Inside Abstraction

"This brilliant new work by Dr. Carolyn Dean, now firmly established as the premier voice in art-based Inka visual culture studies, confidently and persuasively replaces outdated and highly ethnocentric (thoughtlessly outsider and colonial) notions of this famous ancient South American empire’s art. Acknowledging the fascinating worldview of Autonomous Andeans (those flourishing before the distorting European points of view intervened), she shows a deft understanding of the Andean philosophical and linguistic heritages. In short, Dean enlightens us as to the many levels of deep meaning embedded in non-image-based aesthetics, a topic of central importance. Travelers, students at all levels, those fascinated with the ancient Andes, and scholars in many fields will surely applaud Dean’s consummate scholarship as well as her bold and novel juxtaposition of the Inka with other world cultures in which the relational power of ‘abstract’ designs holds sway." - Rebecca R. Stone, Professor and Curator Emeritus, Emory University

"Most Inka art appears ‘abstract’ in that it is not figurative or iconographic. Drawing on Andean ethnography, Dean argues that understanding this choice requires us to change our perspective. It is inappropriate to search for hidden messages or symbolic meanings. For a close analysis of Inka artifacts, Dean draws on wider art theory and anthropology, particularly recent approaches to Andean perspectivism, to argue the need for a radically different approach. The skillful creation of Inka designs involved the artisan collaborating with materials to create forms and patterns that aimed to express and demonstrate concepts and ideals at a more fundamental level than that of imagery. Viewers of Inka architecture, textiles, and pottery appreciate the artisans’ abilities to work with materials to create order, with the absence of any fixed meaning or singular narrative making the creations all the more powerful. This book requires the reader to fundamentally rethink ‘art,’ to go beyond a superficial view of surfaces, to think through and inside design." - Bill Sillar, University College London, author of Shaping Culture: Making Pots and Constructing Households