SKU: 81830883365

Documents of Contemporary Art: The Cute

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Documents of Contemporary Art: The CuteEdited by Sianne Ngai "In her groundbreaking Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (2012), Sianne Ngai showed how our ambivalent attachment to cuteness is a key aesthetic response to our current hypercommodified world. The Cute is a brilliantly curated archive of the pervasiveness and complexities of cute sensibilities, as reflected in the work of a wide range of artists and thinkers. If you did not know already, the cute is everywhere."

Edited by Sianne Ngai

"In her groundbreaking Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (2012), Sianne Ngai showed how our ambivalent attachment to cuteness is a key aesthetic response to our current hypercommodified world. The Cute is a brilliantly curated archive of the pervasiveness and complexities of cute sensibilities, as reflected in the work of a wide range of artists and thinkers. If you did not know already, the cute is everywhere."

-Ina Blom, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Classics,
History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo/Department of
Art History, University of Chicago


"Sianne Ngai, the groundbreaking analyst of the minor aesthetic categories that pervade capitalist culture, provides here a sourcebook of the cute – that deeply ambivalent feeling that oscillates between cuddles and a voracious, even violent, need to consume. The striking array of texts sets some figures who would seem the antithesis of cuteness (Adorno, Wyndham Lewis) against the various blandishments of Jeff Koons, Yoshitomo Nara and Mariko Mori."


-Julian Stallabrass, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art
Courtauld Institute of Art, London


"The inexhaustibility of the meaningfulness of cuteness demonstrated in this volume reflects the promiscuity and associative magnetism of the concept of cuteness, thus transforming what was once a relatively 'simple' phenomenon into a teeming crowd of cuteness and para-cuteness. Flooding the zone of cuteness in this way models its bewildering and generative sociability – and its capacity to serve as a mob-like emblem of mass consumption."


-Daniel Tiffany, author of My Silver Planet:
A Secret History of Poetry and Kitsch

The Cute tracks the astonishing impact of a single aesthetic category on post-war and contemporary art, and on the vast range of cultural practices and discourses on which artists draw. From robots and cat videos to ice cream socials, The Cute explores the ramifications of an aesthetic ‘of’ or ‘about’ minorness – or what is perceived to be diminutive, subordinate, and above all, unthreatening – on the shifting forms and contents of art today. This anthology is the first of its kind to show how contemporary artists have worked on and transformed the cute, and in ways that not only complexify its meaning, but reshape their own artistic practices.

Artists surveyed include Peggy Ahwesh, Nayland Blake, Paul Chan, Adrian Howells, Juliana Huxtable, Larry Johnson, Mike Kelley, Dean Kenning, Wyndham Lewis, Jeff Koons, Sean-Kierre Lyons, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Alake Shilling, Annette Messager, Mariko Mori, Takashi Murakami, Charlemagne Palestine, David Robbins, Mika Rottenberg, Allen Ruppersberg, Jack Smith, Cosima von Bonin, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Yoshitomo Nara.

Writers include Sasha Archibald, Roland Barthes, Leigh Claire La Berge, Lauren Berlant, Ian Bogost, Jennifer Doyle, Lee Edelman, Adrienne Edwards, Lewis Gordon, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Stephen Jay Gould, Lori Merish, John Morreall, Juliane Rebentisch, Frances Richard, Carrie Rickey, Friedrich Schiller, Peter Schjeldahl, Kanako Shiokawa, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Kevin Young.

Sianne Ngai is the author of Ugly Feelings (2005), Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (2012) and Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form (2020). She is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of English at the University of Chicago.

Paperback, 240 pages, 210 x 145 mm

ISBN 978-0-85488-298-4

First published 2022

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Ms.VioletGlikestoread
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 5
Fantasy Romance
Format: Kindle
✨’Would it truly be that bad?' he muttered, and for the first time since she'd awoken, there was a hint of humanity in his quiet words, a crack in that jaundiced shield. Warm breath brushed past her scalp. His arms didn't let go. 'If you ended up here with no way to leave?' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Fantasy Romance 📖 🥀Oh, these moment with our MMC reach deep for me and make me love him all the more! Curse Of The Thorn King is @authorlisettemarshall’s new and utterly enchanting Beauty and the Beast retelling, and I absolutely loved it! This steamy, forced proximity, enemies to lovers story is the first installment in the new Wayfarer Fae series and I fell hard for these characters! ✨I thoroughly enjoyed the unique flower magic systems, the assassin plot, all of fun additions of Lady Lockwell's Handbook of Etiquette, and how that factored into the story. The flirtatious and stabby banter between the two main characters had me grinning like a complete fool as the romance developed….all while experiencing the moments that made my heart ache and even break for our MC’s as the plot unfolded. 🥀As I read Curse of the Thorn King I was consumed by that quintessential balance of angst, tension, steam, COMPLETE frustration (in the best way) emotional turmoil, and swoon worthy moments that my heart has come to associate with the magic of Lisette Marshall’s writing. This authors always makes me feel allll the feels ✨✨It is no surprise that I intimately drawn to these characters and their story. ✨I highly recommend Curse Of The Thorn King to fantasy, fantasy romance, and romantasy readers.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2023
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Lia
Cuba, US
★★★★★ 5
5 ⭐️ / 2.5-3 🌶️
Format: Paperback
I do not know where my original review went so I’m reposting Includes: - Beauty and the Beast vibes, but with a Fae twist - Enemies to lovers - Slow burn - Forced proximity - Standalone HEA There are now two books I love that have opening sentences that reference bars of soap. @authorlisettemarshall ‘s books never disappoint me and this standalone is no exception. I absolutely love her writing style, the unique magic systems she uses, as well as her ability to convey such vivid details regarding things like clothing and places. It really helps someone like me (who isn't a good visualizer) immerse myself in the story. It also MUST be said that Lisette has really mastered the art of writing the slow burn for me. With fun characters and banter, she sprinkles in little breadcrumbs here and there that help with the romance build up and, baby, I'm hot on those breadcrumbs' trails just EATING them up. TLDR; Put this on your TBR.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2023
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Morgan
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 4
Fun and steamy read
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Fun read with some of my favorite things: enemy to lover trope, magic, badass FMC, some build-up/steam, and the occasional glimpse into the MMC’s POV.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2023
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Cuba, US
★★★★★ 5
so good
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I’ve read any number of fairy tale retellings and I believe this one is top ten. The characters are likeable but complex enough to be interesting; the plot stands alone but leads you to the next book. The dialogue is also quite clever.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2025
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Gwendolyn Brophy
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 4
Nice standalone
Format: Kindle
3.5 stars. Reminds me of the old school romances of the 80s and 90s. Boy meets girl. They fight. They fall in love. Boy screws up. Girl flees. They kiss and make up. One thing that I absolutely adore about Loretta Marshall's worlds is just how inventive she is with the magic. Magic via flowers? How does her brain think of these things?
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Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2026

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