A provoking collection of essays designed to restructure a national narrative. This book considers the state of South African contemporary art from a number of perspectives – Much Recommended.
NAME: In The World, Essays on Contemporary South African Art FILE: R2703 AUTHOR: Ashraf Jamal PUBLISHER: SKIRA BINDING: soft back PAGES: 415 PRICE: £40.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Contemporary art, South African Art, essays, national narrative, collections, artists, artwork, portfolio, design, creativity ISBN: 978-8-857235-63-9 IMAGE: B2703.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/yazbbfzw LINKS: DESCRIPTION: A provoking collection of essays designed to restructure a national narrative. This book considers the state of South African contemporary art from a number of perspectives – Much Recommended. The 'Rainbow Society' is still finding its feet. Prejudice continues to create tensions in society and transmits to contemporary art, as contemporary art observes, comments on, challenging political and social positions. Jamal has used a collection of essays to examine the state of South African Art in an enthralling study but the reader may be left to wonder how representative the essays are individually and collectively. The images embedded with the text are beautifully executed, representing a diverse approach. SKIRA have established a reputation for publishing outstanding books on art and design. This book is available in softback but actually has a stiffened cover and a reinforced binding that almost makes it a hard back binding. High quality gloss paper has been used through the book and the images are of the highest quality and fidelity. The use of a collection of essays has allowed the creation of a book that views its subjects through a number of prisms. To those unfamiliar with South African art, many authors and subjects will be unfamiliar and this adds up into an impressive presentation of information on what is a vibrant art scene. Art books tend to be most widely read by people involved in the broad subject. In this case, the content will certainly appeal to this readership, but the range of information about South Africa and its art will appeal to a very much wider readership. An enthralling and involving book that is a most rewarding read.