Fifth Biennale Of Sydney: Private Symbol Social Metaphor
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In 1984, Sydney became the epicentre of the international contemporary art world when the Fifth Biennale of Sydney, themed Private Symbol Social Metaphor, brought together a remarkable constellation of artists from across the globe to interrogate the charged relationship between personal iconography and collective meaning. This landmark exhibition catalogue chronicles the works, ideas, and cultural conversations that defined one of the most conceptually ambitious editions of Australia's premier international art event, presenting a sweeping survey of painting, sculpture, installation, and performance that asked how private visual languages become shared cultural currency. The catalogue stands as an essential document of a pivotal moment in late-twentieth-century art history, capturing the tension between individual artistic vision and broader societal narratives at a time when postmodernism was reshaping the very foundations of artistic practice. Curated with intellectual rigour and a genuinely global perspective, the Fifth Biennale of Sydney illustrates how art functions simultaneously as intimate confession and public declaration — a question as urgently relevant today as it was in 1984. For collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts of contemporary art history, this volume remains an indispensable record of a generation of artists who dared to ask what symbols we share, and what they reveal about us.
Author: Leon Paroissien
Format: Paperback
Genre: Australasion & Pacific history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In 1984, Sydney became the epicentre of the international contemporary art world when the Fifth Biennale of Sydney, themed Private Symbol Social Metaphor, brought together a remarkable constellation of artists from across the globe to interrogate the charged relationship between personal iconography and collective meaning. This landmark exhibition catalogue chronicles the works, ideas, and cultural conversations that defined one of the most conceptually ambitious editions of Australia's premier international art event, presenting a sweeping survey of painting, sculpture, installation, and performance that asked how private visual languages become shared cultural currency. The catalogue stands as an essential document of a pivotal moment in late-twentieth-century art history, capturing the tension between individual artistic vision and broader societal narratives at a time when postmodernism was reshaping the very foundations of artistic practice. Curated with intellectual rigour and a genuinely global perspective, the Fifth Biennale of Sydney illustrates how art functions simultaneously as intimate confession and public declaration — a question as urgently relevant today as it was in 1984. For collectors, scholars, and enthusiasts of contemporary art history, this volume remains an indispensable record of a generation of artists who dared to ask what symbols we share, and what they reveal about us.