Gell Alfred. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. — 271 p.: ill. — ISBN: 0-19-828013-0.In Art and Agency, Alfred Gell formulates an anthropological theory of visual art that focuses on the social context of art production, circulation, and reception. As a theory of the nexus of social relations involving works of art, this work suggests that in certain contexts, art-objects substitute for persons and thus mediate social agency. Diversely illustrated and based on European, Polynesian, Melanesian, and Australian sources,