Semiotics and Art Theory

This book explores the intricate relationships between modernism and postmodernism, or autonomism and contextualism. The limits between these modes are not distinct boundaries; rather, they are open-ended thresholds. The book argues for the persistence of the aesthetic in art theory, understood in a broad, not a purely formalist, sense. In this respect, Romanticism appears to be a bridge between modernism and postmodernism, focusing on art as an aesthetic entity that embodies its meaning. This has two-fold relevance for the modern theory of art ...