Looking High and Low: Art and Cultural Identity

Can low riders rightfully be considered art? Why are Chicano murals considered art while graffiti is considered vandalism? What do Native American artisans think about the popular display of their ceremonial objects? How do the middlebrow notions of Getty workers influence highbrow values at the J. Paul Getty Trust? Looking High and Low attempts to answer these questions – and the broader question What is art? – by bringing together a collection of challenging essays on the meaning of art in cultural context and on the ways that our understandings of art and aesthetics have been influenced by social process and cultural values. This volume challenges conventional modes of analyzing art. Its ethnographic explorations illuminate the importance of art as a cultural force while creating a greater awareness of the roles that scholars, museum curators, and critics play in the evaluation of art. pp. 210 illusts