Art and Obscenity

by Kerstin Mey

Explicit material is more widely available in the internet age than ever before, yet the concept of 'obscenity' remains as difficult to pin down as it is to approach without notions of what is 'obscene' shift with societies' shifting mores, and our responses to explicit or disturbing material can be highly subjective. In this intelligent and sensitive book, Kerstin Mey grapples with the work of twentieth-century artists practising at the edges of acceptability, from Hans Bellmer through to Nobuyoshi Araki, from Robert Mapplethorpe to Annie Sprinkle, and from Hermann Nitsch to Paul McCarthy. Mey refuses sweeping statements and 'knee-jerk' responses, arguing with dexterity that some works, regardless of their 'high art' context, remain deeply problematic, whilst others are both groundbreaking and liberating.

Genres: Art

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art and Obscenity (Paperback, trade)
by Kerstin Mey

listed as a resource on https://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/...

gave it back 1 May 20017,

TOC from http://www.powells.com/book/art-obsce...
Preface * Introduction * 'I know it when I see it' - On the definition and history of the obscene* Transgressive Rituals*Abjection and Dis-ease * Violent images - Aesthetic simulations * 'Playing with the dead' - The cadaver as fascinosum*Anti-Normative Acts - Radical liberation * Obscenity and the Documentary Tradition * Recycled Fantasies: Obscenity between kitsch, convention and innovation * 'Know Thyself'? * Digital (Counter-)Currents*Cyber-(ob)scene * List of Illustrations * Bibliography * Index


read a few pages here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=WCo...

[Avory Faucette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was semi-interesting, but it drags a lot. I would have liked more images, or tales behind the artists. It's more technical and moves slowly.