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The Journal of Documentation does not normally publish papers on the classification, etc., of specific subjects. An exception has been made in this case, since most of the available examples of faceted classifications are in the field of science and technology and it is felt useful to publish an illustration of the use of this technique for a subject within the humanities. The techniques of faceted classification were applied to the fine arts in a scheme which was designed for use in a college library. Some problems of classifying the literature are discussed, together with the solutions adopted. An excerpt schedule with an alphabetical subject index and some classified examples are provided to illustrate the project.

This chapter begins with a brief journey through the history of art in order to point out art serves both social and psychological functions and how it is tinged by civilizational and historical context by accumulating layers of purposes and sense from the past times and diverse mind frames. Art produced in the first quarter of the twenty-first century has absorbed the late trends of the twentieth century and has traced and reinforced some paths, especially those in connection to economy (art as a valuable market product) and society (art as statement, critical posture and participatory citizenship). The chapter brings together these ideas with examples showing, on one side, the economic connection of art to the market and mass consumption, while other projects, on the other side, include a politicized facet and activism through self and collective curatorship, participatory art and glocalization of its matters of interest, audiences and social impact.

Through a critical reading of a twentieth-century Bengali artist’s autobiography, this paper aims to attempt to demonstrate how commercial art and the consumption ethos symbolized by that art represented an archetypal bhadralok insignia. A close examination of this insignia reveals how the dynamics of modern liberal values mediating through the colonial capitalist structure in relation to the regional particularities of Bengal opened up a new space of cosmopolitanism, where there is an attempt to reframe cultural practices in the light of a broader global history of interrogation, reason, change and emancipation.

This paper is a historical analysis of primary sources.

It was found that the bhadralok-led Bengal School of Art influenced commercial art of early postcolonial Bengal.

The study is limited to the region of Bengal.

This paper makes contributions to one of the less-researched, but very important areas, of business history in India.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the professional biography of Ethel A. Stephens, examining her career as an artist and a teacher in Sydney between 1890 and 1920. Accounts of (both male and female) artists in this period often dismiss their teaching as just a means to pay the bills. This paper focuses attention on Stephens’ teaching and considers how this, combined with her artistic practice, influenced her students.

Using a fragmentary record of a successful female artist and teacher, this paper considers the role of art education and a career in the arts for respectable middle-class women.

Stephens’ actions and experiences show the ways she negotiated between the public and private sphere. Close examination of her “at home” exhibitions demonstrates one way in which these worlds came together as sites, enabling her to identify as an artist, a teacher and as a respectable middle-class woman.

This paper offers insight into the ways women negotiated the Sydney art scene and found opportunities for art education outside of the established modes.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The development of public art in French New Towns in the 1970s and 1980s was one of the most spectacular forms of state intervention in urban policy. Along with the new architecture programmes, the hundreds of works of art that adorn the public realm of the French New Towns help to differentiate them from the grands ensembles. This public art, which was highly publicised at the time, represents a heritage intrinsically linked to the urban history of New Towns but also to the history of French cultural policies at the end of the twentieth century. Artistic and town planning innovations underlie many public art projects. Artists and town planners participated, on a city scale, in the cultural developments that sought to respond to the expectations of the May 1968 crisis. In New Towns, the role of art was not simply to provide a backdrop to beautify the city but also to contribute to the success of new urban neighbourhoods. This involved placing visual landmarks in the urban space, confronting the residents with living art (painted walls, sculpted staircases, light paths, etc.).

The appropriation of these works of art by the public and councils was far from unanimous. It was only at the beginning of the twenty-first century that a heritage reflection emerged and led to a list of works of art being drawn up, with a view to protecting them. With the disappearance of state supervision over certain New Towns (1998–2002), damaged works has become a stigma in the public realm. A policy of restoration is being therefore introduced in certain New Towns, with public art participating in the identity of councils that do not hesitate to present themselves as ‘contemporary towns’ and take on the restoration or achievement of certain works that they now consider to be their heritage.

Duchamp caused a revolution in the art of the twentieth century with the readymade concept, and simultaneously he opened Pandora's Box, which converted art into a simulation and made it dependent on discursive practices. This degenerated into a deconstructive vulgate when, from the 1960s onwards, an ‘aesthetic of banality’ was accentuated and the media institutionalized the ‘guerrilla’ between the practices and the discourses. Art ‘wrecked’ in a regime of hyper-reality of the image, and the art paradigms and criteria shifted from aesthetics to the law of the financial markets. At the same time, the proliferation of coexisting cultural ideas and a revolving cultural miscegenation ended up splitting the kingdom of the art. In the art world today, there is a cleavage between artists: on one side, the adepts to the heteronomy (a line that was born with ready-made products), those who, following dominant rules, work for the market and the organizations; on the other side, those, more passionate, for whom art is a hermeneutics for self-knowledge. Meanwhile, Picasso's aura returns to the art scene, in a panorama that until now was adverse to him.

The function for the historically Black college and university (HBCU) has always been a hallmark of resolve educational inclusion and justice to promote the Negro identity, and develop social and economic mobility. Yet despite diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) determinations popular today, the authors contend that to cater to subpopulations outside of the Black community creates a marginalization and distraction from their historic purpose and legacy. As a necessary function of relevance, the focus of underserved populations on HBCU campuses should, instead, unwaveringly remain on African-Americans, descendants of slaves (DoS). We empirically examine HBCU academic curricula for African-American consciousness that is forward thinking for community advocacy and social justice. Research findings of HBCU course catalogs (N = 98) describe a very limited scope of course titles and descriptions that appear to cultivate intellectual tools to engage in racial and ethnic self-advocacy as a vital role for continued survival. The authors contend that the relevance of HBCU institutions cannot be fully realized and promoted absent a comprehensive understanding of the educational and socioeconomic status of the African-American population. Discussed are the implications and recommendations of how HBCUs will be able to retain their uniqueness and viability of purpose, including the application of social reconstructive theory in practice, as a theoretical framework.

Much writing on dissenting intellectuals posits a uniform relationship between autonomy from the popular element and social influence. The case of U.S. poets from 1930 to 1975 challenges this, as dissenting poets' sphere of influence grew during the hegemony of populist as well as antipopulist movements. In order to account for this, this chapter draws on the conceptualization of autonomy as a process whose parameters are mutually irreducible and potentially contradictory. Where these parameters are more or less fully synchronized, dissenting intellectuals face a united bloc of opponents that they cannot divide; therefore, they need to fight all of these opponents simultaneously. Where there is little such synchronization, in contrast, they can negotiate temporary alliances with some of their foes, use these alliances to secure gains in more important fronts, and revise their alliances as circumstances change. Twentieth-century United States, this chapter argues, was an example of the latter kind of setting. Dissenting poets were able to use universities and popular element against one another, depending on how they saw their overall situation. When autonomy from universities mattered most, they reclaimed the popular element; when autonomy from the popular element mattered most, they set aside their differences with university administrators and joined the academic ranks. This distinction between greater and less synchronization of the powers, the chapter argues, has implications for political sociology beyond the study of intellectuals.