Whispers of the Muses

Artworks as Time Travelers

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• Publisher: ibidem
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9783838276977
• Edition: 0

Although there is widespread belief that some artists attract the attention of muses more than others, this topic has, so far, not been taken up seriously in art history or sociology of culture. In his fascinating book, Vjeran Katunari? starts out by presenting many artworks, from literature and visual arts to performing arts and architecture, as examples that demonstrate the transcendental potential of art. The key concept explaining this capability concerns the crossing of three time frames, i.e. past, present, and future in the historical present. An inspirational source for such an approach is to be found in the aesthetic sociology and philosophy of Georg Simmel and in the philosophical hermeneutics of history by Walter Benjamin. The selected artworks and periods, respectively, span from early Renaissance and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to postmodernity and neoliberalism – with a glimpse to a possible future as the opening of the cosmic era of humanity that is anticipated in early vanguard and some contemporary paintings.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Desensitized genius: The actuality of Dialectic of Enlightenment
• Chapter 2 A counter-stream toward a future: The whispering Muses
• Chapter 3 Past and present, from which the future follows: On artistic cognition
• Chapter 4 The European Renaissance and the anticipation of capitalism
• Chapter 5 Baroque and Enlightenment: The architecture of the Prince
• Chapter 6 Romanticism: Anticipating revolution and nationalism
• Chapter 7 Realism and dystopia: The tour de force of capitalism
• Chapter 8 Modernism: Anticipating liberalism, fascism, and socialism
• Chapter 9 The vanguard introducing a radical change in visual communication
• Chapter 10 Postmodernism: Anticipating total commodification, the feminist continuity, and nostalgia
• Chapter 11 Cinema Urania and Terra est Stella Nobilis: Anticipating cosmic peace and joy