Art After Deconstruction

In 1999 the artist and art critic Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe published the now classic Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime. The book was an alternative history of art and its relationship to technology and an argument for the return of beauty in contemporary art. It was seen as part of a whole wave of books advocating the revival of aesthetics in the wake of postmodernism. Gilbert-Rolfes book was unusual, however, in that it made its case using the same French theory as the postmodernism it opposed. Art after Deconstruction continues Gilbert-Rolfes argument for the return of aesthetics in contemporary art. In three long essays and an extended interview, he puts forward a compelling case for the renegotiation of the stakes of art after the long period of postmodern iconoclasm. In addition, scholars from England, America, and Australia address aspects of Gilbert-Rolfes work as both artist and art critic.