Art Is Not What You Think It Is utilizes original research
to present a series of critical incursions into the current state
of debate on the idea of art, making manifest what has been largely
missing or unsaid in those discussions.



* Links museology, history, theory, and criticism to the
realities of contemporary social conditions and shows how they have
structurally functioned in a variety of contexts

* Deals with divisive and controversial problems such as
blasphemy and idolatry, and the problem of artistic truth

* Addresses relations between European notions about art and
artifice and those developed in other and especially indigenous
cultural traditions

Donald Preziosi is Emeritus Professor of Art History and
Critical Theory at UCLA, and Former Slade Professor of Fine Art at
Oxford. He trained in art history, classics, and linguistics at
Harvard, and is the author and co-author of many books including
The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology (2009).

Claire Farago is Professor of Renaissance Art Theory and
Criticism at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is author
and co-author of many books on art theory, historiography, and
museums, and is an authority on the manuscripts of Leonardo da
Vinci. Her numerous publications include Re-Reading Leonardo:
The Treatise on Painting across Europe 1550-1900 (2009).

Donald Preziosi and Claire Farago have previously collaborated as
co-editors of Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum
(2004).

• Links museology, history, theory, and criticism to the realities of contemporary social conditions and shows how they have structurally functioned in a variety of contexts
• Deals with divisive and controversial problems such as blasphemy and idolatry, and the problem of artistic truth
• Addresses relations between European notions about art and artifice and those developed in other and especially indigenous cultural traditions

List of Figures vi

Preface: Art Is Not What You Think It Is viii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: Art and/as Manifesto 1

First Incursion: Artistry and Authorship 19

Second Incursion: The Dangers of Art and the Trap of the Visual
33

Third Incursion: To See the Frame that Blinds Us 52

Fourth Incursion: Deconstructing the Agencies of Art 74

Fifth Incursion: Intersections of the Local and the Global
94

Sixth Incursion: Into the Breach of Art and Religion 121

Seventh Incursion: The Art of Commodifying Artistry 142

Index 165