Work in Progress

Who’s afraid of contemporary art? An A to Z Guide to the Art World is the very fitting title for the witty, educational book about the world of contemporary art, written by authors Kyung An (assistant curator at the Guggenheim Museum, New York) and Jessica Cerasi (exhibitions manager at Carroll / Fletcher gallery, London) and published by Thames & Hudson in 2017. The authors attempt to condense the history of contemporary art and the inner workings of the art world in this fun, easy-to-read volume. The book is divided into 26 chapters, each answering a well-chosen question about contemporary art and its world, from A to Z, with each letter corresponding to a specific topic or idea. After briefly explaining the concept of the book, they give a concise and relevant example; whether it is a individual artist, a certain way contemporary art is created, or venues for contemporary art. I found the example in chapter 8 particularly relevant, because it explains the messages against mis...

A Brief Introduction We live in a world defined by image. A world overpopulated by image and overloaded with meaning. Our current life is profoundly influenced by these two coordinates, meaning and image, in all of its aspects, so much so that it would prove difficult for us to imagine a world without them. We perceive everything that is around us through image, regarded as the most general representation. The science that concerns itself with meaning, with the way that our representations generate meaning, is semiotics. In regards with the above considerations, we can say that we should be able to apply a semiotic analysis to virtually any work of art, in order to gain access to what lies beneath the first layer of sensations and appearances. Regarding visual arts, semiotics is wider than the symbolic study, as it provokes concepts such as naturalism or realism, but also the concept of intentionality. The semiotic analysis understands the relationships between elements, beyond ...

A dilettante reader may be inclined to wrongly perceive Russian literature, and define it in a hasty manner, more precisely, just as it follows: a never-ending tangled series of tragic stories, embracing lots of doomed characters (and this is, of course, only one example of those countless versions of puerile views). Now, in order to add a bit of veracity and wit to these opinions, I would like to state the fact that, indeed, some of the Russian writings can easily fool the reader who doesn’t pay the required dose of attention, and destroy their interest. However, the extent of this nation’s literature is much broader and the subjects that are often approached are of great importance. In order to easily proving this, I intend to emphasize a piece of work that may not be that popular among us, but whose author, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), is widely known. Therefore, I will refer, in the following lines, to the essay called What is Art?  (1897) whose thesis has undoubtedly made me re...

This blog is meant to showcase the works (in progress) of the Art History students from the "Babeș-Bolyai" University in Cluj-Napoca. As they experiment with different topics, approaches, and styles, Work in Progress will function as a platform launching their texts into the world wide web for their colleagues as well as others to be able to view and appreciate their efforts. Hopefully, as the blog grows it will also help them with tracking their own progress as they exercise writing techniques and perfect their craft. Most of the texts will come in the form of reviews, analyzing books and even art shows, but also as essays or short preparatory studies on various art history-related themes. All of the chosen subjects and the resulting texts themselves will first be presented and debated in our regular group sessions and round-table discussions. Following the feedback the texts are tinkered with until they reach their best possible form before being published. V.P.