with the help of this instrument in French film music of the 1930s and 1940s. A. Honegger worked most fruitfully in this field during the mentioned period, whose creative output includes more than forty soundtracks, including those using "Martenaut waves". One of the first films in which the expressive timbre of this instrument is used was the science fiction film "The End of the World" (1931) directed by A. Gans, as well as the animated film "Idea" (1934) directed by B. Bartosh and artist F. Mazerel. In the musical accompaniment of these films, the timbre of the "Martenaut waves" occupies almost the most important place, revealing the connection of the instrument with the sphere of the Sacred and the Cosmic and the spiritual and stylistic searches of European modern culture.

ОППОЗИЦИЯ «ВЕРХ – НИЗ» В РАННЕЙ ЛИРИКЕ К. Д. БАЛЬМОНТА

The article is devoted to the study of the specifics of the artistic world of K. D. Balmont as a secondary reality that projects the author’s worldview and value system. In the course of the study, the implementation of the mental opposition “top — bottom” is considered as the construction of an axiological vertical that determines the nature of the artistic space in general and its main varieties (real, astronomical, oneiric, mythological, folklore and syncretic) in particular. The symbolism of the “top” appears in the early lyrics of K. D. Balmont not only as a spatial, but also as a value guideline, reflecting the lyrical subject’s desire for higher truths and understanding of the integrity of the universe. “Bottom” is associated with a gloomy “wordlessness” and generates a desire to change space. At the same time, the author’s model of the world, which includes “upper” and “lower” spaces, is a dynamic system within which their confrontation occurs. The intentions of the “bottom” tend to spread to the world of the “top,” however, the axiological comprehensiveness of the latter, overcoming the opposition “temporary — eternal,” makes it possible to draw a conclusion about the author’s ideological attitudes. The spatial vertical is explicated through images of human habitation, plains, forests, swamps, on the one hand, and the sky, mountain and tree peaks, moon and sun, on the other, as well as solar and lunar rays connecting the “poles” of the poet’s artistic world.

Transnationality and stylistic ideology in semi-cubist Finnish art between 1914 and 1923

The article focuses on the changes in Finnish modern art and artistic discourse caused by World War I and Finnish Independence in 1917–1918. World War I changed artistic networks radically, because travel to France was no more possible, and Independence of Finland changed the art world with the ideas of national modernism. These changes centred in Finland around the role of cubism – seen as a logical continuation of Paul Cézanne’s art – and were expressed in both formal language and artistic discourse. Questions of “primitive” in art and its connection to cubism and to what is national in art were also essential in defining Finnish modernism and avant-garde in around 1917–1920. There was small exhibition of French cubism in Helsinki in 1915, but otherwise knowledge of cubism came via second-hand sources, such as lectures, art magazines and Der Sturm Gallery’s exhibitions. Norwegian art historian Jens Thiis had a strong impact on notions of cubism in Finland. It is in my interest to show that there were transnational connections between Scandinavia, Russia and Finland, and also more or less between Finland and oth- er “new states”, which were born after Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian empires collapsed. These connections can be seen in formal elements and iconography of kind of cubo-expressionism, which was a kind of fusion of cubist structuralism and expressionist emotion. This “semi-cubism” seemed to serve as stylistic ideology or ideological tool for those who had thoughts of national modernism in countries like Poland (formists), Latvia (artists like Jēkabs Kazaks), Estonia (artists like Jaan Vahtra and Märt Laarman) and Finland (art of the so called November Group). It is obvious that artists in Finland were not conscious of what happened on the southern side of the Baltic Sea, but there are so many parallels which were born by shared general views of the role of new art, that it is possible to see not only France, Norway or Russia, but also Poland, Latvia and Estonia as artistically close to Finland, when one tries to map the topography of Finnish semi-cubism in late 1910s and early 1920s.

Interplay of art and faith in women’s communities: Developing a heightened awareness of research perspectives and evolving methodologies

The Lost and Found: Revising Art Stories in Search of Potential Changes marked the inaugural conference of a collaborative initiative between the University of Wroclaw, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and the Polish Institute for World Art Studies in Warsaw. This unique meeting brought together university researchers and artists, creating a stimulating atmosphere. The collaborative artistic endeavours undertaken aimed to build community and explore alternative knowledge production rooted in affectivity and openness to surprise, rather than an immediate quest for success. The focus was on a shared experience of being together and learning about each other’s roles beyond the conventional boundaries of scholars and artists. At the heart of the conference was the project Residua of Pre-Modern Relations with Art in Selected Contemporary Convents in Lesser Poland and Lower Silesia, supported by the National Science Centre in Warsaw. Although the residues and anachronisms discussed during the meeting did not explicitly refer to religious orders, they provided insights into the significance of faith and the evolving nature of the sacred in contemporary art. The project’s premise challenged the distinction between the religious and the spiritual, emphasizing the roles of community, respect, and care. It was hypothesized that female religious orders maintain these values in relation to the place of art in everyday life. Consequently, if an art historian wishes to study the relationship between women’s art and the sacred in everyday life, they should learn from nuns and female artists, not merely study them.

Immersive and virtual exhibitions: A reflection on… art?

This paper explores the conceptualization and evolution of virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences, highlighting their distinctions and similarities. Virtual exhibitions, conducted online or through digital media, offer a platform for showcasing artworks to a global audience without physical constraints. They employ multimedia elements to engage viewers and provide flexibility in exploration. Conversely, immersive art experiences create environments that envelop the viewer, stimulating multiple senses and often incorporating advanced technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality. These experiences aim to evoke emotional responses and facilitate active engagement with the artwork. While proponents argue that virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences democratize access to art and offer new avenues for artistic expression, critics have raised concerns about their impact on authenticity, viewer engagement, and art commercialization. Philosophical and cultural perspectives, including phenomenology and postmodern theory, shed light on the complexities of these art forms and their relationship with reality and simulation. This paper, further, examines the social and business implications of virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences, noting their growing popularity and influence on the art market. It discusses the viewpoints of artists, critics, and scholars, both supportive and critical, regarding technology’s role in art and its effects on the viewer’s experience. Virtual exhibitions and immersive art experiences represent an evolving landscape in the art world, offering opportunities for innovation and debate. Their impact on the perception and consumption of art remains a subject of ongoing discussion. The paper concludes with a review of successful virtual exhibitions, highlighting their role in expanding access to art and cultural experiences globally.

NFT: An Episode in Digital Arts

The development of digital art has been marked by numerous transformative phases, with the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) representing a pivotal moment in its evolution. This paper posits that the ascent of NFT art is closely linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which catalyzed a shift towards digital mediums and redefined the relationship between art and technology. NFTs not only revolutionized the creation, distribution, and monetization of digital art by embedding databases and data archives into the artwork itself, but they also challenged traditional notions of ownership and value in the art world. This study examines how NFTs altered the perception of digital art, particularly during the pandemic, and investigates the factors contributing to the subsequent decline in their prominence after the initial surge of interest.

Martha Argerich and the Queer Histories of Feminine Pianism

Charges of eccentricity have long clung to the Argentine pianist Martha Argerich. Flouting many of the conventions governing classical performance, Argerich has openly resisted professional and identitarian confinement, admitting that she “[doesn’t] want to be a pianist” and has never “felt like a woman.” Indeed, reviews of her performances are littered with impressions of disorientation attributed to the subtleties of her gendered transgressions coupled with her corporeal stillness in performance. This fixation on stillness invokes a history traceable to eighteenth-century music criticism, wherein descriptions of stillness policed the borders of palatable gender expression. This phenomenon of stillness would come to condition the figure of the “virtuosa” and, persisting into the twentieth century, complicates prevailing narratives centering the great men of piano performance history. This article takes Argerich’s performances as invitations to look back toward the tradition of feminine virtuosity to which she belongs, while exploring the ways in which she challenges its gendered limitations. I argue that the tensions underpinning her self-professed gender ambivalence and professional dissatisfaction are enacted through the virtuosic choreography she fashions in performance—a choreography that both reinscribes and traverses the borders of feminine virtuosity. I thus read her performances as queer enactments of her gender disidentification. I then turn toward Argerich’s world of artists misaligned with the demands of classical performance. Her commune has provided refuge not only for this community of outcasts but also for those who have never shared a space with Argerich, yet nonetheless stumble upon the traces of her aberrant desires.

Fair Games—Curating New Music

The authors of “Defragmentation: Curating Contemporary Music,” a special issue of the Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik published in 2019, considered all aspects of any given artistic event as fair game for curation. They suggested that not only could the choice of pieces, soloists, conductors, and ensembles be (re)tooled (including even site-specific aspects), but the roles of the musicians and audience and even value regimes could be instrumentalized to accord with the artistic demands of the curator. In her introduction to the special issue, Dorothee Richter argued that curation should be a “practice that is deeply involved in the politics of display, politics of site, politics of transfer and translation, and regimes of visibility.” If we understand politics with Jacques Rancière as “giving form to the social,” then Richter suggests that every thinkable manner in which people relate can, and should, be weighed when programming a concert. Curators need to reflect and act upon the way relationships in our world are displayed, the interplay involved on site, the participation or lack thereof of an audience, the participants’ ability to understand, enjoy, and be entertained, and even the audience’s and presenter’s perceived positions in society and how they play out in concert. Writing as a performer-researcher, a cultural-sociologist, and a musicologist, and drawing on previous research in the visual arts, we discuss the impact of the curator within the European new music world. We question the curator’s central role and probe shifts in power relations between festival directors, receptive venues, and performing ensembles. In our view, the rise of the curator in the new music world leads us in at least two distinct directions. First, as in the visual arts world, the individual curator may assume the role of the new protagonist, displacing the performing artists from their throne. When this occurs, curating takes place in a game of mutual competition, distinction, and exploitation, in which illustration of an abstract idea or concept prevails over musical experience. Alternatively, curating may become a collective affair and responsibility along the lines of commoning principles, in which curating returns to its etymological roots as a form of caring for each other and for both the tradition and the future of music.

Visibility in the Italian Art World: How Far Along We Are

Even though the concept of “nationality” when we talk about an internationally acclaimed artists is more and more blurred and has little to do with the importance of the artworks, it is evident how small the Italian art presence in great international art manifestations is, sometimes almost negligible. It is then necessary to understand the causes of this situation, to draw a map of the current state of the contemporary Italian scene and state some resolutions from it. The first 2022 Report “How (well) known is Italian art abroad?” by BBS-Lombard Benefit Corporation, together with Arte Generali has investigated how much Italian contemporary artists are (in)visible in the international art market, laying the groundwork for a much more in-depth research of the art system, with the ultimate purpose of giving new solutions to overcome this situation, wandering whether Italian art has a business model with (still) some gray areas - unlike almost all other product sectors – and how building an economy to bridge the gap, having a market strategy and being attractive in the international positioning can be a strategic move. The study was conducted carrying out both qualitative and quantitative analysis throughout more than 20 interviews to Italian curators internationally known that have helped us understand causes, strengths and weaknesses of the Italian art system and a big data collection about the presence of Italian artist in international museums, art manifestations, biennials, such as Biennale di Venezia and documenta, international art galleries and auctions. The global media coverage of Italian artists was analyzed with the help of Artiker and through the artificial intelligence of Wondeur AI, partner of Arte Generali, it was possible to analyze the relationship between art development and cities, considering the city’s overall success rate (percentages of artists showing growth in the city) and the city’s risk propensity (ability to attract artists). The instrument of the Italian Council was also studied, the main MIC project (Italian Ministry for Culture) in support of Italian art and the initiatives of Italian cultural institutes abroad. From the overall analysis some relevant names have emerged: Francesco Vezzoli, Monica Bonvicini, Enrico David, Paola Pivi, Tatiana Trouvè, Roberto Cuoghi, Rosa Barba, Massimiliano Cattelan (above all) and a few others, all united by a time of study or work abroad which allowed them to create valuable relationships with curators, galleries and museums abroad.

Palimpsestuous Fragmentation in James Cahill’s Tiepolo Blue

ABSTRACT This paper delves into James Cahill’s debut novel, Tiepolo Blue (2022), as an updating of postmodern gay novels like Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker-Prize winner The Line of Beauty (2004). To prove the postness of Tiepolo Blue, some aspects will be addressed. First of all, the novel revises the relation between ethics and aesthetics, for Don, the protagonist, is able to overcome the aporia that blocks many of Hollinghurst’s main characters. In this sense, Kristeva’s concept of the abject is meaningful because Don shifts from the horror of encountering an “abject” piece of art to embracing the Dionysian. Likewise, the article moves from postmodernist intertextuality. For Dillon, the palimpsest is a relational event that conjures up former and new texts on a palimpsestuous surface. Pentimenti, a similar concept referring to the different layers on canvas, are also addressed as long as Tiepolo Blue is set in the world of art. In this conflict between the surface and the subterranean of palimpsests and pentimenti, the protagonist eventually chooses the underworld. This he does by rearranging his aesthetic assumptions and welcoming a fragmented version of art. In this process of middle-age awakening, he loiters London and its layers in a Felliniesque fashion.