ABSTRACT
This book takes an interdisciplinary, transnational and cross-cultural approach to reflect on, critically examine and challenge the surprisingly robust practice of making art after death in an artist's name, through the lenses of scholars from the fields of art history, economics and law, as well as practicing artists.
Works of art conceived as multiples, such as sculptures, etchings, prints, photographs and conceptual art, can be—and often are—remade from original models and plans long after the artist has passed. Recent sales have suggested a growing market embrace of posthumous works, contemporaneous with questioning on the part of art history. Legal norms seem unready for this surge in posthumous production and are beset by conflict across jurisdictions. Non-Western approaches to posthumous art, from Chinese emulations of non-living artists to Native American performances, take into account rituals of generational passage at odds with contemporary, market-driven approaches.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, the art market, art law, art management, museum studies and economics.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part One|35 pages
Stage Setting
chapter 1|10 pages
Posthumous Casts in the Twentieth Century
part Two|35 pages
Intentions and (Mis)understandings
chapter 4|12 pages
Behind the Scenes
part Three|38 pages
Museum Stewardship
chapter 9|14 pages
Patterns on Maya's Veil
part Four|55 pages
Unruly Afterlives
chapter 12|9 pages
Medardo Rosso's The Emperor Vitellius
chapter 14|11 pages
An Economic Strategy to Exploit the Rent of Notoriety in an Emblematic Case Study
part Five|49 pages
Continuity and Community