The Necessity Of Artspeak: The Language Of Arts In The Western Tradition

Are contemporary art theorists and critics speaking a language that has lost its meaning? Is it still based on concepts and values that are long out of date? Does anyone know what the function of the arts is in modern society?

This book breaks new ground in its linguistic approach to the key issues. It situates those issues within the long-running debate about the arts and their place in society which goes back to the Classical period in ancient Greece.

'The Necessity Of Artspeak' shows for the first time that what have usually been considered problems of aesthetics and artistic justification often have their source in the linguistic assumptions underlying the terms and arguments presented. It also shows how artspeak is manipulated to serve the interests of particular social groups and agendas. Until the semantics of artspeak is more widely understood, the public will continue to be taken in by the latest fads and fashions that propagandists of the art world promote.