✨ Featured Offer
Brand New
$75.29
List Price: $50.00
🚚
See all 5 offers from $25.98 FREE standard delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Overview
These questions were posed by Paul Gauguin in a famous canvas painted in Tahiti that heralded the beginning of the modernist era. But they are also the questions asked by modern prehistorians in their quest to reconstruct the human story. In Figuring It Out, Colin Renfrew investigates the profound convergence between the two disciplines, drawing illuminating parallels between the way the modern artist seeks to understand the world by acting upon it, and the way the archaeologist seeks to understand the world through the material traces of such actions.
What does the "sapient paradox"--the fact that 30,000 years passed before anatomically modern humans began to change their world--have to tell us about the unfolding of the history of our species? Why do we now find Cycladic sculpture beautiful when, merely a century ago, such work would not have been thought suitable for display in an art museum? And how is it that, in the light of Marcel Duchamp's revolutionary gallery-based gestures, the prehistoric footsteps at Laetoli have been admitted as art too, albeit of an involuntary kind? Professor Renfrew uses these questions as a springboard for his examination of the history of the human condition, a subject that can only be properly understood, he argues, through the idea of process, of Homo sapiens' active material engagement with their world.
Central to his exploration is a group of leading contemporary artists, including Richard Long, Mark Dion, Antony Gormley, Eduardo Paolozzi, and David Mach, whose works are notable for just such an engagement with their physical surroundings. Figuring It Out takes sculpture off the plinth and archaeology out of the trench, and situates the contemporary artist and archaeologist together at the center of an active endeavor to re-evaluate what it is to be human.
What does the "sapient paradox"--the fact that 30,000 years passed before anatomically modern humans began to change their world--have to tell us about the unfolding of the history of our species? Why do we now find Cycladic sculpture beautiful when, merely a century ago, such work would not have been thought suitable for display in an art museum? And how is it that, in the light of Marcel Duchamp's revolutionary gallery-based gestures, the prehistoric footsteps at Laetoli have been admitted as art too, albeit of an involuntary kind? Professor Renfrew uses these questions as a springboard for his examination of the history of the human condition, a subject that can only be properly understood, he argues, through the idea of process, of Homo sapiens' active material engagement with their world.
Central to his exploration is a group of leading contemporary artists, including Richard Long, Mark Dion, Antony Gormley, Eduardo Paolozzi, and David Mach, whose works are notable for just such an engagement with their physical surroundings. Figuring It Out takes sculpture off the plinth and archaeology out of the trench, and situates the contemporary artist and archaeologist together at the center of an active endeavor to re-evaluate what it is to be human.
| ISBN-13 | 9780500051146 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0500051143 |
| Weight | 0.66 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 7.60 x 1.00 x 10.30 In |
| List Price | $50.00 |
| Edition | 1st Edition |
| Format | Hardcover |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 224 pages |
| Publisher | Thames & Hudson |
| Published On | 2003-04-17 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Used, Good
Seller details
BooksRun
Philadelphia, PA, USA
It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
BookHolders
Gambrills, MD, USA
[ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ] [ Edition: First ] Publisher: ‎ Thames & Hudson Pub Date: 4/1/200...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
✨ Brand New
Seller details
I Love Books Bookstore
Kingsport, TN, USA
Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 224 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Bonita
Santa Clarita, CA, USA
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Brand New
Seller details
BooksRun
Philadelphia, PA, USA
The item is brand new, never used or read. It's in perfect condition and may include supplements and...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026