Unchained Art.: Insights into Artistic Awareness. (English Edition).

Through the “idea-based” approach proposed in this book—intended for anyone interested in the subject of art, whether from a professional or educational perspective—readers will be able to gain a comprehensive view of the issues encountered in that world. Even providing a partial answer to the questions posed would already be quite an achievement, and the author hopes to have accomplished this.

The book consists of four chapters, spread across 78 paragraphs, and an Addendum. The aforementioned ideas primarily address the key themes and motivations that drive an artist, ranging from commercial considerations to the various roles of those who work in the art world, and also including some intriguing artist biographies. The Appendix provides a framework for constructing an online image focused on and for artists.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction

1. Fundamental Questions

1.1 Life and Art
1.2 Art and Reality: What Relationship?
1.3 The Arts and Human Physiology
1.4 The Weight of Legacy in the Work of Art
1.5 A Manifesto for Committed Painting
1.6 Art and Research: My Opinion
1.7 Where (Usually) Emerging Young Artists Go Wrong
1.8 Truly Understanding a Work of Art
1.9 A Way of Explaining Art
1.10 Can We Know the World Through Art?
1.11 Should We Value Contemporary or Ancient Artworks?
1.12 Pictorial Art and Collecting
1.13 What Compromises Must an Artist Make to Be Able to Work?
1.14 Recognizing a Valuable Artist
1.15 Discovering an Artist
1.16 Very Current Considerations
1.17 Painting Competitions: To Participate or Not?
1.18 How to Become an Artist?

1.19 Who and What Is Art For?
1.20 China and the West: Axonometry vs. Perspective
1.21 Music and Society

1.22 Phenomenology of Art in the Contemporary World
1.23 The Questions We Should Answer in Art

1.24 Figurative Art and the Word

1.25 How Does One Become Damien Hirst?
1.26 Art and Truth

1.27 The Artist and the Question of Responsibility
1.28 Art and Political Regimes: Some Considerations
1.29 The Ugly, the Awful, and the Fake in Art
1.30 Functions and Facets of Art
1.31 What Does Art Criticism of a Painting Consist Of?
1.32 Totality and Distinction in Literature (and Other Arts)

2. A Philosophical Outlook

2.1 Art: Classifying the Unclassifiable?
2.2 Art and Domination
2.3 Paradigms of Art
2.4 Art and Science
2.5 Art, Imitation, and Affection
2.6 Art According to Hegel
2.7 Art According to the Philosophers
2.8 Artistic Creation and Truth
2.9 Truth and Art
2.10 What Is the Significant Form?
2.11 Ernst Gombrich: A Life for Criticism
2.12 To Understand Art, We Must Study Aesthetics
2.13 A Bit More on Aesthetics
2.14 A Reflection on Art and Romanticism
2.15 Nietzsche and the Grand Style
2.16 On the Phenomenon of Widespread Aestheticism
2.17 Islam and Art
2.18 Islam and Writing
2.19 The Latest Trends in Today’s Art, by Gillo Dorfles
2.20 Simulacri e luoghi comuni (Simulacra and Commonplaces), by Gillo Dorfles
2.21 Notes on African Art
2.22 Contemporary Japanese Painting

3. The Market

3.1 The Art Collector and His/Her Doubts
3.2 Between the Artist and the Gallery That Represents Them, Always Choose the Latter
3.3 Ending Up Holding a Dud
3.4 The Issue of Independence Is Crucial Among Art Professionals
3.5 Is There a Speculative Bubble Risk in the Art Market?
3.6 Is There an Ethical Decalogue for Gallerists?
3.7 Combining Aesthetic Pleasure and Financial Stability with Contemporary Art
3.8 If I Were a Gallerist: The Safe Interchange Project by East-West Art Gallery
3.9 I’d Like to Open an Art Gallery. How Do I Do It?
3.10 L’economia dell’arte contemporanea (The Economy of Contemporary Art), a Book by Alessia Zorloni
3.11 Contemporary Art: The American Renaissance
3.12 Coordinates of the Art Market

3.13 Trends in the Art Market

4. Biographies

4.1 Portrait of an Artist
4.2 A Comparison Between Two Artistic Visions of the Past: Ernesto Treccani and Argio Orell

4.3 The Case of Ai Weiwei
4.4 About a Painter: Roberto Sardo
4.5 Dyalma Stultus: Painting a Dream Until It Becomes Reality
4.6 Snoop Doggy Dogg: Integration to the Point of Dissolution
4.7 Van Gogh as an Example of the Clash Between the Individual and Society in the Age of Modernity
4.8 Klavdija Marušič, Painting on Butterfly Wings
4.9 Han Meilin
4.10 Lojze (Luigi) Spacal
4.11 Edmondo Passauro, the Most Underrated of Trieste’s Painters

Addendum
Bibliography
Webography