This is the first book to offer a systematic account of the concept of opacity in the aesthetic field. Engaging with works by Ernie Gehr, John Akomfrah, Matt Saunders, David Lynch, Trevor Paglen, Zach Blas, and Low, the study considers the cultural, epistemological, and ethical values of images and sounds that are fuzzy, indeterminate, distorted, degraded, or otherwise indistinct. Rethinking Art and Visual Culture shows how opaque forms of art address problems of mediation, knowledge, and information. It also intervenes in current debates about new systems of visibility and surveillance by explaining how indefinite art provides a critique of the positivist drive behind these regimes. A timely contribution to media theory, cinema studies, American studies, and aesthetics, the book presents a novel and extensive analysis of the politics of transparency.

A general overview of the theoretical and institutional history of the discipline of art history. Refuting the image of art history as a discipline in crisis, Preziosi asserts that many of the dilemmas and contradictions of art history today are not new but can be traced back to problems surrounding the founding of the discipline, its institutionalization, and its academic expansion since the 1870s. "Donald Preziosi has written a timely and incisive study of the methods and assumptions of art history in the modern period. As the book unfolds, one realizes that art history was never as unitary and monolithic as the phrase 'the discipline of art history' suggests, but is in fact a complicated and highly contradictory range of practices whose disciplinary coherence may be more mythical than real. This is a deliberately discomforting book; however, for its clear-sightedness, rigor, and wit, it is a book to be welcomes by everyone concerned with the present condition and future direction of visual studies."--Norman Bryson, Harvard University "An important and courageous book, Rethinking Art History is a rigorous and original contribution to the current post-structuralist and postmodernist debates in cultural studies here and abroad."--Steven Z. Levine, Bryn Mawr College "Through this kind of reading of the discourse of art history, Preziosi provides some acute analysis of the metaphors and stratagems which continue to discipline the discipline of art history."

The perception that the early sixteenth century saw a culmination of the Renaissance classical revival - only to degrade into mannerism shortly after Raphael's death in 1520 - has been extremely tenacious; but many scholars agree that this tidy narrative is deeply problematic. Exploring how we can reconceptualize the High Renaissance in a way that reflects how we research and teach today, this volume complicates and deepens our understanding of artistic change. Focusing on Rome, the paradigmatic centre of the High Renaissance narrative, each essay presents a case study of a particular aspect of the culture of the city in the early sixteenth century, including new analyses of Raphael's stanze, Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling and the architectural designs of Bramante. The contributors question notions of periodization, reconsider the Renaissance relationship with classical antiquity, and ultimately reconfigure our understanding of 'high Renaissance style'.

The conditions of alienation and exclusion are inextricably linked to the experience of the migrant. This volume explores both the increasing emergence of the theme of migration as a dominant subject matter in art as well as the ways in which the varied mobilities of a globalized world have radically reshaped art's conditions of production, reception, and display. In a selection of essays, fourteen distinguished scholars explore the universality of conditions of global migration and interdependence, inviting a rethinking of existing perspectives in postcolonial, transnational, and diaspora studies, and laying the foundation for empirical and theoretical directions beyond the terms of these traditional frameworks.

For over a decade, Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education has served as the guide to multicultural art education, connecting everyday experience, social critique, and creative expression with classroom learning. The much-anticipated Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education continues to provide an accessible and practical tool for teachers, while offering new art, essays, and content to account for transitions and changes in both the fields of art and education. A beautifully-illustrated collaboration of over one hundred artists, writers, curators, and educators from in and around the contemporary art world, this volume offers thoughtful and innovative materials that challenge the normative practices of arts education and traditional art history. Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education builds upon the pedagogy of the original to present new possibilities and modes of understanding art, culture, and their relationships to students and ourselves. The fully revised second edition provides new theoretical and practical resources for educators and students everywhere, including: Educators' perspectives on contemporary art, multicultural education, and teaching in today’s classroom Full-color reproductions and writings on over 50 contemporary artists and their works, plus an additional 150 black-and-white images throughout Lesson plans for using art to explore topical issues such as activism and democracy, conflict: local and global, and history and historicism A companion website offering over 250 color reproductions of artwork from the book, a glossary of terms, and links to the New Museum and G: Class websites---www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415960854.

Research shows that thematic teaching across the curriculum significantly increases student engagement. This book gives examples of how teachers can enhance their current lessons and studio activities by organising them around meaningful, universal themes like identity, conflict, and relationships.

Rethinking Visual Narratives covers topics from the first millennium B.C.E. through the present day, testifying to the enduring significance of visual stories in shaping and affirming cultural practices in Asia. Contributors analyze how visual narratives function in different Asian cultures and reveal the multiplicity of ways that images can be narrated beyond temporal progression through a particular space. The study of local art forms advances our knowledge of regional iterations and theoretical boundaries, illustrating the enduring importance of pictorial stories to the cultural traditions of Asia. Contributors include Dominik Bonatz (Archaeologist Free University of Berlin), Sandra Cate (San Jose State University), Yonca Kösebay Erkan (Kadir Has University), Charlotte Galloway (Australian National University), Mary Beth Heston (College of Charleston), Yeewan Koon (The University of Hong Kong), Sonya S. Lee (University of Southern California), Leedom Lefferts (Drew University), Dore J. Levy (Brown University), Shane McCausland (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Julia K. Murray (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Catherine Stuer (Denison University), Greg M. Thomas (The University of Hong Kong), Sarah E. Thompson (Rochester Institute of Technology), and Mary-Louise Totton (Western Michigan University).