Body art / Nicholas Thomas.
By: Thomas, Nicholas
.
Material type: 
BookSeries: World of art: Publisher: London : Thames & Hudson, 2014Description: 208 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780500204207 (pbk.).Subject(s): Body art | Tattooing | Body piercing | Body markingDDC classification: 391.65 | Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General lending | MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending | 391.65 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00195938 | |
| General lending | MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending | 391.65 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00195927 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Body art is the most intimate art form, linking the self, the senses, and the social and political. Today, in almost any major city worldwide, you will encounter tattoos, piercings, henna painting and elaborate hairstyles. In recent years, body art has proliferated in an unprecedented way, borrowing motifs and practices from many different traditions. What is it that new and borrowed body arts do, and what do they tell us about the global culture that we now inhabit?
Anthropologist and art historian Nicholas Thomas explores these questions and many more in this wide-ranging survey of body arts from prehistoric origins to the present.
He illuminates their role in expressing personal and cultural identity; their longstanding associations with ritual, theatricality, criminality and beauty; and their recent resurgence via the Modern Primitive movement and the work of contemporary artists such as Marc Quinn and Rebecca Belmore.
More than 180 illustrations chronicle the extraordinary diversity of body arts, from Australian and African traditions of painting and scarification to Chinese footbinding, Russian prison tattoos, Harlem drag balls and the inked designs worn by celebrities such as Tupac Shakur and David Beckham. For anyone with a personal or professional interest in the subject, Body Art offers a timely and intelligent celebration of this quintessentially human art form.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 200-201) and index.
Introduction -- Humanity -- Society -- Theatricality -- Beauty -- Criminality -- Identity -- Afterword.
Body art, practised across all world cultures and throughout history, is the most intimate art form, linking the self, the senses, and the social and political. In recent years, it has proliferated in an unprecedented way, borrowing motifs and practices from many different traditions. What is it that these new and borrowed body arts do, and what do they tell us about the global culture that we now inhabit? Nicholas Thomas explores these questions and many more in this wide- ranging survey of body arts from prehistoric origins to the present. He illuminates their role in expressing cultural identity; their associations with ritual, theatricality, criminality and beauty; and their recent resurgence via the Modern Primitive movement and in the work of contemporary artists. More than 180 illustrations chronicle the diversity of body arts, from painting and scarification to footbinding, Russian prison tattoos, Harlem drag balls and the inked designs worn by celebrities such as Tupac Shakur and David Beckham. For everyone with any interest in the subject, Body Art offers an intelligent celebration of this quintessentially human art form. -- Back cover.