Thomas Fillitz

Paul van der Grijp

Drawing on the exciting developments that have occurred in the anthropology of art over the last twenty years, this study uses ethnographic methods to explore shifts in the art market and global contemporary art. Recognizing that the huge diversity of global phenomena requires research on the ground, An Anthropology of Contemporary Art examines the local art markets, biennials, networks of collectors, curators, artists, patrons, auction houses, and museums that constitute the global art world. Divided into four parts – Picture and Medium; World Art Studies and Global Art; Art Markets, Maecenas and Collectors; Participatory Art and Collaboration – chapters go beyond the standard emphasis on Europe and North America to present first-hand fieldwork from a wide range of areas, including Brazil, Turkey, and Asia and the Pacific. With contributions from distinguished anthropologists such as Philippe Descola and Roger Sansi Roca, this book provides a fresh approach to key topics in the discipline. A model for demonstrating how contemporary art can be studied ethnographically, this is a vital read for students in anthropology of art, visual anthropology, visual culture, and related fields.

Practices, Markets, and Collectors

An Anthropology of Contemporary Art

This book explores the role of mana in past and present configurations of chiefly power in the Pacific. Chiefs are often seen as transitional figures between traditional (tribal or feudal) and modern forms of leadership, the latter characterized by rationality and the nation-state with its accompanying bureaucracy. Today, the political arena in the Pacific, although occupied by presidents, members of parliament and court justices, is still ruled by chiefs supporting their authority by tradition, including the notion of mana. Mana may be defined as divine inspiration or energy that manifests itself in persons, objects, places and natural phenomena. Polynesian chiefs have mana because of their descent from ancient gods. Other key concepts such as asymmetrical ideology, mythical constructions of social reality, and social drama are elaborated and applied to a wide specter of ethnographic examples. The configuration and reconfiguration of Tongan chieftaincy and kingship in this book are analyzed as an extended case study of the gradual, and sometimes shock-like, integration of a Polynes ian culture into a global structure, a nation-state, partly imposed from the outside (missionarization, colonization) but also generated from within including state formation and the recent quest for democracy. Together with other Polynesian examples, this forms a relevant illustration of both continuity and change in the configuration of mana and chieftaincy in processes of globalization in the Pacific.

Political Power and Divine Inspiration in Polynesia

Manifestations of Mana

Identity and Development presents a remarkable record of Tonga s increasing participation in the modern global economy, and provides anthropologists, economists, and historians with a detailed case study that bears heavily on major issues of the day, both practically and theoretically. The book focuses on issues of identity, entrepreneurship, and the intricacies of development and addresses the question: How (in the current state of the economy) can a Tongan become a successful grower? This question is set against the background of a boom in cash cropping, sparked by a burgeoning export trade with Japan.

Tongan Culture, Agriculture, and the Perenniality of the Gift

Identity and Development

What is the cultural phenomenon of collecting all about? What moves the collector? Discussed are both elitist cultural objects and non-elitist such a mass producted items. Book contributes to the collecting literature from an anthropological point of view.

Towards an Anthropology of Collecting

Passion and Profit

Drawing on the exciting developments that have occurred in the anthropology of art over the last twenty years, this study uses ethnographic methods to explore shifts in the art market and global contemporary art. Recognizing that the huge diversity of global phenomena requires research on the ground, An Anthropology of Contemporary Art examines the local art markets, biennials, networks of collectors, curators, artists, patrons, auction houses, and museums that constitute the global art world.Divided into four parts – Picture and Medium; World Art Studies and Global Art; Art Markets, Maecenas and Collectors; Participatory Art and Collaboration – chapters go beyond the standard emphasis on Europe and North America to present first-hand fieldwork from a wide range of areas, including Brazil, Turkey, and Asia and the Pacific.With contributions from distinguished anthropologists such as Philippe Descola and Roger Sansi Roca, this book provides a fresh approach to key topics in the discipline. A model for demonstrating how contemporary art can be studied ethnographically, this is a vital read for students in anthropology of art, visual anthropology, visual culture, and related fields.

Paul van der Grijp

About

Books

Join the club