What do you think?
Rate this book
The Artist's Body
Beginning with such key artists as Marcel Duchamp and Jackson Pollock, this book examines a selection of the most significant players who have used their bodies to create their art – among them, in the 1960s Carolee Scheemann, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Yoko Ono; in the 1970s, Chris Burden, Ana Mendieta, Vito Acconci, Marina Abramovic; up to the turn of the millennium, Matthew Barney, Marc Quinn, Tracey Emin and Mona Hatoum.
Survey Amelia Jones,among the world experts in the field, discusses performance and body art against the background of social history. She examines the breakdown of barriers between art and life, visual and sensual experience – how artists have expanded and renewed the age-old tradition of self-portraiture, moving art out of the gallery into unexpected spaces and media.
Works Each image is accompanied by an extended caption. The book is organized thematically:
'Painting Bodies', concerns work that shows the trace, stain or imprint of the artist's body in response to the paint-on-canvas tradition.
'Gesturing Bodies', examines artists who transform the body – its acts, its gesture – into art; gesture, behaviour and situations are used in place of art objects.
'Ritualistic and Transgressive Bodies', looks at work which uses the body to enact challenges to the social expecations of the body, often in rituals that perform a cathartic function. Mutilation and sacrifice are used to rupture personal and social homogeneity.
'Body Boundaries', examines boundaries between the individual body and the social environment and between the inside and outside of the body itself.
'Performing Identity', looks at issues of representation and identity.
'Absent Bodies', explores absence and the mortality of the body through photography, casting, imprints or remnants of the body.
In 'Extended and Prosthetic Bodies', the body is extended through prosthetics or technology, to explore cyberspace and alternative states of consciousness.
Documents Parallel to the illustrated works of art, this section combines texts by critics who shaped the movement, from Lucy R. Lippard to Thomas McEvilley. Alongside these are writings by philosophers and thinkers such as George Bataille and Gilles Deleuze who have contributed on a theoretical level to the discussion around the body – a prevalent theme in twentieth-century cultural theory.
Survey Amelia Jones,among the world experts in the field, discusses performance and body art against the background of social history. She examines the breakdown of barriers between art and life, visual and sensual experience – how artists have expanded and renewed the age-old tradition of self-portraiture, moving art out of the gallery into unexpected spaces and media.
Works Each image is accompanied by an extended caption. The book is organized thematically:
'Painting Bodies', concerns work that shows the trace, stain or imprint of the artist's body in response to the paint-on-canvas tradition.
'Gesturing Bodies', examines artists who transform the body – its acts, its gesture – into art; gesture, behaviour and situations are used in place of art objects.
'Ritualistic and Transgressive Bodies', looks at work which uses the body to enact challenges to the social expecations of the body, often in rituals that perform a cathartic function. Mutilation and sacrifice are used to rupture personal and social homogeneity.
'Body Boundaries', examines boundaries between the individual body and the social environment and between the inside and outside of the body itself.
'Performing Identity', looks at issues of representation and identity.
'Absent Bodies', explores absence and the mortality of the body through photography, casting, imprints or remnants of the body.
In 'Extended and Prosthetic Bodies', the body is extended through prosthetics or technology, to explore cyberspace and alternative states of consciousness.
Documents Parallel to the illustrated works of art, this section combines texts by critics who shaped the movement, from Lucy R. Lippard to Thomas McEvilley. Alongside these are writings by philosophers and thinkers such as George Bataille and Gilles Deleuze who have contributed on a theoretical level to the discussion around the body – a prevalent theme in twentieth-century cultural theory.
- GenresArtNonfictionPhotography
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
12 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Amelia Jones
667 books30 followersAmelia Jones is an American art historian, art critic and curator specializing in feminist art, body/ performance art, video art and Dadaism. Her written works and approach to modern and contemporary art history are considered revolutionary in that she breaks down commonly assumed opinions and offers brilliantly conceived critiques of the art historical tradition and individual artist's positions in that often elitist sphere.
Amelia Jones studied art history at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Phd from UCLA in 1991.
Jones has taught art history at UC Riverside and is currently the Pilkington Chair of the art history department at Manchester University.
Jones received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000.
Amelia Jones is the daughter of Princeton Psychology professor Edward E. Jones.
Amelia Jones studied art history at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Phd from UCLA in 1991.
Jones has taught art history at UC Riverside and is currently the Pilkington Chair of the art history department at Manchester University.
Jones received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000.
Amelia Jones is the daughter of Princeton Psychology professor Edward E. Jones.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 1, 2008
I use this book all the time. There's a great section of artist manifestoes and critical writing in the back. The whole Themes and Movements series from Phaidon is pretty awesome as a reference set, but I definitely use this one (on performance art) the most.
July 19, 2024
It's filled with really hard to read art language. It's great if you have time to understand and study groups to read this book with. It is definitely packed with tons of knowledge. A teacher recommended it to learn about performance and it helped for sure! It introduced me to completely different planet. I wish it was easier to read though.
June 1, 2020
I reviewed this book in my newsletter released twice monthly. For access please sign up www.tinyletter.com/kjcfalcon
July 25, 2022
fucking amazing.
March 8, 2012
Very informative. I was tickled to find that they had included some of my favorite pieces, such as Opening Six Holes Simultaneously. The book presents a thorough, lucid breakdown of the role of the body in historical and contemporary art practices. Furthermore, the addition of original texts by the artists at the back of the book was an amazing surprise. Mendieta, Beuys, the Viennese Actionists, Sherman... if any of those names get you excited, then you should definitely try out this book.
November 9, 2008
GREAT!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews