1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910777764503321

Autore

Mey Kerstin

Titolo

Art and obscenity / / Kerstin Mey

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London [England] : , : I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, , 2007

[London, England] : , : Bloomsbury Publishing, , 2019

ISBN

0-85773-278-1

0-7556-0418-0

0-85771-056-7

600-00-0962-3

1-4294-8000-9

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (193 p.)

Collana

Art and--

Disciplina

704.9/428

Soggetti

Art - Social aspects

Erotic art - Social aspects

Obscenity (Law)

History of art & design styles: from c 1900 -

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-176) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Chapter 1. 'I Know It When I See It' : On the definition and history of the category of the obscene -- Chapter 2. Transgressive Rituals -- Chapter 3. Abjection and Dis-ease -- Chapter 4. Violent Images : Aesthetic Simulations -- Chapter 5. 'Playing with the Dead' : The cadaver as fascinosum -- Chapter 6. Anti-Normative Acts : Radical liberation? -- Chapter 7. Obscenity and the Documentary Tradition -- Chapter 8. Recycled Fantasies : Obscenity between kitsch, convention and innovation -- Chapter 9. 'Know Thyself'? -- Chapter 10. Digital (Counter-)Currents -- Chapter 11. Cyber-(ob)scene -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

Explicit material is more widely available in the internet age than ever before, yet the concept of "obscenity" remains as difficult to pin down as it is to approach without bias: notions of what is "obscene" shift with societies' shifting mores, and our responses to explicit or disturbing material can be highly subjective. In this intelligent and sensitive book,



Kerstin Mey grapples with the work of twentieth century artists practising at the edges of acceptability, from Hans Bellmer through to Nobuyoshi Araki, from Robert Mapplethorpe to Annie Sprinkle, and from Hermann Nitsch to Paul McCarthy. Mey refuses sweeping statements and "kneejerk" responses, arguing with dexterity that some works, regardless of their "high art" context, remain deeply problematic, while others are both groundbreaking and liberating.