Raphael's School of Athens, depicting an array of ancient Greek philosophers engaged in discussion.

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric, and aesthetics.

Many philosophers today maintain that Greek philosophy has influenced much of Western thought since its inception. Alfred Whitehead once noted: "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."^[1] Clear, unbroken lines of influence lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, to medieval Islamic philosophers, to the European Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Some claim that Greek philosophy, in turn, was influenced by the older wisdom literature and mythological cosmogonies of the ancient Near East. Martin Litchfield West gives qualified assent to this view, stating, "contact with oriental cosmology and theology helped to liberate the early Greek philosophers' imagination; it certainly gave them many suggestive ideas. But they taught themselves to reason. Philosophy as we understand it is a Greek creation."^[2]

Subsequent philosophic tradition was so influenced by Socrates as presented by Plato that it is conventional to refer to ancient Greek philosophy prior to Socrates as pre-Socratic philosophy. The period following this until the wars of Alexander the Great is referred to as classical Greek philosophy, followed by Hellenistic philosophy.

Pre-Socratic philosophy[link]

The convention of terming those philosophers who were active prior to Socrates the pre-Socratics gained currency with the 1903 publication of Hermann Diels' Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, although the term did not originate with him.^[3] The term is considered philosophically useful, however, as what came to be known as the Athenian school (composed of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) signaled a profound shift in the subject matter and methods of philosophy; Friedrich Nietzsche's thesis that this profound shift began with Plato rather than with Socrates (hence his nomenclature of "pre-Platonic philosophy") was not sufficient to prevent the rise and perpetuation of the phrase "pre-Socratic philosophy."^[4]

The pre-Socratics were primarily concerned with cosmology, ontology and mathematics. They were distinguished from non-philosophers insofar as they rejected mythological explanations in favor of reasoned discourse.^[5]

Milesian school[link]

Thales of Miletus, regarded by Aristotle as the first philosopher,^[6] held that all things arise from water.^[7] It is not because he gave a cosmogony that John Burnet calls him the "first man of science," but because he gave a naturalistic explanation of the cosmos and supported it with reasons.^[8] According to tradition, Thales was able to predict an eclipse and taught the Egyptians how to measure the height of the pyramids.^[9]

Thales inspired the Milesian school of philosophy and was followed by Anaximander, who argued that the substratum or arche could not be water or any of the classical elements but was instead something "unlimited" or "indefinite," the apeiron; his reasoning was that because the world seems to consist of opposites (e.g., hot and cold) yet a thing can become its opposite (e.g., a hot thing cold), they cannot truly be opposites but rather must both be manifestations of some underlying substratrum that is neither, while all of the classical elements are one extreme or another (e.g., water is wet and so the opposite of dry).^[10] Anaximenes in turn held that the arche was air, although John Burnet argues that by this he meant that it was a transparent mist, the aether.^[11] Despite their varied answers, the Milesian school was searching for a natural substance that would remain unchanged despite appearing in different forms, and thus represents one of the first scientific attempts to answer the question that would lead to the development of modern atomic theory; "the Milesians," says Burnet, "asked for the φύσις of all things."^[12]

Xenophanes[link]

Xenophanes was born in Ionia, where the Milesian school was at its most powerful, and may have picked up some of the Milesians' cosmological theories as a result.^[13] What is known is that he argued that each of the phenomena had a natural rather than divine explanation in a manner reminiscent of Anaximander's theories and that there was only one god, the world as a whole, and that he ridiculed the anthropomorphism of the Greek religion by claiming that cattle would claim that the gods looked like cattle, horses like horses, and lions like lions, just as the Ethiopians claimed that the gods were snubnosed and black and the Thracians claimed they were pale and red-haired.^[14]

Burnet says that Xenophanes was not, however, a scientific man, with many of his "naturalistic" explanations having no further support than that they render the Homeric gods superfluous or foolish.^[15] He has been claimed as an influence on Eleatic philosophy, although that is disputed, and a precursor to Epicurus, a representative of a total break between science and religion.^[16]

Pythagoreanism[link]

Pythagoras lived at roughly the same time that Xenophanes did and, in contrast to the latter, the school that he founded sought to reconcile religious belief and reason. Little is known about his life with any reliability, however, and no writings of his survive, so it is possible that he was simply a mystic whose successors introduced rationalism into Pythagoreanism, that he was simply a rationalist whose successors are responsible for the mysticism in Pythagoreanism, or that he was actually the author of the doctrine; there is no way to know for certain.^[17]

Pythagoras is said to have been a disciple of Anaximander and to have imbibed the cosmological concerns of the Ionians, including the idea that the cosmos is constructed of spheres, the importance of the infinite, and that air or aether is the arche of everything.^[18] Pythagoreanism also incorporated ascetic ideals, emphasizing purgation, metempsychosis, and consequently a respect for all animal life; much was made of the correspondence between mathematics and the cosmos in a musical harmony.^[19]

Heraclitus[link]

Heraclitus must have lived after Xenophanes and Pythagoras, as he condemns them along with Homer as proving that much learning cannot teach a man to think; since Parmenides refers to him in the past tense, this would place him in the 5th century BCE.^[20] Contrary to the Milesian school, who would have one stable element at the root of all, Heraclitus taught that "everything flows" or "everything is in flux," the closest element to this flux being fire; he also extended the teaching that seeming opposites in fact are manifestations of a common substrate to good and evil itself.^[21]

Eleatic philosophy[link]

Parmenides of Elea cast his philosophy against those who held "it is and is not the same and not the same, and all things travel in opposite directions," by which only Heraclitus and those who follow him can have been meant.^[22] Whereas the doctrines of the Milesian school, in suggesting that the substratum could appear in a variety of different guises, implied that everything that exists is corpuscular, Parmenides argued that the first principle of being was One, indivisible, and unchanging.^[23] Being, he argued, by definition implies eternality, while only that which is can be thought; a thing which is, moreover, cannot be more or less, and so the rarefaction and condensation of the Melisians is impossible regarding Being; lastly, as movement requires that something exist apart from the thing moving (viz. the space into which it moves), the One or Being cannot move since this would require that "space" both exist and not exist.^[24] While this doctrine is at odds with experience, where things do indeed change and move, the Eleatic school followed Parmenides in denying that sense phenomena revealed the world as it actually was; instead, the only thing with Being was thought, or the question of whether something exists or not is one of whether it can be thought.^[25]

In support of this, Parmenides' pupil Zeno of Elea attempted to prove that the concept of motion was absurd and as such motion did not exist. He also attacked the subsequent development of pluralism, arguing that it was incompatible with Being.^[26] His arguments are known as Zeno's paradoxes.

Pluralism and atomism[link]

The power of Parmenides' logic was such that some subsequent philosophers abandoned the monism of the Milesians, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, where one thing was the arche, and adopted pluralism, such as Empedocles and Anaxagoras.^[27] There were, they said, multiple elements which were not reducible to one another and these were set in motion by love and strife (as in Empedocles) or by Mind (as in Anaxagoras). Agreeing with Parmenides that there is no coming into being or passing away, genesis or decay, they said that things appear to come into being and pass away because the elements out of which they are composed assemble or disassemble while themselves being unchanging.^[28]

Leucippus also proposed an ontological pluralism with a cosmogony based on two main elements: the vacuum and atoms. These, by means of their inherent movement, are crossing the void and creating the real material bodies. His theories were not well known by the time of Plato, however, and they were ultimately incorporated into the work of his student, Democritus.^[29]

Sophistry[link]

Sophistry arose from the opposition between physis and nomos, between nature and law. John Burnet traced the origin of this opposition to the scientific progress of the previous centuries which suggested that Being was radically different from what was experienced by the senses and, if comprehensible at all, was not comprehensible in terms of order; the world in which men lived, on the other hand, was one of law and order, albeit of humankind's own making.^[30] At the same time, nature stayed the same, while what was by law could be changed and differed from one place to another.

The first man to call himself a sophist, according to Plato, was Protagoras, whom he presents as teaching that all virtue is conventional. It was Protagoras who claimed that "man is the measure of all things, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not," which Plato takes to indicate a radical perspectivalism, where some things seem to be one way for one person (and so actually are that way) and to be another way to another person (and so actually are that way); consequently, one cannot in any way look to nature for guidance regarding how to live one's life.^[31]

Subsequent sophists tended to offer to teach rhetoric as their primary vocation, as did Protagoras. Prodicus, Gorgias, Hippias, and Thrasymachus all appear in various Platonic dialogues, sometimes explicitly teaching that, while nature provides no ethical guidance, the guidance that the laws provide is worthless, or that nature favors those who act against the laws.

Classical Greek philosophy[link]

Socrates[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010)

Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in Ancient Greek philosophy. Athens was a center of learning, with sophists and philosophers traveling from across Greece to teach rhetoric, astronomy, cosmology, geometry, and the like. The great statesman Pericles was closely associated with this new learning and a friend of Anaxagoras, however, and his political opponents struck at him by taking advantage of a conservative reaction against the philosophers; it became a crime to investigate the things above the heavens or below the earth, subjects considered impious. Anaxagoras is said to have been charged and to have fled into exile when Socrates was about twenty years of age.^[32] There is a story that Protagoras, too, was forced to flee and that the Athenians burned his books.^[33] Socrates, however, was certainly charged under this law, convicted, and sentenced to death in 399 BCE (see Trial of Socrates). In the version of his defense speech presented by Plato, he claims that it is the envy he arouses on account of his being a philosopher that will convict him.

While there was philosophy prior to Socrates, it was Socrates, says Cicero, who was "the first who brought philosophy down from the heavens, placed it in cities, introduced it into families, and obliged it to examine into life and morals, and good and evil."^[34] In this he is the founder of political philosophy.^[35] The reasons for this turn toward political and ethical subjects remain the object of much study.^[36][37]

The fact that many conversations involving Socrates recounted by Plato and Xenophon end without having reached a firm conclusion, which is to say, aporetically,^[38] has stimulated debate over the meaning of the Socratic method.^[39] Socrates is said to have pursued this probing question-and-answer style of examination on a number of topics, usually attempting to arrive at a defensible and attractive definition of a virtue.

While Socrates' recorded conversations rarely provide a definite answer to the question under examination, several maxims or paradoxes for which he has become known recur. Socrates taught that no one desires what is bad, and so if anyone does something that truly is bad it must be unwillingly or out of ignorance; consequently, all virtue is knowledge.^[40][41] He frequently remarks on his own ignorance, however, claiming that he does not know what courage is, for example; Plato presents him as distinguishing himself from the common run of mankind by the fact that, while they know nothing noble and good, they do not know that they do not know, whereas he knows that he knows nothing noble and good.^[42]

Numerous subsequent philosophical movements were inspired by Socrates or his young associates. Plato chose Socrates to be the main interlocutor in his dialogues, which in turn formed the basis of Platonism and Neoplatonism. Plato's student Aristotle in turn criticized and built upon the doctrines he ascribed to Socrates and Plato, forming the foundation of Aristotelianism. Another of Socrates' young associates, Antisthenes, founded the school that would come to be known as Cynicism and accused Plato of distorting Socrates' teachings. Zeno of Citium in turn adapted and modified the Cynic ethical teachings into Stoicism. Epicurus studied with Platonic and Stoic teachers before renouncing all previous philosophers, including Democritus, on whose atomism his own Epicurean philosophy relies. The philosophic movements that were to dominate the intellectual life of the Roman empire were thus born in this febrile period following Socrates' activity and either directly or indirectly influenced by him. They were also carried into the Muslim world, from which they were reintroduced into the West to form the foundation of Medieval philosophy and the Renaissance, as discussed below.

Plato[link]

Plato was an Athenian of the generation after Socrates. Ancient tradition ascribes thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters to him, although of these only twenty-four of the dialogues are now universally recognized as authentic; most modern scholars believe that at least twenty-eight dialogues and two of the letters were in fact written by Plato, although all of the thirty-six dialogues have some defenders.^[43] A further nine dialogues are ascribed to Plato but were considered spurious even in antiquity.^[44]

Plato's dialogues feature Socrates, although not always as the leader of the conversation. (One dialogue, the Laws, instead contains an "Athenian Stranger.") Along with Xenophon, Plato is the primary source of information about Socrates' life and beliefs and it is not always easy to distinguish between the two. While the Socrates presented in the dialogues is often taken to be Plato's mouthpiece, Socrates' reputation for irony, his caginess regarding his own opinions in the dialogues, and his occasional absence from or minor role in the conversation serve to conceal Plato's doctrines.^[45] Much of what is said about his doctrines is derived from what Aristotle reports about them.

The political doctrine ascribed to Plato is derived from the Republic, the Laws, and the Statesman. The first of these contains the suggestion that there will not be justice in cities unless they are ruled by philosopher kings; those responsible for enforcing the laws are compelled to hold their women, children, and property in common; and the individual is taught to pursue the common good through noble lies; the Republic says that such a city is likely impossible, however, not least because philosophers would refuse to rule and the people would refuse to compel them to do so.^[46]

Whereas the Republic is premised on a distinction between the sort of knowledge possessed by the philosopher and that possessed by the king or political man, Socrates explores only the character of the philosopher; in the Statesman, on the other hand, a participant referred to as the Eleatic Stranger discusses the sort of knowledge possessed by the political man while Socrates listens quietly.^[46] Although rule by a wise man would be preferable to rule by law, the wise cannot help but be judged by the unwise and so in practice rule by law is necessary.

Both the Republic and the Statesman reveal the limitations of politics, raising the question of what political order would be best given those constraints; that question is addressed in the Laws, a dialogue that does not take place in Athens and from which Socrates is absent.^[46] The character of the society described there is eminently conservative, a corrected or liberalized timocracy on the Spartan or Cretan model or pre-democratic Athens.^[46]

Plato's dialogues also have metaphysical themes, the most famous of which is his theory of forms. It holds that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.

Aristotle[link]

Aristotle moved to Athens from his native Stageira in 367 BCE and began to study philosophy, possibly with Isocrates, eventually enrolling at Plato's Academy.^[47] Aristotle left Athens around twenty years later to study botany and zoology, became a tutor of Alexander the Great, and ultimately returned to Athens a further decade later to found his own school, the Lyceum.^[48] At least twenty-nine of his treatises have survived as part of the corpus Aristotelicum on a wide variety of subjects, including logic, physics, optics, metaphysics, ethics, rhetoric, politics, poetry, botany, and zoology.

Aristotle is often portrayed as disagreeing with his teacher, Plato, and is represented as such in Raphael's School of Athens. Aristotle criticizes the regimes described in Plato's Republic and Laws,^[49] and calls the theory of forms a bunch of "empty words and poetic metaphors."^[50] Aristotle is generally presented as giving greater weight to empirical and practical concerns.

Aristotle's fame was not great during the Hellenistic period, when Stoic logic was in vogue, but later peripatetic commentators popularized his work; it formed the basis of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Medieval philosophy.^[51] His influence was such that Avicenna referred to him simply as "the Master"; Maimonides, Alfarabi, Averroes, and Aquinas call him just "the Philosopher."

Hellenistic philosophy[link]

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many different schools of thought developed in the Hellenistic world and then the Greco-Roman world. There were Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Syrians and Arabs who contributed to the development of Hellenistic philosophy. Elements of Persian philosophy and Indian philosophy also had an influence. The most notable schools of Hellenistic philosophy were:

• Neoplatonism: Plotinus (Egyptian), Ammonius Saccas, Porphyry (Syrian), Zethos (Arab), Iamblichus (Syrian), Proclus
• Academic Skepticism: Arcesilaus, Carneades, Cicero (Roman)
• Pyrrhonian Skepticism: (?) Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus
• Cynicism: Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Crates of Thebes (taught Zeno of Citium, founder of Stoicism)
• Stoicism: Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Crates of Mallus (brought Stoicism to Rome c. 170 BCE), Panaetius, Posidonius, Seneca (Roman), Epictetus (Greek/Roman), Marcus Aurelius (Roman)
• Epicureanism: Epicurus (Greek) and Lucretius (Roman)
• Eclecticism: (?) Cicero (Roman)

The spread of Christianity throughout the Roman world, followed by the spread of Islam, ushered in the end of Hellenistic philosophy and the beginnings of Medieval philosophy, which was dominated by the three Abrahamic traditions: Jewish philosophy, Christian philosophy, and early Islamic philosophy.

Transmission of Greek philosophy under Islam[link]

During the Middle Ages, Greek ideas were largely forgotten in Western Europe. With the fall of Rome, very few people in the West were left who knew how to read Greek. The Islamic Abbasid caliphs gathered the manuscripts and hired translators to increase their prestige. Islamic philosophers such as Al-Kindi (Alkindus), Al-Farabi (Alpharabius), Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) reinterpreted Greek philosophies in the context of their religion. Their interpretations were later transmitted to the Europeans in the High Middle Ages, when Greek philosophies re-entered the West through translations from Arabic to Latin. The re-introduction of these philosophies, combined with the new Arabic commentaries, had a great influence on Medieval philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas.

See also[link]

• List of ancient Greek philosophers
• Ancient philosophy

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bakalis, Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments, Trafford Publishing ISBN 1-4120-4843-5
• John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 1930.
• William Keith Chambers Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume 1, The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, 1962.
• Kierkegaard, Søren, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, 1841.
• Martin Litchfield West, Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971.
• Martin Litchfield West, The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth, Oxford [England] ; New York: Clarendon Press, 1997.
• Charles Freeman (1996). Egypt, Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. 
• A.A. Long. Hellenistic Philosophy. University of California, 1992. (2nd Ed.)
• Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-158591-6. 

Further reading[link]

• Nightingale, Andrea Wilson, Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy: Theoria in Its Cultural Context, Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-521-83825-8
• Loudovikos, Nikolaos, Protopresbyter, Theological History of the Ancient Hellenic Philosophy - Presoccratics, Socrates, Plato (in Greek), Pournaras Publishing, Athens, 2003, ISBN 960-242-296-3
• The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life, by Bettany Hughes (2010) ISBN 0-224-07178-5

External links[link]

• The Impact of Greek Culture on Normative Judaism from the Hellenistic Period through the Middle Ages c. 330 BCE- 1250 CE

Thomas McEvilley (born 1939, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American art critic, poet, novelist and scholar, who was a distinguisted lecturer in art history at Rice University ^[1] and founder and former chair of the Department of Art Criticism and Writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.^[2]

Biography[link]

Thomas McEvilley studied Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and classical philosophy in the classics programs of the University of Cincinnati^[1] where he received a B.A., and the University of Washington, where he received an M.A..^[3] He then returned to Cincinnati, where he received a Ph.D. in classical philology. He also retained a strong interest in modern art, reinforced by the modern artists of his acquaintance.

In 1969, McEvilley joined the faculty of Rice University, where he spent the better part of his teaching career.^[4] He has been a visiting professor at Yale University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. He taught numerous courses in Greek and Indian culture, history of religion and philosophy. In 2008 he retired from teaching after 41 years, and now lives in New York City and in upstate New York in the Catskills.

He has received numerous awards, including the Semple Prize at the University of Cincinnati, a National Endowment for the Arts Critics grant, a Fulbright fellowship in 1993, an NEA critic’s grant, and the Frank Jewett Mather Award (1993) for Distinction in Art Criticism from the College Art Association.^[4][5]

McEvilley has been a contributing editor of Artforum and editor in chief of Contemporanea.^[3]

Work[link]

McEvilley is an expert in the fields of Greek and Indian culture, history of religion and philosophy, and art. He has published several books and hundreds of scholarly monographs, articles, catalog essays, and reviews on early Greek and Indian poetry, philosophy, and religion as well as on contemporary art and culture. ^{[1] [2] [4]}

Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-Modern Era[link]

In his 1993 book The Exile’s Return: Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-Modern Era, McEvilley made an important contribution to the late twentieth century "death of painting" debate. He stated that after two decades, painting revived around 1980. In its return from exile, painting has assumed a new theoretical basis in postmodern cultural theory, together with a new kind of self-awareness and interest in its own limitations. A number of contemporary artists such as Gerhard Richter and Glenn Brown demonstrate this new found self-reflexity and critical nature.^[6]

Heads it's Form, Tails it's not Content[link]

In the article "Heads its Form, Tails it's not Content" McEvilley describes a theoretical framework for the formal project presented by post-war critics such as Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried, and Sheldon Nodelman.^[7]

He argues that formalist ideas are rooted in Neoplatonism and as such deal with the problem of content by claiming that content is embedded within the form. However, the formalists desire a transcendentally free critique of art in the same way that Colin Rowe and Peter Eisenman explore the interiority of architecture.

Formalism is based on a linguistic model which Claude Lévi-Strauss argues is given content through the unconscious. In presenting formalism, one cannot ignore the content which accompanies the form.

Sculpture in the Age of Doubt[link]

In the book Sculpture in the Age of Doubt (1999), McEvilley described the intellectual issues surrounding the postmodern movement in the course of 20th-century sculpture.

The Shape of Ancient Thought[link]

In The Shape of Ancient Thought, McEvilley explores the foundations of Western civilization. He argues that today’s Western world must be considered the product of both Greek and Indian thought, and Western philosophy and Eastern philosophies. He explores how trade, imperialism, and currents of migration allowed cultural philosophies to intermingle freely throughout India, Egypt, Greece, and the ancient Near East.

This book spans thirty years of McEvilley's research, from 1970 to 2000.^[8]

See also[link]

Poetry portal

This section gives an overview of topics on which McEvilley has written.

Selected publications[link]

Books

• 1964, Party Going (First Novel)
• 1987, North of Yesterday (a Menippean Satire)
• 1991, Art and Discontent
• 1992, Art and Otherness
• 1993, Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale
• 1993, The Exile’s Return: Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-Modern Era
• 1994, Der Erste Akt
• 1999, Sculpture in the Age of Doubt
• 2002, The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies
• 2007, The Triumph of Anti-Art
• 2008, Sappho
• 2010, Art, Love, Friendship: Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Together & Apart
• 2010, Yves the Provocateur: Yves Klein and Twentieth-Century Art

Essays

• Heads It’s Form, Tails It’s Not Content (TKTK)
• On the Manner of Addressing Clouds (TKTK)
• The Monochrome Icon
• “I Am” Is a Vain Thought
• Art History or Sacred History?
• Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief: ‘Primitivism’ in Twentieth-Century Art at the Museum of Modern Art
• The Selfhood of the Other
• Another Alphabet: The Work of Marcel Broodthaers
• History, Quality, Globalism
• Penelope’s Night Work: Negative Thinking in Greek Philosophy
• Arrivederci, Venice: The Third World Biennials
• The Tomb of the Zombie
• Paul McCarthy: Performance and Video Works: the Layering (2008)
• Here Comes Everybody (1994)
• James Lee Byars and the Atmosphere of Question

Monographs

Thomas McEvilley wrote monographs on Yves Klein (1982), Pat Steir, Leon Golub (1993), Jannis Kounellis (1986), James Croak (1999), Dennis Oppenheim, Anselm Kiefer, Dove Bradshaw (2004).

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Thomas McEvilley, G. Roger Denson (1996), Capacity: : History, the World, and the Self in Contemporary Art and Criticism. Routledge. ISBN 90-5701-051-8: This information is given on the backpage of this book.
2. ^ ^{a b} McPherson & Company Publishers
3. ^ ^{a b} School of VISUAL ARTS, graduate programs 2007-2008, Retrieved 4 April 2008.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Thomas McEvilley (2004). "Art and Cognition.". Slought Foundation Online Content. 11 December 2004, retrieved 4 April 2008
5. ^ "Awards". The College Art Association. http://www.collegeart.org/awards/matherpast. Retrieved 11 October 2010. 
6. ^ Victoria Reichelt (2005), Painting’s Wrongful Death: The revivalist practices of Glenn Brown, Institution Griffith University, retrieved 4 March 2008.
7. ^ Thomas McEvilley (1996), "Heads its Form, Tails it's not Content", in: Artforum 21.3 ( Nov.1982) : 50-61. Later collected in: Capacity: The History, the World, and the Self in Contemporary Art and Criticism, by Thomas McEvilley and G.Roger Denson. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 90-5701-051-8. Page 22-44.
8. ^ McEvilley, Thomas (2002). The Shape of Ancient Thought. Allworth Communications. ISBN 1-58115-203-5. 

External links[link]

• Thomas McEvilley. "Art and Cognition.". Slought Foundation Online Content. 11 December 2004.
• Short biography from Mcpherson&co.
• Martínez Celaya Early Work 2006 Text by Thomas McEvilley
• Thomas McEvilley on 'The Shape of Ancient Thought' Video by Michael Kasino for Thomas McEvilley

Kylie Minogue
Background information
Birth name	Kylie Ann Minogue
Born	(1968-05-28) 28 May 1968 (age 44) Melbourne, Australia
Genres	Pop, synthpop, nu-disco,[1][2] dance-pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, fashion designer, author, entrepreneur, showgirl
Years active	1979–present
Labels	PWL, Mushroom, Deconstruction, Parlophone, Warner Music Australia
Website	kylie.com

Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE ( /ˈkaɪliː mɨˈnoʊɡ/; born 28 May 1968) — often known simply as Kylie — is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, showgirl, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing her career as a recording artist in 1987. Her first single, "Locomotion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart and became the highest selling single of the decade. This led to a contract with songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Her debut album, Kylie (1988), and the single "I Should Be So Lucky", each reached number one in the United Kingdom, and over the next two years, her first 13 singles reached the British top ten. Her debut film, The Delinquents (1989) was a box-office hit in Australia and the UK, and received generally positive reviews.

Initially presented as a "girl next door", Minogue attempted to convey a more mature style in her music and public image. Her singles were well received, but after four albums her record sales were declining, and she left Stock, Aitken & Waterman in 1992 to establish herself as an independent performer. Her next single, "Confide in Me", reached number one in Australia and was a hit in several European countries in 1994, and a duet with Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow", brought Minogue a greater degree of artistic credibility. Drawing inspiration from a range of musical styles and artists, Minogue took creative control over the songwriting for her next album, Impossible Princess (1997). It failed to attract strong reviews or sales in the UK, but was successful in Australia.

Minogue returned to prominence in 2000 with the single "Spinning Around" and the dance-oriented album Light Years, and she performed during the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her music videos showed a more sexually provocative and flirtatious personality and several hit singles followed. "Can't Get You Out of My Head" reached number one in more than 40 countries, and the album Fever (2001) was a hit in many countries, including the United States, a market in which Minogue had previously received little recognition. Minogue embarked on a concert tour but cancelled it when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005. After surgery and chemotherapy treatment, she resumed her career in 2006 with Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour. Her tenth studio album X was released in 2007 and was followed by the KylieX2008 tour. In 2009, she embarked upon her For You, For Me Tour, her first concert tour of the United States and Canada, and the following year released her eleventh studio album, Aphrodite.

Minogue has achieved worldwide record sales of more than 68 million,^[3] and has received notable music awards, including multiple ARIA and Brit Awards and a Grammy Award. She has mounted several successful and critically acclaimed concert world tours and received a Mo Award for "Australian Entertainer of the Year" for her live performances. Bestowed from the Queen of Australia Queen Elizabeth II, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) at Buckingham Palace in 2008 "for services to music". In the same year she was awarded France's highest cultural honour, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government for her contribution to the enrichment of French culture. In 2011, "I Should Be So Lucky" was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry.^[4][5] While also in 2011, Minogue was awarded an honorary Doctor of Health Science (D.H.Sc.) degree by Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom of for her work in raising awareness for breast cancer. On 27 November 2011, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ARIA Music Awards, Kylie Minogue was inducted by the Australian Recording Industry Association into the ARIA Hall of Fame.^[6]

Life and career[link]

1968–86: Early life and career beginnings[link]

Kylie Ann Minogue was born 28 May 1968 in Melbourne, Australia, the eldest child of Ronald Charles Minogue, an accountant of Irish ancestry^[7] and Carol Ann (née Jones), a former dancer from Maesteg, Wales.^[8] Kylie's sister, Dannii Minogue, was also a pop singer^[7] and is a judge on Australia's Got Talent, while her brother, Brendan, works as a news cameraman in Australia.^[9] The Minogue children were raised in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, and educated at Camberwell High School.^[10]

The Minogue sisters began their careers as children on Australian television.^[7] From the age of 11, Kylie appeared in small roles in soap operas such as The Sullivans and Skyways, and in 1985 was cast in one of the lead roles in The Henderson Kids.^[11] Interested in following a career in music, she made a demo tape for the producers of the weekly music programme Young Talent Time,^[12] which featured Dannii as a regular performer.^[13] Kylie gave her first television singing performance on the show in 1985 but was not invited to join the cast. Dannii's success overshadowed Kylie's acting achievements,^[7] until Kylie was cast in the soap opera Neighbours in 1986,^[10] as Charlene Mitchell, a schoolgirl turned garage mechanic. Neighbours achieved popularity in the UK, and a story arc that created a romance between her character and the character played by Jason Donovan, culminated in a wedding episode in 1987 that attracted an audience of 20 million British viewers.^[14]

Her popularity in Australia was demonstrated when she became the first person to win four Logie Awards in one event, and the youngest recipient of the "Gold Logie" as the country's "Most Popular Television Performer", with the result determined by public vote.^[15]

[edit] 1987–92: Kylie, Enjoy Yourself, Rhythm of Love and Let's Get to It

During a Fitzroy Football Club benefit concert with other Neighbours cast members, Minogue performed "I Got You Babe" as a duet with the actor John Waters, and "The Loco-Motion" as an encore, and was subsequently signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records in 1987.^[16] Her first single, "The Loco-Motion", spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian music charts. It sold 200,000 copies,^[12] became the highest selling single of the 1980s,^[17] and Minogue received the ARIA Award for the year's highest selling single.^[18] Its success resulted in Minogue travelling to England with Mushroom Records executive Gary Ashley to work with Stock, Aitken & Waterman. They knew little of Minogue and had forgotten that she was arriving; as a result, they wrote "I Should Be So Lucky" while she waited outside the studio.^[19] The song reached number one in the UK, Australia, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Israel and Hong Kong.^[20] Minogue won her second consecutive ARIA Award for the year's highest selling single, and received a "Special Achievement Award".^[21] Her debut album, Kylie, a collection of dance-oriented pop tunes spent more than a year on the British album charts, including several weeks at number one.^[22] The album went gold in the United States, and the single, "The Loco-Motion", reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart,^[23] and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. "It's No Secret", released only in the U.S., peaked at number 37 in early 1989,^[23] and "Turn It Into Love" was released as a single in Japan, where it reached number one.

In July 1988, "Got To Be Certain" became Minogue's third consecutive number one single on the Australian music charts,^[24] and later in the year she left Neighbours to focus on her music career. Jason Donovan commented "When viewers watched her on screen they no longer saw Charlene the local mechanic, they saw Kylie the pop star."^[7] A duet with Donovan, titled "Especially for You", sold almost one million copies in the UK in early 1989, but critic Kevin Killian wrote that the duet was "majestically awful ... [it] makes the Diana Ross, Lionel Richie 'Endless Love' sound like Mahler."^[25] She was sometimes referred to as "the Singing Budgie" by her detractors over the coming years,^[26] however Chris True's comment about the album Kylie for Allmusic suggests that Minogue's appeal transcended the limitations of her music, by noting that "her cuteness makes these rather vapid tracks bearable".^[27]

Her follow-up album Enjoy Yourself (1989) was a success in the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand, Asia and Australia, and contained several successful singles, including the British number one "Hand on Your Heart",^[22] but it failed throughout North America, and Minogue was dropped by her American record label Geffen Records. She embarked on her first concert tour, the Enjoy Yourself Tour, in the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and Australia, where Melbourne's Herald Sun wrote that it was "time to ditch the snobbery and face facts—the kid's a star."^[28] In December 1989, Minogue was one of the featured vocalists on the remake of "Do They Know It's Christmas",^[29] and her debut film, The Delinquents, premiered in London. It was poorly received by critics,^[29] and the Daily Mirror reviewed Minogue's performance with the comment that she "has as much acting charisma as cold porridge",^[30] but it proved popular with audiences; in the UK it grossed more than £200,000,^[31] and in Australia it was the fourth-highest grossing local film of 1989 and the highest grossing local film of 1990.^[32]

Rhythm of Love (1990) presented a more sophisticated and adult style of dance music and also marked the first signs of Minogue's rebellion against her production team and the "girl-next-door" image.^[33] Determined to be accepted by a more mature audience, Minogue took control of her music videos, starting with "Better the Devil You Know", and presented herself as a sexually aware adult.^[34] Her relationship with Michael Hutchence was also seen as part of Minogue's departure from her earlier persona; Hutchence was quoted as saying that his hobby was "corrupting Kylie", and that the INXS song "Suicide Blonde" had been inspired by her.^[35] The singles from Rhythm of Love sold well in Europe and Australia and were popular in British nightclubs. Pete Waterman later reflected that "Better the Devil You Know" was a milestone in her career and said that it made her "the hottest, hippest dance act on the scene and nobody could knock it as it was the best dance record around at the time".^[7] "Shocked" became Minogue's thirteenth consecutive British top-10 single.^[22]

In May 1990, Minogue performed her band's arrangement of The Beatles's "Help!" before a crowd of 25,000 at the John Lennon: The Tribute Concert on the banks of the River Mersey in Liverpool. Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon offered Minogue their thanks for her support of The John Lennon Fund, while the media commented positively on her performance. The Sun wrote "The soap star wows the Scousers — Kylie Minogue deserved her applause".^[36] Her fourth album, Let's Get to It (1991), reached number 15 on the British album charts and was the first of her albums to fail to reach the Top 10;^[22] her fourteenth single "Word Is Out" was the first to miss the Top 10 singles chart,^[22] though subsequent singles "If You Were with Me Now" and "Give Me Just a Little More Time" reached number four and number two respectively.^[22] Minogue had fulfilled the requirements of her contract and elected not to renew it.^[7] She later expressed her opinion that she was stifled by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and said, "I was very much a puppet in the beginning. I was blinkered by my record company. I was unable to look left or right."^[37]

A Greatest Hits album was released in 1992. It reached number one in the UK^[22] and number three in Australia,^[38] and the singles "What Kind of Fool (Heard All That Before)" and her cover version of Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" each reached the UK Top 20.^[22]

[edit] 1993–98: Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess

Minogue's subsequent signing with Deconstruction Records was highly touted in the music media as the beginning of a new phase in her career, but the eponymous Kylie Minogue (1994) received mixed reviews. It sold well in Europe and Australia, where the single "Confide in Me" spent four weeks at number one.^[39] She performed a striptease in the video for her next single, "Put Yourself in My Place", inspired by Jane Fonda in the film Barbarella.^[40] This single and her next, "Where Is the Feeling?" each reached the British top 20,^[22] and the album peaked at number four,^[22] eventually selling 250,000 copies.^[41] During this period she made a guest appearance as herself, in an episode of the comedy The Vicar of Dibley. The director Steven E. de Souza was intrigued by Minogue's cover photo in Australia's Who Magazine as one of "The 30 Most Beautiful People in the World", and offered her a role opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Street Fighter (1994).^[42] The film was a moderate success, earning US$70 million in the U.S.,^[42] but received poor reviews with The Washington Post's Richard Harrington calling Minogue "the worst actress in the English-speaking world".^[43] She co-starred with Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin in Bio-Dome (1996), but it was a failure, dismissed by Movie Magazine International as the "biggest waste of celluloid space".^[42] Minogue returned to Australia where she appeared in the short film, Hayride to Hell (1995), and then to the UK where she filmed a cameo role as herself in the film Diana & Me (1997).^[44]

File:KylieMinogueWhereTheWildRosesGrowVideo.jpg

The music video for "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1995) (left) was inspired by John Everett Millais' Ophelia (1851/52) (right).

Australian artist Nick Cave had been interested in working with Minogue since hearing "Better the Devil You Know", saying it contained "one of pop music's most violent and distressing lyrics" and "when Kylie Minogue sings these words, there is an innocence to her that makes the horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling".^[45] They collaborated on "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1995), a brooding ballad whose lyrics narrated a murder from the points of view of both the murderer (Cave), and his victim (Minogue). The video was inspired by John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia (1851–1852), and showed Minogue as the murdered woman, floating in a pond as a serpent swam over her body. The single received widespread attention in Europe, where it reached the top 10 in several countries, and acclaim in Australia where it reached number two on the singles chart,^[46] and won ARIA Awards for "Song of the Year" and "Best Pop Release".^[47] Following concert appearances with Cave, Minogue recited the lyrics to "I Should Be So Lucky" as poetry in London's Royal Albert Hall "Poetry Jam", at the suggestion of Cave, and later described it as a "most cathartic moment".^[48] She credited Cave with giving her the confidence to express herself artistically, saying: "He taught me to never veer too far from who I am, but to go further, try different things, and never lose sight of myself at the core. For me, the hard part was unleashing the core of myself and being totally truthful in my music."^[49] By 1997, Minogue was in a relationship with the French photographer Stéphane Sednaoui, who encouraged her to develop her creativity.^[50] Inspired by a mutual appreciation of Japanese culture, they created a visual combination of "geisha and manga superheroine" for the photographs taken for the album Impossible Princess and the video for "German Bold Italic", Minogue's collaboration with Towa Tei.^[51] Minogue drew inspiration from the music of artists such as Shirley Manson and Garbage, Björk, Tricky and U2, and Japanese pop musicians such as Pizzicato Five and Towa Tei.^[52]

Impossible Princess featured collaborations with musicians such as James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore of the Manic Street Preachers. Mostly a dance album, its style was not represented by its first single "Some Kind of Bliss", and Minogue countered suggestions that she was trying to become an indie artist. She told Music Week, "I have to keep telling people that this isn't an indie-guitar album. I'm not about to pick up a guitar and rock."^[53] Acknowledging that she had attempted to escape the perceptions of her that had developed during her early career, Minogue commented that she was ready to "forget the painful criticism" and "accept the past, embrace it, use it".^[48] Her video for "Did It Again" paid homage to her earlier incarnations, as noted in her biography, Kylie: La La La, "Dance Kylie, Cute Kylie, Sex Kylie and Indie Kylie all struggled for supremacy as they battled bitchily with each other."^[54] Billboard described the album as "stunning" and concluded that "it's a golden commercial opportunity for a major [record company] with vision and energy [to release it in the United States]. A sharp ear will detect a kinship between Impossible Princess and Madonna's hugely successful album, Ray of Light".^[49] In the UK, Music Week gave a negative assessment, commenting that "Kylie's vocals take on a stroppy edge ... but not strong enough to do much".^[55] Retitled Kylie Minogue in the UK following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, it became the lowest-selling album of her career. At the end of the year a campaign by Virgin Radio stated, "We've done something to improve Kylie's records: we've banned them."^[10] A poll conducted by Smash Hits voted her the "worst-dressed person, worst singer and second-most very horrible thing—after spiders".^[10]

In Australia, Impossible Princess spent 35 weeks on the album chart and peaked at number four,^[56] to become her most successful album since Kylie in 1988, and her Intimate and Live tour was extended due to demand.^[57] The Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, hosted a civic reception for Minogue in Melbourne,^[58] and she maintained her high profile in Australia with live performances, including the 1998 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras,^[57] the opening ceremonies of Melbourne's Crown Casino^[59] and Sydney's Fox Studios in 1999, where she performed Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend",^[60] and a Christmas concert in Dili, East Timor in association with the United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces.^[60] During this time she filmed a small role for the Australian-made Molly Ringwald film, Cut (2000).

[edit] 1999–04: Light Years, Fever and Body Language

Minogue and Deconstruction Records parted company. She performed a duet with the Pet Shop Boys' on their Nightlife album and spent several months in Barbados performing in Shakespeare's The Tempest.^[61] Returning to Australia, she appeared in the film Sample People and recorded a cover version of Russell Morris's "The Real Thing" for the soundtrack.^[61] She signed with Parlophone Records in April 1999.^[62] According to Miles Leonard, her new A&R at Parlophone, it was the label and not Minogue that was responsible for her career downturn, believing that her talent hadn't been tapped into by Deconstruction.^[63] Leonard later told HitQuarters: "I believed that she was still very strong vocally, and still definitely a star ... and I knew that with the right project, the right songwriters, the right producers, the right team, she would still have a fanbase out there."^[63] Parlophone wanted to reestablish Minogue as the pop artist they felt she essentially was, but that had been lost. Leonard said: "But I didn't want to make a throwaway pop record, I wanted it to have an edge and some depth."^[63]

Her album Light Years (2000) was a collection of dance songs, influenced by disco music. Minogue said that her intention was to present dance-pop music in a "more exaggerated form" and to make it "fun".^[62] It generated strong reviews and was successful throughout Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, selling over one million copies in the UK.^[64] The single "Spinning Around" became her first British number one in ten years, and its accompanying video featured Minogue in revealing gold hot pants, which came to be regarded as a "trademark".^[65][66] The single was described by a 2009 The Times article as heralding a new era in synthpop that was continuing.^[1] Her second single, "On a Night Like This" reached number one in Australia^[67] and number two in the UK.^[22] "Kids", a duet with Robbie Williams, was also included on Williams's album Sing When You're Winning, and peaked at number two in the UK.^[22]

In 2000, Minogue performed ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and her single "On a Night like This" at the 2000 Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.^[68] She then embarked upon a concert tour, On A Night like This, which played to sell-out crowds in Australia and the United Kingdom. Minogue was inspired by Madonna's 1993 world tour The Girlie Show which incorporated Burlesque and theatre, William Baker also cited the style of Broadway shows such as 42nd Street, films such as Anchors Aweigh, South Pacific, the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the 1930s and the live performances of Bette Midler.^[69] Minogue was praised for her new material and her reinterpretations of some of her greatest successes, turning "I Should Be So Lucky" into a torch song and "Better the Devil You Know" into a 1940s big band number. She won a "Mo Award" for Australian live entertainment as "Performer of the Year".^[70] Following the tour she was asked by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist what she thought was her greatest strength, and replied, "[That] I am an all-rounder. If I was to choose any one element of what I do, I don't know if I would excel at any one of them. But put all of them together, and I know what I'm doing."^[71]

She appeared as "The Green Fairy" in Moulin Rouge! (2001),^[72] shortly before the release of Fever, an album containing disco elements combined with 1980s electropop and synthpop.^[73] Fever reached number one in Australia, the UK, and throughout Europe, eventually achieving worldwide sales in excess of eight million.^[74] Its lead single "Can't Get You Out of My Head" became the biggest success of her career, reaching number one in more than 40 countries.^[75] She won four ARIA Awards including a "Most Outstanding Achievement" award,^[76] and two Brit Awards, for "Best international female solo artist" and "Best international album".^[77] Rolling Stone states that "Can't Get You out of My Head" "was easily the best and most omnipresent dance track of the new century",^[78] and following extensive airplay by American radio, Capitol Records released it and the album Fever in the U.S. in 2002.^[79] Fever debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at number three,^[80] and "Can't Get You out of My Head" reached number seven on the Hot 100.^[23] The subsequent singles "In Your Eyes", "Love at First Sight" and "Come into My World" were successful throughout the world, and Minogue established a presence in the mainstream North American market, particularly in the club scene. Minogue followed the success of the album by touring the United States with the Jingle Ball festival, visiting Miami, Anaheim, New York City, Philadelphia and Houston.^[81][82] In 2003 she received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Dance Recording" for "Love at First Sight",^[83] and the following year won the same award for "Come into My World".^[84]

Minogue's stylist and creative director William Baker explained that the music videos for the Fever album were inspired by science fiction films—specifically those by Stanley Kubrick—and accentuated the electropop elements of the music by using dancers in the style of Kraftwerk. Alan MacDonald, the designer of the 2002 KylieFever tour, brought those elements into the stage show which drew inspiration from Minogue's past incarnations.^[85] The show opened with Minogue as a space age vamp, which she described as "Queen of Metropolis with her drones", through to scenes inspired by Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, followed by the various personas of Minogue's career.^[85] Minogue said that she was finally able to express herself the way she wanted, and that she had always been "a showgirl at heart".^[85] During 2002 she worked on the animated film The Magic Roundabout, released in 2005 in Europe^[86] and 2006 in the U.S.; she voiced one of the principal characters, Florence.

Minogue began a relationship with the French actor, Olivier Martinez, after meeting him at the 2002 Grammy Awards ceremony.^[87] Her next album, Body Language (2003), was released following an invitation-only concert, titled Money Can't Buy, at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. The event marked the presentation of a new visual style, designed by Minogue and Baker, inspired in part by Brigitte Bardot, about whom Minogue commented: "I just tended to think of BB [Bardot] as, well, she's a sexpot, isn't she? She's one of the greatest pinups. But she was fairly radical in her own way at that time. And we chose to reference the period, which was ... a perfect blend of coquette and rock and roll."^[88] The album downplayed the disco style and Minogue said she was inspired by 1980s artists such as Scritti Politti, The Human League, Adam and the Ants and Prince, blending their styles with elements of hip hop.^[89] It received positive reviews with Billboard Magazine writing of "Minogue's knack for picking great songs and producers".^[90] Allmusic described it as "a near perfect pop record ... Body Language is what happens when a dance-pop diva takes the high road and focuses on what's important instead of trying to shock herself into continued relevance".^[91] Sales of Body Language were lower than anticipated after the success of Fever,^[74][79] though the first single, "Slow", was a number-one hit in the UK and Australia.^[92] After reaching number one on the US club chart,^[93] "Slow" received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Dance Recording category.^[83]

Body Language achieved first week sales of 43,000 in the U.S., and declined significantly in the second week.^[94] The Wall Street Journal described Minogue as "an international superstar who seems perpetually unable to conquer the U.S. market".^[94] Minogue commented that she had told her American record company that she was not willing to invest the time needed to establish herself in the U.S. and that she would rather enhance the success she had already achieved in other parts of the world,^[94] an attitude endorsed by Billboard analyst Geoff Mayfield as a "business decision ... If I were her accountant, I couldn't blame her for making that call."^[94] Minogue later commented that she was not concerned by her limited success in the U.S. and was more frustrated by assumptions that she considered her career incomplete without it.^[95]

Minogue played a guest role in the season finale of the comedy series Kath & Kim, in which she referenced her earlier role as Charlene in Neighbours, during a wedding sequence. The episode achieved the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's highest ratings of the year.^[96]

She released her second official greatest hits album in November 2004, entitled Ultimate Kylie, along with her music videos on a DVD compilation of the same title. The album introduced her singles "I Believe in You", co-written with Jake Shears and Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters, and "Giving You Up". "I Believe in You" reached the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play top three,^[93] and Minogue was nominated for a Grammy Award for the fourth consecutive year when the song was nominated in the category of "Best Dance Recording".

[edit] 2005–09: Breast cancer and X

Early in 2005, Kylie: The Exhibition opened in Melbourne. The free exhibition featured costumes and photographs spanning Minogue's career and went on to tour Australian capital cities receiving over 300,000 visitors,^[97] and was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in February 2007.^[98] Minogue commenced her Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour, and after performing in Europe, travelled to Melbourne, where she was diagnosed with breast cancer.^[99]

In November 2006, Minogue resumed her Showgirl: The Homecoming Tour with a performance in Sydney. She had told journalists before the concert that she would be highly emotional, and she cried before dedicating the song "Especially for You" to her father, a survivor of prostate cancer.^[100] Her dance routines had been reworked to accommodate her medical condition, and slower costume changes and longer breaks were introduced between sections of the show to conserve her strength.^[101] The media reported that Minogue performed energetically, with the Sydney Morning Herald describing the show as an "extravaganza" and "nothing less than a triumph".^[100] The following night, Minogue was joined by Bono, who was in Australia as part of U2's Vertigo tour, for the duet "Kids", but Minogue was forced to cancel a subsequent planned appearance at U2's show, because of exhaustion.^[102] Minogue's shows throughout Australia continued to draw positive reviews, and after spending Christmas with her family, she resumed the European leg of her tour with six sold-out shows in Wembley Arena, before taking her tour to Manchester for a further six shows.

Performing in Berlin during KylieX2008

In February 2007, Minogue and Olivier Martinez announced that they had ended their relationship, but remained on friendly terms. Minogue was reported to have been "saddened by false [media] accusations of [Martinez's] disloyalty".^[87] She defended Martinez, and acknowledged the support he had given during her treatment for breast cancer, commenting "He was always there, helping with the practical stuff and being protective. He was incredible. He didn't hesitate in cancelling work and putting projects on hold so he could be with me. He's the most honourable man I have ever met."^[87]

Minogue released X, her tenth studio album and much-discussed "comeback" album,^[103] in November 2007. The electro-styled album included contributions from Guy Chambers, Cathy Dennis, Bloodshy & Avant and Calvin Harris.^[103] For the overarching visual look of X, including the music video for first single "2 Hearts", Minogue and William Baker developed a combination of the style of Kabuki theatre and the aesthetics originating from London danceclubs including BoomBox.^[104] The album received some criticism for the triviality of its subject matter in light of Minogue's experiences with breast cancer; she responded by explaining the personal nature of some of the album's songs, and said "My conclusion is that if I'd done an album of personal songs it'd be seen as 'Impossible Princess 2' and be equally critiqued."^[103] Rolling Stone's reviewer described Minogue as "pop divadom's party planner in chief",^[105] and said of her breast cancer, "thankfully, the experience hasn't made her music discernibly deeper".^[105] Minogue later said, "In retrospect we could definitely have bettered it [the album], I'll say that straight up. Given the time we had, it is what it is. I had a lot of fun doing it."^[106]

Minogue in 2009

X and "2 Hearts" entered at number one on the Australian albums^[107] and singles^[108] charts respectively. In the UK, X initially attracted lukewarm sales,^[103] although its commercial performance eventually improved,^[109] and Minogue won a Brit Award for "International solo female".^[110] X was released in the U.S. in April 2008, and debuted outside the top 100 on the albums chart despite some promotion.^[80] Minogue called the U.S. market "notoriously difficult ... [Y]ou have so many denominations with radio. To know where I fit within that market is sometimes difficult."^[111] X was nominated for the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album,^[112] Minogue's fifth Grammy Award nomination.

In December 2007, Minogue participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway,^[113] and later performed in the final of the UK talent show The X Factor with the eventual winner, Leon Jackson, whose mentor was Dannii Minogue.^[114] From May 2008, Minogue promoted X with a European tour, KylieX2008, which is her most expensive tour to date with production costs of £10 million.^[80][115] Although she described the rehearsals as "grim" and the set list went through several overhauls,^[106] the tour was generally acclaimed and sold well.^[109]

Minogue was featured in White Diamond, a documentary filmed during 2006 and 2007 as she resumed her Showgirl Homecoming Tour.^[116] She appeared in The Kylie Show, which featured highly stylised set-piece song performances from Minogue as well as comedy sketches with Mathew Horne, Dannii Minogue, Jason Donovan and Simon Cowell.^[117] She co-starred in the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas special episode, "Voyage of the Damned", as Astrid Peth, a waitress on a spaceship Titanic. The episode aired on 25 December 2007, with 13.31 million viewers, the show's highest viewing figures since 1979.^[118]

It was announced in late December 2007 that Minogue was to be among those honoured in Queen Elizabeth II's 2008 New Years Honours list, with an OBE for services to music.^[119] Minogue commented "I am almost as surprised as I am honoured. I feel deeply touched to be acknowledged by the UK, my adopted home, in this way."^[120] She received the OBE officially from The Prince of Wales in July 2008.^[121] In May 2008 Minogue was awarded the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest cultural honour. Culture Minister Christine Albanel described Minogue as a "midas of the international music scene who turns everything she touches into gold", and saluted her for publicly discussing her breast cancer.^[122] In July, Minogue was named the UK's "Best Loved Celebrity" by a tabloid newspaper, who commented that she "won the hearts of the nation as she bravely battled breast cancer",^[123] and won the "Best International Female Solo Artist" award at the 2008 BRIT Awards.^[124]