Conversations Before the End of Time - Paperback

by Suzi Gablik (Author)

In this series of nineteen dialogues with the art critic Suzi Gablik, artists, writers, and philosophers address the central questions of the meaning and purpose of art in an age of accelerating social change and spiritual uncertainty. According to the critic Hilton Kramer, art should be isolated from political and social issues. Contemporary artists such as Coco Fusco, meanwhile, explore new ways of making art that reconnects directly with the world. And Thomas Moore and James Hillman look at how art reflects the broader spiritual crises of our society as a whole.

Back Jacket

When "the end of time" seems close at hand, what meaning or purpose can art possibly have? In this challenging series of dialogues with nineteen artists, writers, philosophers and critics, art critic Suzi Gablik addresses these and other central questions about the meaning and future of art in an age of accelerating social change and spiritual uncertainty. In conversations that are by turns intense, personal, philosophical, intimate and poignant, Hilton Kramer and Leo Castelli staunchly defend modernism's traditional isolation of art from political and social issues; sculptors Rachel Dutton and Rob Olds and performance artist Coco Fusco explore new kinds of art-making in an attempt to reconnect with the contemporary world; and Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and archetypal psychologist James Hillman show how art's present crisis of meaning is tied to the broader context of our contemporary social and spiritual crises. Conversations Before the End of Time combines the incisive analysis of Suzi Gablik's previous criticism with the interactive creativity of the meeting of seminal minds; For anyone seriously concerned about the future of contemporary art and culture, it is both a sourcebook and an inspiration.