Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else
By David Balzer
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Now that we 'curate' even lunch, what happens to the role of the connoisseur in contemporary culture?
‘Curate’ is now a buzzword, applied to everything from music festivals to artisanal cheese. Inside the art world, the curator reigns supreme, acting as the face of high-profile group shows and biennials in a way that can eclipse and assimilate the contributions of individual artists. Curatorial-studies programs continue to grow, and the business world is adopting curation as a means of adding value to content. Everyone, it seems, is a curator.
But what is a curator, exactly? And what does the explosive popularity of curating say about our culture’s relationship with taste, labour and the avant-garde? In this vibrant, revelatory and original study, David Balzer travels through art history and around the globe to explore the cult of curation, from superstar curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s war with sleep to Subway’s ‘sandwich artists.’ Recalling such landmark works of cultural criticism as Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word and John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Curationism will change the way you look at art – and maybe even the way you see yourself.
‘This is an unusual art book. It is a book you should read and one that you can. Balzer traces the history and current hegemony of curationism, a practice of jumped-up interior decorators who double as priests explaining the gospel to the unlettered masses. A good read, if you don’t mind reading things that you don’t want to know.’
– Dave Hickey
David Balzer
David Balzer has contributed to publications including The Believer, Modern Painters, Artforum.com and The Globe and MailContrivances, a short-fiction collection. He is currently Associate Editor at Canadian Art magazine. Balzer was born in Winnipeg and currently resides in Toronto, where he makes a living as a critic, editor and teacher.
Related to Curationism
Related ebooks
Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis and Cultural Strategy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Essays on Modern Art: Cy Twombly - Criticisms and Essays on Previously Unseen Art in the Koolhaas Collection Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncommon Goods: Global Dimensions of the Readymade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThink Like an Artist: And Lead a More Creative, Productive Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Across the Art/Life Divide: Performance, Subjectivity, and Social Practice in Contemporary Art Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Honest Art Dictionary: A Jovial Trip Through Art Jargon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArtificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/59.5 Theses on Art and Class Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Experimenters: Chance and Design at Black Mountain College Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDuchamp and the Aesthetics of Chance: Art as Experiment Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Emancipated Spectator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988–2018 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Do Artists Know? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPost-Specimen Encounters Between Art, Science and Curating: Rethinking Art Practice and Objecthood through Scientific Collections Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ways of Curating Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Do Things with Art: The Meaning of Art's Performativity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making Is Thinking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTalking Art: The Culture of Practice & the Practice of Culture in MFA Education Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes on Participatory Art: Toward a Manifesto Differentiating It from Open Work, Interactive Art and Relational Art. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnexpected Art: Serendipitous Installations, Site-Specific Works, and Surprising Interventions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brave New Avant Garde: Essays on Contemporary Art and Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Global Work of Art: World's Fairs, Biennials, and the Aesthetics of Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting about Visual Art Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Form and Sense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Art For You
Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art 101: From Vincent van Gogh to Andy Warhol, Key People, Ideas, and Moments in the History of Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And The Mountains Echoed Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Botanical Drawing: A Step-By-Step Guide to Drawing Flowers, Vegetables, Fruit and Other Plant Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Draw Like an Artist: 100 Flowers and Plants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Electric State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Drawing School: Fundamentals for the Beginner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not My Father's Son: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Draw and Paint Anatomy, All New 2nd Edition: Creating Lifelike Humans and Realistic Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Designer's Dictionary of Color Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Drawing and Sketching Portraits: How to Draw Realistic Faces for Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Creature Garden: An Illustrator's Guide to Beautiful Beasts & Fictional Fauna Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Curationism
3 ratings0 reviews