Inside Abstraction: Interpreting Inka Visual Culture -- Carolyn Dean, Hardcover

Illuminating the abstract art of the Inka, what it conveys about Inka values, and its relationship to those who view it.

Inka visual culture is unusual in its tendency toward abstraction. Public stonework, vessels used at state feasts, garments worn by the imperial elite--these objects announcing status and power are adorned with geometric designs that refuse figuration. After searching in vain for hidden referents, many scholars have largely given up the search for meaning.

Inside Abstraction develops a novel interpretation. Eminent art historian Carolyn Dean proposes that Inka geometries are neither ornamental nor coded depictions of other objects. Rather, Dean shows that in the Andean world, the designs were functionally self-aware, possessing perspectives of their own, quite literally looking back at and addressing viewers directly. Further, Dean contends that these agent-abstractions were teachers, conveying particular messages concerning social hierarchy: the relations among geometries and colors instructed viewers as to their own proper social relations. Inka designs thereby served imperial aims by wordlessly communicating the state's values and demands for submission. Extensively illustrated and rigorously argued, Inside Abstraction is a dramatic step forward in our understanding of Inka art and political order.

Author: Carolyn Dean
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
ISBN: 9781477331965

About the Author

A Distinguished Professor Emerita of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Carolyn Dean has also published Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ and the award-winning A Culture of Stone.