The Fake: Forgery and its Place in Art [Paperback]

The Fake blends history, ethical concerns, and artistic examination in a delicate weave of unique insights.Contemporary aesthetics has transformed the fake from a problem in connoisseurship to a problem in the philosophy of art. Contemporary art has transformed the replication of a given work from the status of the fake to that of an appropriation. These shifts affect virtually every component in the concept of art, and it is greatly to S?ndor Radn?ti's credit that he has addressed these revolutionary changes in a systematic way, and written a sweeping, insightful book, which pivots in the concept of the fake, but carries the reader through current philosophical reflection and contemporary artistic practice.What is wrong with a fake? Is it wrong at all? The discussion of these questions leads Radn?ti to the re-examination of the main aesthetic and conceptual implications of the autonomous art of modernity (originality, novelty, tradition, cannon), to their crisis and transformations in the practice of contemporary art. This is one of the most original and interesting books in art theory published in the last decade.The Fake is a splendid book: it combines great scholarship, entertaining story-telling and an innovative theoretical approach. Radn?ti's book is a jewel in contemporary art history as it is also an original statement about the vicissitudes of our postmodern condition.A fascinating study.A pioneering work in the field of aesthetics . . . its scholarship is impeccable.Radnoti is...a rigorous, common-sense thinker of daunting erudition. His interest is art forgery goes way beyond the Hitchcockian detective stories that pop up regularly in newspapers to the philosophical structure of the enterprise itself. Get your hands on a copy of The Fake and westle with it. You'll find that Radnoti has done us all a favor.In this fine work, S?ndor Radn?ti uses the concept of forgery to explore important issues in art theory. It is an insightful strategy. . . . alc.