“The insightful essays in Lee’s latest (after Chronophobia: On Time in the Art of the 1960s) argue that the art world must be understood not as existing above realities such as globalization and world capitalism, but rather as an active participant in constructing those realities, raising the question of “how to confront the relation between globalization and contemporary art when we are both object of, and agent for, such processes.” Lee, a professor of art history at Stanford, takes on four explicatory topics to construct her argument, looking at Takashi Murakami’s work and Post-Fordism, Andreas Gursky and the concept of ether, Thomas Hirschhorn largely in relation to the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and the rise of “pseudo-collectives” in contemporary art practices. Each essay is rich with contemporary connections and able to stand alone, and together they form a nuanced take on the art world and some of its biggest failings, bringing diverse theories to bear on the art works and the processes of the artists themselves. While Lee is spectacularly informed, she navigates the complexity of her topic with ease, creating a clear argument that avoids polemic in favor of deeper insight, even as she stresses that “the art world’s penchant for the frivolous and its coziness with an ascendant oligarchy can only confound—or even offend.” For this insistence on a revised understanding of contemporary art practice, Lee’s text is as invaluable as it is engaging.” http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-262-01773-2
