Dewey for Artists

John Dewey is known as a pragmatic philosopher and progressive architect of American educational reform, but some of his most important contributions came in his thinking about art.           Dewey argued that there is strong social value to be found in art, and it is artists who often most challenge our preconceived notions. Dewey for Artists shows us how Dewey advocated for an “art of democracy.” Identifying the audience as co-creator of a work of art by virtue of their experience, he made space for public participation. Moreover, he believed that societies only become—and remain—truly democratic if its citizens embrace democracy itself as a creative act, and in this he advocated for the social participation of artists.           Throughout the book, Mary Jane Jacob draws on the experiences of contemporary artists who have modeled Dewey’s principles within their practices. We see how their work springs from deeply held values. We see, too, how carefully considered curatorial practice can address the manifold ways in which aesthetic experience happens and, thus, enable viewers to find greater meaning and purpose. And it is this potential of art for self and social realization, Jacob helps us understand, that further ensures Dewey’s legacy—and the culture we live in.

Arts & Photography

Jacob, Mary Jane

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

John Dewey is known as a pragmatic philosopher and progressive architect of American educational reform, but some of his most important contributions came in his thinking about art. Dewey argued that there is strong social value to be found in art, and it is artists who often most challenge our preconceived notions. Dewey for Artists shows us how Dewey advocated for an “art of democracy.” Identifying the audience as co-creator of a work of art by virtue of their experience, he made space for public participation. Moreover, he believed that societies only become—and remain—truly democratic if its citizens embrace democracy itself as a creative act, and in this he advocated for the social participation of artists. Throughout the book, Mary Jane Jacob draws on the experiences of contemporary artists who have modeled Dewey’s principles within their practices. We see how their work springs from deeply held values. We see, too, how carefully considered curatorial practice can address the manifold ways in which aesthetic experience happens and, thus, enable viewers to find greater meaning and purpose. And it is this potential of art for self and social realization, Jacob helps us understand, that further ensures Dewey’s legacy—and the culture we live in.

A Forest of Signs documents a major exhibition of critical art in the last decade, one that marks a change in the art world, perhaps even in the broader culture. The thread of representation ties together the work of the 30 artists included in the book, encompassing such issues as allegory, appropriation, and commodification, the role of the artist, and the functions of authorship and originality in vesting meaning in art. Much of the work is provocative, challenging the way we look at art, the way we talk about it, where we see it, and how we buy it. The development of these issues and their role in shifting the focus of much recent art from insistence on the art as object, to a host of representations is addressed in four essays and a section of "artists' pages." In the first essay, exhibition co-organizer Ann Goldstein discusses the individual artists and points to key issues and methods in their art. The artists themselves are represented by a 60 page portfolio of their works. Designed by the artists, these pages include personal statements, the remarks of others, works made specifically for the book and works using the tools of mechanical reproduction. In the three essays that follow, Anne Rorimer, former Curator of 20th Century Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, traces the roots of recent American art to the development of international conceptualism in the 1960s and early 1970s; Mary Jane Jacob, exhibition co-organizer and MOCA Chief Curator, places the artists within the current trends of European as well as American art; and editor and critic Howard Singerman examines the relationship of recent art to its circle of critics and to the emergence of critical theory. Copublished with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The Artists Richard Baim, Thomas Lawson, Judith Barry, Sherrie Levine, Ericka Beckman, Robert Longo, Gretchen Bender, Allan McCollum, Dara Birnbaum, Matt Mullican, Barbara Bloom, Peter Nagy, Troy Brauntuch, Stephen Prina, Sarah Charlesworth, Richard Prince, Jack Goldstein, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Laurie Simmons, Larry Johnson, Haim Steinbach, Ronald Jones, Mitchell Syrop, Mike Kelley, James Welling, Jeff Koons, Christopher Williams, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler

A Forest Of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation

Goldstein, Ann

Mit Pr

A Quiet Revolution: British Sculpture Since 1965

Liveright Pub. Corp

Publisher's release letter laid-in.

Jannis Kounellis

Museum of Contemporary Art

Essays by Juliana Engberg, Mary Jane Jacob and Russell LewisThis challenging and beautiful installation is matched only by its catalogue, which documents this Australian artist's United States museum debut. Like the installation for which it was titled, Soft Shoulder engages the reader in a game of complex object associations. At the center of all Jubelin's work is the inter-relatedness of people and places as they occur by way of fate, coincidence or deliberate migration and exchange. Jubelin links Chicago and Australia through a cast of characters including Walter Burley Griffith and Marion Mahoney Griffith, Anais Nin, Frank Lloyd Wright and Jane Addams. In her close reading of Jubelin's methodology, Juliana Engberg gives background and insight into the life of objects. Lewis and Jacob's expertly executed text offers a glossary of objects, people, quotations and ideologies-all cross referenced-not so much to explain the installation, as to open a series of related experiences.Published in conjunction with Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University.

Narelle Jubelin: Soft Shoulder

Engberg, Juliana

Lewis, Rusty

Individual Artists

Renaissance Society

Describes and illustrates the innovative process of public dialogue and involvement that underlay eight works of public art in Chicago, in a project organized by Mary Jane Jacob. Among the works are a multi-neighborhood parade, a community storefront hydroponic garden for HIV/AIDS patients, a new line of candy produced with members of a candy-making union, and a video installation by teenagers from the tough West Town neighborhood. No index or bibliography. Published by Bay West, 115 West Denny Way, Seattle, WA 98119-4205. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Culture in Action: A Public Art Program of Sculpture Chicago

Brenson, Michael

Olson, Eva M.

Sculpture Chicago (Organization)

Sculpture

Bay Pr

Book by (WEEMS, CARRIE MAE). Weems, Carrie Mae, Mary Jane Jacob bell hooks

The Fabric Workshop/Museum, Philadelphia / Organise Par The Fabric Workshop/Museum

BELL HOOKS

Carrie Mae Weems

The Fabric Workshop & Museum

Howard Ben Tre

Ben Tr, is a pioneer of three-dimensional glass, casting, brilliantly using the process to create art that juxtaposes modern industrial aestethics with ancient architectonic references. This definitive volume surveys the broad scope of his career, from small early works to vast public projects.

DANTO, Arthur C.

Sims, Patterson

Hudson Hills

Book by Danto, Arthur C., Ben Tre, Howard, Jacob, Mary Jane, Sims, Patterson

Ben Tre, Howard

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Hudson Hills Pr

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