Abstract
In western art and culture, “beauty” was long considered to be the decisive goal of human creativity. In precisely the same way, the connections between the concepts of “beautiful,” “good” and “true” were part of the core of Western educational concepts—just as their deconstruction or rejection is inscribed in the DNA of European concepts of the Modern. The worldwide diffusion of what people perceived to be “modern” or “art” could serve as a case study for Europe’s contribution to globalization: having long been identified with “Western,” the concept of “modern” also came to be equated with “progressive.”
The dismantling of this hegemony and these prejudices, the revision of Western concepts is one positive effect of globalization. In light of the increasing commercialization of every aspect of life and the proliferation of aggressive consumer marketing, it is not surprising that nowadays, the worldwide “ideal of beauty” is still determined by Western fashion and cosmetic companies. But non-Western artists in particular reflect on the saturation of their living environments by Western ideals of consumption and marketing. Artists and art-historians worldwide work at larger and broader ideas and concepts of art and “beauty”, which are outside the limitations of national specifications or conventions and of the laws of commodification.
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Notes
- 1.
Quoted in Willem Sandberg, Manuscript No. 1, lectura sub aqua (1943), Amsterdam: Dunwaere, 1960.
- 2.
In his introduction to the subject of “beauty” in the context of the fundamental concepts of European intellectual history, the philosopher Konrad Paul Liessmann used the title “Why Beauty? Only a Promise of Happiness,” in: Konrad Paul Liessmann, Beauty, Vienna: Facultas, 2009, p. 7.
- 3.
Konrad Paul Liessmann, Why Beauty? Only a Promise of Happiness, in: Konrad Paul Liessmann, Beauty, loc. cit.
- 4.
The exhibition Inklusion/Exklusion was curated by Peter Weibel for the Steirischer Herbst (Graz, Austria 1996).
- 5.
The documenta X was curated by Catherine David in 1997; the Documenta11 that followed in 2002 by Okwui Enwezor. The book that accompanied the documenta X is considered to be a standard text for the revision of Western ideas due to globalization. In particular, the problems connected with the Western term “art” were discussed at that time. Attempts were made to replace it with such terms as “aesthetic” or “visual practice” in order to avoid excluding any form of creation beyond the realm of Western concepts.
- 6.
Pamela M. Lee, Forgetting the Art World, Cambridge/London: The MIT Press, 2012, passim.
- 7.
Peter Sloterdijk, You must change your life, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014 (German original: Idem, Du musst dein Leben ändern. Über Anthropotechnik, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2009).
- 8.
“Altermodern” was the title of the 2009 Tate Britain Triennale (3 February–26 April, 2009), curated by Nicolas Bourriaud. The exhibition supported the thesis of the end of postmodernism and the beginning of “altermodernism” as well as propagating the postulate of a deliberately new global art which turns away from standardization and commercialization.
- 9.
Terry Smith, What is Contemporary Art, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2009, passim.
- 10.
Susanne Leeb, Asynchrone Objekte, in: Globalismus, Globalism. Texte zur Kunst, Vol. 23/No. 91, September 2013, page 41.
- 11.
Umberto Eco, The Open work, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.
- 12.
Umberto Eco, History of Beauty, New York: Rizzoli, 2004, p. 12. (Italian original: Idem, Storia della Belleza, Milan: Bompiani, 2004).
- 13.
What was once referred to as ‘McDonaldization’ or illustrated by means of the worldwide omnipresence of the—Coca-Cola logo, is being accomplished today by the so-called ‘social media’ and the Internet.
- 14.
Federico Ferraro, L’insieme vuoto: Per una pragmatica dell’imagine, Monza: Johan & Levi, 2013.
- 15.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): well known as a widespread symptom in a society in which so-called ‘multitasking’ and the constant state of being connected to and ensnared by multiple sources of information overtaxes an individual’s ‘normal’ capacity for comprehension and processing.
- 16.
Karla Black, Given The World, 2013 (Cellophane, Sellotape, plaster powder, powder paint) and Karla Black, Repetition Is Already Rare, 2013 (Sugar paper, chalk, lipstick, nail varnish, thread). Images 8 and 13 of 18 on the website of Galerie Capitain in Cologne: online at: www.galeriecapitain.de/artists/karla-black/exhibitions/jan-feb-2013.html (last retrieved April 12, 2016).
- 17.
Cf. Karla Black, Exhibition catalog, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, December 13, 2013–March 2, 2014, edited by Susanne Figner, Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2014.
- 18.
As precarious or awkward as my diagnosis of the state of beauty in a global context from an art historical point of view may sound, I wish to thank the two junior researchers Ewa Knitter and Michael Stockhausen for their constructive criticism during the writing of this text.
Literature
Black, Karla, Exhibition catalog, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, December 13, 2013 – March 2, 2014, edited by Susanne Figner, Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2014.
Eco, Umberto, The Open work, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962.
Eco, Umberto, History of Beauty, New York: Rizzoli, 2004 (Italian original: Idem, Storia della Belleza, Milan: Bompiani, 2004).
Ferraro, Federico, L’insieme vuoto: Per una pragmatica dell’ imagine, Monza: Johan&Levi, 2013.
Lee, Pamela M., Forgetting the Art World, Cambridge/London: The MIT Press, 2012.
Leeb, Susanne, Asynchrone Objekte, in: Globalismus, Globalism. Texte zur Kunst, Vol. 23/Number 91, September 2013, pp. 40–61.
Liessmann, Konrad Paul, Schönheit, Vienna: Facultas, 2009.
Sandberg, Willem, Manuscript, No. 1. in lectura sub aqua (1943) Amsterdam: Dunwaere, 1960.
Sloterdijk, Peter, You must change your life, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014 (German original: Idem, Du musst dein Leben ändern. Über Anthropotechnik, Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2009.)
Smith, Terry, What is Contemporary Art, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
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Bonnet, AM. (2019). Beauty. In: Kühnhardt, L., Mayer, T. (eds) The Bonn Handbook of Globality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90382-8_4
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