Now is the Time

The 20th century was brought to a definitive conclusion by the attack on the World Trade Center in New York – the new millennium was a fact. But what developments has art under¬gone since this violent dawn of an era and how has meaning been attributed to these developments in art theory?
Now Is the Time: Art and Theory in the 21st Century is an anthology of essays about seven pressing social and art-specific themes that encompass the full scope of the force-field of the visual arts. Renowned international theorists as well as promising young art critics and curators share their visions on a range of issues in highly accessible essays: What is the impact of 9/11 on our visual culture and the visual arts? What role does religion play in polarization? What are the consequences of ongoing globalization for the visual arts? How can we explain the revival of interest in canons and what function do they attribute to art?
These socially engaged themes are alternated with topics that are traditionally more rooted in art, such as the return of Romanticism, the relative novelty of new media in the ‘post-medium’ era, and the utopian ideals of design. With such a varied selection of subjects and authors, Now Is the Time builds a bridge between art and theory as well as between art and society, at a level attuned to academic discourse yet at the same time accessible for a wide-ranging public with an interest in art.
With contributions by Terry Eagleton, Boris Groys, Hou Hanru, Jörg Heiser, Laura U. Marks, W.J.T. Mitchell, Jos de Mul, Robert S. Nelson, Ruth Noack, Rick Poynor, Kaja Silverman, Sean Snyder, Julian Stallabrass, Camiel van Winkel.