Ugliness The Non-beautiful in Art and Theory

Ugliness is very much alive in the history of art. From ritual invocations of mythic monsters to the scare tactics of the early twentieth-century avant-garde, from the cabinet of curiosities to the identity politics of today, the ugly has been every bit as active as the beautiful, and often much more of a reality - Why then has it been so neglected? This book seeks to remedy this oversight through both broad theoretical reflection and concrete case studies of ugliness in various historical and cultural contexts. The protagonists range from cooks to psychoanalysts, from war prostheses to plates of asparagus, on a world stage stretching from ancient Athens to Singapore today. Drawing across disciplinary and cultural boundaries, the writers illuminate why ugliness, associated over the millennia with negative categories ranging from sin and stupidity to triviality and boredom, remains central to art and cultural practice.

Author: Andrei Pop
Publisher: Continnuum-3PL
Published: 04/18/2016
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9781784533557
ISBN10: 1784533556
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Criticism & Theory
- Art | History | General

About the Author
Andrei Pop is postdoctoral fellow, University of Basel and Mechtild Widrich is postdoctoral fellow, department of architecture, ETH Zurich.