Amongst pioneering rethink of the art history-culture status quo, Gilane’s writings illuminate the struggle to forge conceptual tackle for today’s diverse art world and cultural difference – critical voicing that emerges less from theorising than from “thinking through art practices”.

Sarat Maharaj, Professor of Visual Arts and Knowledge Systems, Malmö Art Academy, Lund University, Sweden

Based on the author’s profound knowledge of the global contemporary art scene … this book provides a new art historical narrative, one that is more global, more inclusive and nuanced … A must read for students of contemporary art and visual culture, race, and the postcolonial body.

Salah M Hassan, Goldwin Smith Professor, Cornell University, USA

Richly illustrated, Gilane Tawadros’ beautifully observed book is a timely and prescient account of how representation remains a pivotal question for artists and society at large. Peppered with many delightful intercultural and intertextual references, <i>The Sphinx </i><i>Contemplating Napoleon</i> is a must read in our de-colonising times.

Sonia Boyce, artist and Professor of Black Art and Design, University of the Arts London, UK

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<i>The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon: Global Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Difference </i>strikes a balance between seeing contemporary art on its own terms and understanding art within the terms set forth for it. When the latter is at odds with the former, Gilane Tawadros makes her greatest observations in a set of clear and evocative essays on a range of artists. All are superbly written, carefully argued down to the details and compelling to the end. Though the stated focus of “post-independence Egypt and post-war Britain” is maintained throughout, larger concerns of the value that art draws internationally is lucidly presented. This book continues Tawadros’ decades long project of internationalism in art.

Courtney J. Martin, Yale Center for British Art, USA

Built upon the politics of difference, The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon examines artistic practice through an international lens. This vibrant collection of essays and writings – produced in different cultural contexts and collected over two decades – introduces the reader to the thought, method of analysis and everyday experiences that have emerged from an increasingly globalized world, presenting a potentially radical frame through which to understand contemporary art.Gilane Tawadros experiments with methodology to draw cultural difference to the surface: from traditional criticism to fictional narratives, this critical variety mirrors her embrace of different perspectives and hints to the myriad ways in which contemporary art is created and presented. Using these techniques she explores the work of leading artists such as Adel Abdessemed, Richard Avedon, Sonia Boyce and Frank Bowling, offering expert guidance on the rich cultural and historical contexts of global and contemporary art through intimate engagement with lived experience.Playing with forms of writing, from critical analyses to fictional narratives, The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon functions as a practice-based meditation on how to write about contemporary art.
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List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: The Leftovers of Translation1. But What is the Question? Art, Research and the Production of Knowledge2. Extra-Extra: Interview with Raul Ortega Ayala3. Dissonant Chorus4. Shen Yuan: The Leftovers of Translation5. Voices Off: Interview with Susan HillerPart II: The Banality of Difference6. ‘We are the Martians…’7. Van Leo: Self-Portraits8. Shirani Shahbazi: The Banality of Difference9. A Case of Mistaken Identity: Notes from the Scene of the Crime 10. Electrifying EvePart III: Re-siting the City11. The Real Me12. Vladimir and Estragon are still waiting13. Alfred’s Favourite Tree14. The Leopard15. Maps of DesirePart IV: Studies in a Post-colonial body16. The Revolution Stripped Bare17. Studies in a Post-colonial Body18. Veil: Veiling, Representation and Contemporary ArtPart V: Relocating the Remains: History and Representation19. Strangers and Barbarians: Representing Ourselves and Others20. Telling Tales: Keith Piper’s Relocating the Remains21. Sweet Oblivion22. Godville: Interview with Omer FastPart VI: Going Global23. Going Global: 4th International Istanbul Biennial24. Detonations: Jonathan Hernández and the Rongwrong series25. Modern Europeans26. Slipping Away (or Uncompliant Cartographies)Part VII: Transmission Interrupted27. Interruption in Four Acts, or Disappearing Irises, Broken-down Buses and Ceramic Citroens28. Egypt at the Venice Biennale: 1967 and The Year That Changed Everything 29. From Zero to Infinity: The Work of Adel Abdessemed 30. Reading (and Curating) from Right to Left 31. Dissonant Divas: Sonia Boyce, Sound and Collaboration 32. A Thousand and OneIndex
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In a collection of her key writings, Gilane Tawadros sheds new light on contemporary art in a globalised world, addressing issues such as difference, representation, (mis-) translation and art writing.
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Brings together in one thematic volume key writings of a major figure from the contemporary art world

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781501363337
Publisert
2021-02-25
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Vekt
934 gr
Høyde
254 mm
Bredde
178 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Gilane Tawadros is a writer and curator. She was the founding Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London which, over a decade, achieved an international reputation as a ground-breaking cultural agency at the leading edge of artistic and cultural debates nationally and internationally. She has written extensively on contemporary art and curated a number of important exhibitions in the UK and internationally. In 2012, she was the first art historian to be appointed to the prestigious Blanche, Edith and Irving Laurie Chair in Women’s Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation.