"Art Is Not What You Think It Is utilizes original research to present a series of critical incursions into the current state of debate on the idea of art, making manifest what has been largely missing or unsaid in those discussions. Links museology, history, theory, and criticism to the realities of contemporary social conditions and shows how they have structurally functioned in a variety of contexts Deals with divisive and controversial problems such as blasphemy and idolatry, and the problem of artistic truth Addresses relations between European notions about art and artifice and those developed in other and especially indigenous cultural traditions "--

"Few phenomena in our lives are as inescapable as what we commonly refer to as art--yet few concepts are more elusive than the idea of art itself. So what does 'art' look like today? And what is its fate? Art Is Not What You Think It Is offers a series of critical incursions into the current state of debate on the idea of art--making manifest what has been largely missing or unsaid in those discussions. Revealing how conventional thinking about art is largely based on misconceptions about its history, Preziosi and Farago call for a radical rethink of the subject and its relationship to a wide swath of today's world--from religion and philosophy to culture and politics. The authors probe a variety of issues, including the dangers of art and trap of the visual; the frame that blinds us; deconstruction of the agencies of art; the intersections of the local and global; the breach of art and religion, and commodifying artistry. Provocative and groundbreaking, Art is Not What You Think It Is will reshape conventional assumptions about the nature, meaning, and ultimate fate of art in today's world."--