The Uses of Reason in the Evaluation of Artworks : Commentaries on the Turner Prize

Annotation This book uses an examination of the annual Turner Prize to defend the view that the evaluation of artworks is a reason-based activity, notwithstanding the lack of any agreed criteria for judging excellence in art. It undertakes an empirical investigation of actual critical practice as evident within published commentaries on the Prize in order to examine and test theories of critical evaluation, including the ideas of Noel Carroll, Frank Sibley, Kendall Walton and Suzanne Langer. Case studies of work by Turner Prize winners such as Steve McQueen, Martin Creed, Tomma Abts are used to explore definitions of art and concepts of artistic value and meaning. The book will be of interest to academics in the fields of aesthetics, contemporary art and cultural studies, but also to practitioners working in the arts, media and education This book uses an examination of the annual Turner Prize to defend the view that the evaluation of artworks is a reason-based activity, notwithstanding the lack of any agreed criteria for judging excellence in art. It undertakes an empirical investigation of actual critical practice as evident within published commentaries on the Prize in order to examine and test theories of critical evaluation, including the ideas of Noel Carroll, Frank Sibley, Kendall Walton and Suzanne Langer. Cast studies of work by Turner Prize winners such as Steve McQueen, Martin Creed and Tomma Abts are used to explore definitions of art and concepts of artistic value and meaning Front Matter....Pages i-vii The Turner Prize and the Problem of Evaluation....Pages 1-13 But Is It Art?....Pages 15-48 Tomma Abts: Form and Value....Pages 49-71 Noel Carroll and the Art of Slapstick....Pages 73-100 But What Does it Mean?....Pages 101-126 Martin Creed: Ideas in an Empty Room....Pages 127-147 Ideal Critics and the Uses of Reason....Pages 149-160 Back Matter....Pages 161-163