In this book, Martha Buskirk addresses the interesting fact that since the early 1960s, almost anything can and has been called art. Among other practices, contemporary artists have employed mass-produced elements, impermanent materials, and appropriated imagery, have incorporated performance and video, and have created works through instructions carried out by others. Furthermore, works of art that lack traditional signs of authenticity or permanence have been embraced by institutions long devoted to the original and the permanent.  Buskirk begins with questions of authorship raised by minimalists' use of industrial materials and methods, including competing claims of ownership and artistic authorship evident in conflicts over the right to fabricate artists' works. Examining recent examples of appropriation, she finds precedents in pop art and the early twentieth-century readymade and explores the intersection of contemporary artistic copying and the system of copyrights, trademarks, and brand names characteristic of other forms of commodity production. She also investigates the ways that connections between work and context have transformed art and institutional conventions, the impact of new materials on definitions of medium, the role of the document as both primary and secondary object, and the significance of conceptually oriented performance work for the intersection of photography and the human body in contemporary art.  Buskirk explores how artists active in the 1980s and 1990s have recombined strategies of the art of the 1960s and 1970s. She also shows how the mechanisms through which art is presented shape not only readings of the work but the work itself. She uses her discussion of the readymade and conceptual art to explore broader issues of authorship, reproduction, context, and temporality.

The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art

Buskirk, Martha

History

Mit Pr

Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, a 120-foot curved Cor-Ten steel structure in New York City's Federal Plaza, was destroyed in the spring of 1989 by the General Services Administration, the federal agency that had commissioned and installed what was Serra's most ambitious and probably most important public sculpture. These documents from the public hearing and the court proceedings are an essential primary source for scholars of art and law, providing a complete and moving record of censorship in the arts.  The impassioned speeches by important artists, political figures, and by federal employees for and against the sculpture's removal also make fascinating reading. Among those testifying at the hearing were Marion Javits, reading a letter from her husband, the dying Senator Jacob Javits; Congressman Theodore Weiss; artists Claes Oldenburg and Frank Stella; filmmaker Emile de Antonio; and Museum of Modem Art director William Rubin. Richard Serra's introduction presents his own acerbic view of the government's case.

The Destruction of Tilted Arc: Documents

Arts & Photography

SERRA, Richard

Weyergraf-Serra, Clara

Sculpture

An exploration of transformations in the nature of the art object and artistic authorship in the last four decades.
In this book, Martha Buskirk addresses the interesting fact that since the early 1960s, almost anything can and has been called art. Among other practices, contemporary artists have employed mass-produced elements, impermanent materials, and appropriated imagery, have incorporated performance and video, and have created works through instructions carried out by others. Furthermore, works of art that lack traditional signs of authenticity or permanence have been embraced by institutions long devoted to the original and the permanent. Buskirk begins with questions of authorship raised by minimalists' use of industrial materials and methods, including competing claims of ownership and artistic authorship evident in conflicts over the right to fabricate artists' works. Examining recent examples of appropriation, she finds precedents in pop art and the early twentieth-century readymade and explores the intersection of contemporary artistic copying and the system of copyrights, trademarks, and brand names characteristic of other forms of commodity production. She also investigates the ways that connections between work and context have transformed art and institutional conventions, the impact of new materials on definitions of medium, the role of the document as both primary and secondary object, and the significance of conceptually oriented performance work for the intersection of photography and the human body in contemporary art. Buskirk explores how artists active in the 1980s and 1990s have recombined strategies of the art of the 1960s and 1970s. She also shows how the mechanisms through which art is presented shape not only readings of the work but the work itself. She uses her discussion of the readymade and conceptual art to explore broader issues of authorship, reproduction, context, and temporality.

The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art (Mit Press)

MIT Press]

Mexico Citybased artist Francis Alÿs (b. 1959) has assembled a group of paintings depicting Saint Fabiola, a 4th-century saint who gave up all earthly possessions and devoted herself to the practice of Christian asceticism. All of the pictures in the collection are based on an original worknow lostby the 19th-century French artist Jean-Jacques Henner. Alÿs's collection of Fabiola portraits, numbering in the hundreds and painted by amateurs and professionals alike, is the focus of this intriguing book. Not only does it examine the artist’s exploration of collecting practices, but the publication also offers an unusual window into aesthetic, sociological, and anthropological values of the past century.
In addition to cataloguing each of the Fabiola works, the book includes Saint Jerome’s eulogy for Fabiola (the primary source for Fabiola’s biography), followed by an interpretive text on evolving hagiographies and saints’ vitae, an analysis of the role of iconographic imagery in the practice of Catholicism, and art historical essays that focus on Alÿs’s practice.

Francis Alÿs: Fabiola: An Investigation

MORGAN, David

Bann, Stephen

Cooke, Lynne

Laningham, Susan

History & Criticism

Dia Art Foundation

If you have tattoos, who owns the rights to the imagery inked on your body? What about the photos you just shared on Instagram? And what if you are an artist, responding to the surrounding landscape of preexisting cultural forms? Most people go about their days without thinking much about intellectual property, but it shapes all aspects of contemporary life. It is a constantly moving target, articulated through a web of laws that are different from country to country, sometimes contradictory, often contested. Some protections are necessary--not only to benefit creators and inventors but also to support activities that contribute to the culture at large--yet overly broad ownership rights stifle innovation. &nbsp; Is It Ours? takes a fresh look at issues of artistic expression and creative protection as they relate to contemporary law. Exploring intellectual property, particularly copyrights, Martha Buskirk draws connections between current challenges and early debates about how something intangible could be defined as property. She examines bonds between artist and artwork, including the ways that artists or their heirs retain control over time. The text engages with fundamental questions about the interplay between authorship and ownership and the degree to which all expressions and inventions develop in response to innovations by others. Most importantly, this book argues for the necessity of sustaining a vital cultural commons.

Is It Ours?: Art, Copyright, and Public Interest

University of California Press

In the face of unparalleled growth and a truly global audience, the popularity of contemporary art has clearly become a double-edged affair. Today, an unprecedented number of museums, galleries, biennial-style exhibitions, and art fairs display new work in all its variety, while art schools continue to inject fresh talent onto the scene at an accelerated rate. In the process, however, contemporary art has become deeply embedded not only in an expanding art industry, but also the larger cultures of fashion and entertainment. Buskirk argues that understanding the dynamics of art itself cannot be separated from the business of presenting art to the public. As strategies of institutional critique have given way to various forms of collaboration or accommodation, both art and museum conventions have been profoundly altered by their ongoing relationship. The escalating market for contemporary art is another driving force. Even as art remains an idealized activity, it is also understood as a profession, and in increasingly obvious ways a business, particularly as practiced by star artists who preside over branded art product lines.

Creative Enterprise: Contemporary Art between Museum and Marketplace (International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics)

Bloomsbury Academic

In the face of unparalleled growth and a truly global audience, the popularity of contemporary art has clearly become a double-edged affair. Today, an unprecedented number of museums, galleries, biennial-style exhibitions, and art fairs display new work in all its variety, while art schools continue to inject fresh talent onto the scene at an accelerated rate. In the process, however, contemporary art has become deeply embedded not only in an expanding art industry, but also the larger cultures of fashion and entertainment. Buskirk argues that understanding the dynamics of art itself cannot be separated from the business of presenting art to the public. As strategies of institutional critique have given way to various forms of collaboration or accommodation, both art and museum conventions have been profoundly altered by their ongoing relationship. The escalating market for contemporary art is another driving force. Even as art remains an idealized activity, it is also understood as a profession, and in increasingly obvious ways a business, particularly as practiced by star artists who preside over branded art product lines. "The fraught relationship between contemporary art and commerce is a frequent topic of conversation in the art world, but few have addressed it with the lucidity and intelligence that Martha Buskirk has achieved in her new book, Creative Enterprise: Contemporary Art between Museum and Marketplace. With wry humor, Buskirk examines contemporary art's complicated network 'from the biennial circuit to auction.' She places special emphasis on how museums now simultaneously instigate and co-opt what once was thought to be critical discourse as they become ever more aligned with the burgeoning marketplace for culture: the experience economy. This is an eye-opening must read for artists, museum professionals, art students, and members of the museum-going public." --Jane Farver, Consulting Director, Prospect New Orleans "If you are interested in the institutions of art, then Martha Buskirk's intelligent, informative book is a must-read." --Sarah Thornton, author of Seven Days in the Art World "As the director of a museum dedicated fully to contemporary art, I am happy to welcome Martha Buskirk's book as a significant addition to the field of museum studies. Buskirk is a perpetually engaging writer, and her pages overflow with the most provocative, humorous and informative case studies of the often confounding installations and exhibitions that occur in current art practice. She examines the layers of causality in which the creation of institutions dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art have called into being a type of art that would be unthinkable prior to their existence. Buskirk works through individual artists' motivations with clear descriptions of the art works, and while she listens intently to the makers' stated intentions she nonetheless enjoys critically examining the works in the context of similar artistic provocations and pushing on their often overlooked conceptual gaps. This is a great primer for both neophytes and arts professionals trying to clearly see the place of nontraditional artworks in today's museum landscape." --Bill Arning, Director, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Continuum

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Buskirk, Martha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Buskirk, Martha

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Buskirk, Martha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art

The Destruction of Tilted Arc: Documents

The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art (Mit Press)

Francis Alÿs: Fabiola: An Investigation

Is It Ours?: Art, Copyright, and Public Interest

Creative Enterprise: Contemporary Art between Museum and Marketplace (International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics)

Creative Enterprise: Contemporary Art between Museum and Marketplace (International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics)