Balance: Art and Nature
John K. Grande

Revised Edition

Nature is the art of which we are a part. Believing that artistic expression can and does play an important role in changing the way we perceive our relation to the world we live in, art critic John K. Grande takes an in-depth look at the work of some very unusual environmental artists in the United States, in Canada, and in Europe. Dealing with everything from materials, to the politics of curatorship, the permanence of art works, to the artist's role as cultural critic, Balance: Art and Nature takes theory into action as it critically examines the works of Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Armand Vaillancourt, Bill Reid, Carl Beam, Kevin Kelly, Ana Mendieta, James Carl, Patrick Dougherty, Keith Haring, and others. What emerges is a viable social-environmental framework for evaluating contemporary art and insights into art's actual and potential roles.

"Grande's commentaries represent an important contribution to the theory of art." - Claude Lévi-Strauss

"Here is a call to reawaken creativity in this time of alienation." - Antony Gormley

"Encourages us to rethink what it means to be an artist in a time of global eco-crisis." - Suzi Gablik

"The Re-enchantment of Art Makes unexpected connections giving new insights into contemporary art." - Public Art Review

"Grande's book contains a lot of ideas, all of which are thought-provoking. - Globe and Mail Details makes this book convincing." - Books In Canada

"The book contains numerous apt illustrations...but its main virtue lies in Grande's visible determination to provoke and stimulate." - Canadian Forum

"Grande's ideas and style are fresh, sincere, intuitive, lively and compelling." - Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics

"Offers interesting parallels between different aspects of public art." - Espace Sculptur

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Part I
• 1. Waiting for a Cultural Break Between the Commercials
• 2. Like a Bird with No Feet
• 3. · Nature is the Art of which We Are a Part
• 4. EphemeralInspiration, Concrete History
• 5. Stolen Subjects and Exhausted Spirits: Appropriation without Representation
• 6. Duelling with Dualism: Descartes, Rodin, Picasso, Duchamp et al.
• 7. Maleness and Femaleness in Art
• 8. Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Integration
• 9. Outside, History, Inside, Nature
• Part II
• 10. Native Art is Contemporary Art
• 11. Prelude or Requiem?
• 12. Solid State Angels: Contemporary Japanese Sculpture
• 13. Anish Kapoor: Presence and Absence
• 14. Armand Vaillancourt The Eye and the Storm
• 15. James Carl's Euphemistic Reality
• 16. Bill Reid and the Spirit of the Haida Gawaii
• 17. Americanacirema The Other Side of the American Dream: Duane Hanson
• 18. Carl Beam: Dissolving Time
• 19. Dmitri Kam.inker's Mythical Menagerie
• 20. Antony Gormley: Being a Landscape
• 21. Which Public? Whose Art?
• 22. Earth Sensitive
• 23. Keith Haring: Day-Glo Environmental
• 24. Patrick Dougherty: Wildness Fits
• 25. The Nuclear Map
• 26. Transition(s)
• Index

274 pages

Balance: Art & Nature Retail Prices
Paperback:
9781551642345 $24.99
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