Citadel Culture / Edition 2

by Otto Karl Werckmeister

Overview

"Citadel" evokes a rich mixture of associations—from images of urban centers of commerce and culture to war and the need to defend what is fortified within. Preserving its layered meanings, O. K. Werckmeister plucks the word from its usual moorings and employs it as a compelling metaphor in a brilliant retrospective of contemporary Western culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226893617
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	06/25/1991
Edition description:	1
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

O. K. Werckmeister is the Mary Jane Crowe Distinguished Professor in Art History at Northwestern University.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Eco
Bilal
Stirling, Bacon
Kraftwerk, Boulez
Habermas
Lucas, Morris
Conclusion
Epilog

Editorial Reviews

Citadels protected ancient cities from outside enemies and against rebellions by their own inhabitants. In an often provocative if idiosyncratic assault on the culture of the 1980s, Werckmeister, a Northwestern University art history professor, critiques our ``citadel culture,'' whose seemingly avant-garde art is besieged, fragmented and divorced from history. The author insists that even when ``citadel art'' strives to be political, it aestheticizes experience; as examples, he analyzes painter Robert Morris's Firestorm series, with its muted references to Hiroshima, and comic book artist Enki Bilal's visions of Third World immigrants, decaying London and communist repression in Eastern Europe. Werckmeister sees a fortress mentality at work in the Star Wars film trilogy and in the ``defensive'' Star Wars military shield. Other examples he discusses include Francis Bacon's paintings, rock group Kraftwerk's electronic litanies, James Stirling's post-modern architecture and German thinker Jurgen Habermas's political philosophy. His highly selective choice of topics seems tailor-made to fit his thesis. (May)

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