Art Criticism and the Appeal to Democracy

While engaging with the interconnected concepts of communication and democracy in postwar American and European art criticism, this book provides a historical assessment of how these two related trends pertain to modern and contemporary art theory and practice. Looking at both the history of artistic and curatorial efforts to "empower" viewers by facilitating different forms of audience participation, and the critical attempts to evaluate the success or failure of these efforts, the author looks to historicize the investment of each in both the idea of communication and the language of democracy. Beginning with experiments in exhibition design in the years immediately following World War II, and continuing on to address the fascination with digital media and "Relational Aesthetics" at the turn of the millennium, this study seeks to understand just why those writing from the (self-proclaimed) centers of Western democracy insist on presenting democracy and the empowerment of the individual as the radical import of contemporary art. This book is ideal for researchers interested in the History of Art, Art Criticism, Philosophy, Cultural Studies and Politics.

Craig Peariso is Professor of the History of Art and Visual Culture at Boise State University, USA

Introduction 1. Communication, Democracy, and Art in the Cold War Era 2. Breakthroughs: New Technologies and Hopes for the Future 3. The "Social Turn" Against the Collective Conclusion: What Does a "Democratic" Aesthetic Accomplish?