has abstract
| - Art versus Nonart: Art out of Mind is a book by Professor Tsion Avital, published by Cambridge University Press in 2003 and translated and published in Chinese by The Commercial Press, Beijing in 2009. In 2018 it was translated and published in Spanish by Vernon Press, Washington. In the first part of the book (Chapters 1-4) Avital examines from various angles the question "Is modern art actually art?". In this section Avital analyzes and criticizes modern art, and claims that all non-figurative art created in the 20th century is not in fact art, but rather the shreds and raw materials of the figurative art that preceded it, or at best, trivial design. Avital's criticism is based on a new, general and coherent system of criteria which anchors the nature of art and culture in the structural properties of mind. The discussion of the system of criteria takes up most of the second part of the book (chapters 5, 6, 8). In light of the new system of criteria he indicates the necessary conditions that any new paradigm for art of the future must fulfill in order to be really relevant to art. In the viewpoint presented in the book, modern art is only a chaotic interim stage between the art of the past which has already maximized its potential, and the art of the future which is not yet here, but whose outline can be identified. In contrast to most other researchers who reject modernism and decry the death of art, or propose to return to the art of the past, Avital's book rejects modernism but raises new hope, the possibility of a new and thrilling paradigm for art in the future. (en)
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