Literature in our Collection
(M-Z)

Myers, Fred: "Disturbances in the field: Exhibiting Aboriginal art in the US", Journal of Sociology 49 (2-3) 2013, S. 151-172, DOI:10.1177/1440783313481520

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Review⁄Abstract

Table of Contents

Abstract -151-

Introduction -151-

The time and space of art worlds, the differences among objects -153-

Differentiating objects -155-

From classification to practice -155-

A frame of the exhibition: a new kind of beauty is born -157-

The structure of the field, partly: ‘You can take the art out of the bush, but you can’t take the bush out of the art!’ -158-

The structure of the discursive field -161-

‘Icons of the Desert’ -162-

The catalog -164-

On the bus: symposium and Ithaca -165-

The opening, New York, and national value -165-

‘Restricting’ the formalist narrative -167-

Friction: a collector’s journey of understanding -168-

Conclusion: the vicissitudes of bush capital -169-

Notes -171-

References -171-

Biographical note -172-

Review⁄Abstract

Abstract: This article considers the role of varied agents in the circulation of Papunya art across the relations between the Australian and the international art fields. My analysis follows an exhibition that took place at New York University’s Grey Gallery in 2009, tracing in particular the international circulation of the highly valued ‘early Papunya boards’. By focusing on the unsettled nature of Aboriginal art’s circulation and the problem of producing ist value socially in a world that is not consolidated, I consider Bourdieu’s ‘field of cultural production’ as still becoming. Finally, my argument should caution against assuming that ‘antipodean fields’ might be addressed as autonomous from international agents, circuits of distribution and so on. It also questions Bourdieu’s tendency to treat national art fields as independent.