Aesthetics and the Iconoclasm of Contemporary Art

The main themes and aims of this book are understanding aesthetics, contemporary art and the end of the avant-garde not from the traditional viewpoint of the metaphysics of the beautiful and the sublime but rather thru close connection to the techno-genesis of virtual worlds. This book tackles problems in contemporary art theory such as the body in space and time of digital technologies, along with other issues in visual studies and image science.  Further intentions exhibit the fundamental reasons for the disappearance of the picture in the era of virtual reality starting from the notion of contemporary art as realized iconoclasm; art has no world for its 'image'. The author argues that the iconoclasm of contemporary art has severe consequences.  This text appeals to philosophers of art and those interested in contemporary art theory.

Žarko Paic is a professor at the Faculty of Textile Technology, Department of Fashion Design, University of Zagreb, where he teaches aesthetics, semiotics and media studies.  He graduated at the Faculty of Political Science, M.A. and has a PhD in sociology from the Faculty of Humanities in Zagreb. He is the main editor of Journal for Theory, Culture and Visual Arts Fort, and deputy editor of the European Messenger.  He recently published White Holes and the Visualization of the Body, with Palgrave Macmillan, London-New York, 2019.