Reclaiming Art In The Age Of Artifice A Treatise Critique And Call To Action

Description

Received opinion holds that art is culturally-determined and relative. We are told that whether a picture, a movement, a text, or sound qualifies as a 'work of art' largely depends on social attitudes and convention. Drawing on examples ranging from Paleolithic cave paintings to modern pop music and building on the ideas of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Gilles Deleuze, Carl Jung, and others, J.F. Martel argues that art is an inborn human phenomenon that precedes the formation of culture and even society.

Author description

J.F. MARTEL is a writer and award-winning filmmaker working in the Canadian film and television industry. In addition to making several short films, he has researched, written and/or directed a number of documentary programs on topics related to culture and the arts for major Francophone broadcasters, including La Portee des mots (season two), a twelve-part documentary series exploring the transformative power of song with some of French Canada's great songwriters. Martel is a contributor to the web magazine "Reality Sandwich. "His essay on Stanley Kubrick was included in the first "Reality Sandwich" anthology, "Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age" (Tarcher-Penguin), edited by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan. His work will also appear in North Atlantic Books's forthcoming title "Pluto: Astronomy, Astrology, Mythology, "edited by Richard Grossinger.