Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else
    Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else
    Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else
    Ebook144 pages2 hours

    Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else

    By David Balzer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Now that we 'curate' even lunch, what happens to the role of the connoisseur in contemporary culture?

    ‘Curate’ is now a buzzword, applied to everything from music festivals to artisanal cheese. Inside the art world, the curator reigns supreme, acting as the face of high-profile group shows and biennials in a way that can eclipse and assimilate the contributions of individual artists. Curatorial-studies programs continue to grow, and the business world is adopting curation as a means of adding value to content. Everyone, it seems, is a curator.

    But what is a curator, exactly? And what does the explosive popularity of curating say about our culture’s relationship with taste, labour and the avant-garde? In this vibrant, revelatory and original study, David Balzer travels through art history and around the globe to explore the cult of curation, from superstar curator Hans Ulrich Obrist’s war with sleep to Subway’s ‘sandwich artists.’ Recalling such landmark works of cultural criticism as Tom Wolfe’s The Painted Word and John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Curationism will change the way you look at art – and maybe even the way you see yourself.

    ‘This is an unusual art book. It is a book you should read and one that you can. Balzer traces the history and current hegemony of curationism, a practice of jumped-up interior decorators who double as priests explaining the gospel to the unlettered masses. A good read, if you don’t mind reading things that you don’t want to know.’

    – Dave Hickey

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCoach House Books
    Release dateSep 9, 2014
    ISBN9781770563865
    Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else
    Author

    David Balzer

    David Balzer has contributed to publications including The Believer, Modern Painters, Artforum.com and The Globe and MailContrivances, a short-fiction collection. He is currently Associate Editor at Canadian Art magazine. Balzer was born in Winnipeg and currently resides in Toronto, where he makes a living as a critic, editor and teacher.

    Related to Curationism

    Related ebooks

    Art For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      When The Art World Became The Art Market

      Sep 17, 2019

      Michael Shnayerson traces the shift toward big business in “Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art.”

      3 min read

    • Article

      Feminist Futures

      Dec 8, 2020

      Feminist Futures
      7 min read

    • Article

      Outside Noise

      Dec 28, 2021

      Outside Noise
      5 min read

    • Article

      Cult Of The Curator

      Mar 1, 2017

      Cult Of The Curator
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Companion to Curation

      Nov 4, 2020

      If there was ever a book that should be top of the bibliographic list for students studying art institutions and curatorial practice(s) of the past, present and future, this is it – A Companion to Curation edited by well-known Australian artist acade

      6 min read

    • Article

      Radical Portraiture

      Apr 1, 2021

      Radical Portraiture
      5 min read

    • Article

      AESTHETICS OF drawing

      Aug 7, 2020

      AESTHETICS OF drawing
      4 min read

    • Article

      Celestial Portraits

      Aug 14, 2020

      Celestial Portraits
      5 min read

    • Article

      Art In The Anthropocene

      Mar 12, 2019

      Art In The Anthropocene
      7 min read

    • Article

      We Must Become Idealists To Confront This World

      Oct 15, 2020

      Hans Ulrich Obrist April 2020 Serpentine Galleries, London Stefano Boeri Triennale, Milano Cornelia Lauf I thought we’d take the occasion of the world’s circumstances to use this as more than an interview and as a possible manifesto, since we are

      9 min read

    • Article

      Ernest Shaw Jr.

      Mar 1, 2022

      Ernest Shaw Jr.
      1 min read

    • Article

      Semi Formica

      Aug 13, 2021

      Semi Formica
      12 min read

    • Article

      What Alternative?

      Nov 2, 2021

      What Alternative?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Kandinsky Wassily

      Jan 22, 2021

      Kandinsky Wassily
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Female Gaze

      Mar 1, 2022

      The Female Gaze
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Black Artist Named White

      May 31, 2018

      A Black Artist Named White
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Primacy of Painting

      Jun 12, 2020

      The Primacy of Painting
      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Parallel Botany’ In The Age Of Alternative Facts

      Jan 29, 2018

      Author and illustrator Leo Lionni is best known for fitting together translucent, tissue shapes into children’s narratives—the first to do so, although his mouse Frederick (1967) was soon joined by Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969). Lik

      4 min read

    • Article

      Hopeful Interruptions

      Jan 5, 2024

      Hopeful Interruptions
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Curationism

    3.5/5

    3 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Curationism - David Balzer

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1