December 2017
Intermediate to advanced
208 pages
3h 39m
English
Art can become spectacle when it seeks to bedazzle, entertain, or overwhelm the viewer. This has often been the province of religious art; mosques, Indian temples, and Western churches are often adorned with decorative or narrative imagery, amassed and displayed in a way intended to dazzle its audience. This kind of theatricality reached a zenith in Europe during the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church instituted a policy of using alluring decorative schemes to attract and maintain its congregation.
In recent years, new endeavors in installation and land art and new technical possibilities in multimedia have spawned a greater interest in spectacle.
The problem with spectacle as art is that its impression on the audience ...