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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1800 to 1900
The sudden and spectacular growth in Dante's popularity in England
at the end of the eighteenth century was immensely influential for
English writers of the period. But the impact of Dante on English
writers has rarely been analysed and its history has been little
understood. Byron, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Blake, and Wordsworth
all wrote and painted while Dante's work - its style, project, and
achievement - commanded their attention and provoked their
disagreement. The Circle of Our Vision discusses each of these
writers in detail, assessing the nature of their engagement with
the Divine Comedy and the consequences for their own writing. It
explores how these Romantic poets understood Dante, what they
valued in his poetry and why, setting them in the context of
contemporary commentators, translators, and illustrators,
(including Fuseli, Flaxman, and Reynolds) both in England and
Europe. Romantic readings of the Divine Comedy are shown to disturb
our own ideas about Dante, which are based on Victorian and
Modernist assumptions. Pite also presents a reconsideration of the
concept of 'influence' in general, using the example of Dante's
presence in Romantic poetry to challenge Harold Bloom's belief that
the relations between poets are invariably a fight to the death.
Swedish Modern is a playful exploration of the philosophy and
heritage of the legendary Swedish interior design and furniture
company, Svenskt Tenn. The company was founded in 1924 by the
pioneering design entrepreneur Estrid Ericson and joined ten years
later by Austrian designer and architect Josef Frank. Together they
created eclectic, elegant and boldly patterned interior design
style known as Swedish Modern that has made Svenskt Tenn
world-renowned. This colouring book is your invitation to explore
their world of magical interiors.
Written by the art dealer and friend who was among the first to
recognise Rousseau's importance, these Recollections present a
movingly personal portrait of the artist known as Le Douanier (the
Customs Officer).
"Martin Bailey has written some of the most interesting books on
Vincent's life in France, where he produced his greatest work" -
Johan van Gogh, grandson of Theo, the artist's brother Studio of
the South tells the story of Van Gogh's stay in Arles, when his
powers were at their height. For Van Gogh, the south of France was
an exciting new land, bursting with life. He walked into the hills
inspired by the landscapes, and painted harvest scenes in the heat
of summer. He visited a fishing village where he saw the
Mediterranean for the first time, energetically capturing it in
paint. He painted portraits of friends and locals, and flower still
life paintings, culminating in the now iconic Sunflowers. He rented
the Yellow House, and gradually did it up, calling it 'an artist's
house', inviting Paul Gauguin to join him there. This encounter was
to have a profound impact on both of the artists. They painted side
by side, their collaboration coming to a dramatic end a few months
later. The difficulties Van Gogh faced led to his eventual decision
to retreat to the asylum at Saint-Remy. Based on extensive original
research, the book reveals discoveries that throw new light on the
legendary artist and give a definitive account of his fifteen
months in Provence, including his time at the Yellow House, his
collaboration with Gauguin and its tragic and shocking ending.
This catalogue accompanies the first exhibition devoted to a
fascinating group of drawings by the Anglo-Swiss Henry Fuseli
(1741-1825), one of eighteenth-century Europe's most idiosyncratic,
original and controversial artists. Best known for his notoriously
provocative painting The Nightmare, Fuseli energetically cultivated
a reputation for eccentricity, with vividly stylised images of
supernatural creatures, muscle-bound heroes, and damsels in
distress. While these convinced some viewers of the greatness of
his genius, others dismissed him as a charlatan, or as completely
mad. Fuseli's contemporaries might have thought him even crazier
had they been aware that in private he harboured an obsessive
preoccupation with the figure of the modern woman, which he pursued
almost exclusively in his drawings. Where one might have expected
idealised bodies with the grace and proportions of classical
statues, here instead we encounter figures whose anatomies have
been shaped by stiff bodices, waistbands, puff ed sleeves, and
pointed shoes, and whose heads are crowned by coiffures of the most
bizarre and complicated sort. Often based on the artist's wife
Sophia Rawlins, the women who populate Fuseli's graphic work tend
to adopt brazenly aggressive attitudes, either fixing their gaze
directly on the viewer or ignoring our presence altogether. Usually
they appear on their own, in isolation on the page; sometimes they
are grouped together to form disturbing narratives, erotic
fantasies that may be mysterious, vaguely menacing, or overtly
transgressive, but where women always play a dominant role. Among
the many intriguing questions raised by these works is the extent
to which his wife Sophia was actively involved in fashioning her
appearance for her own pleasure, as well as for the benefit of her
husband. By bringing together more than fi fty of these studies
(roughly a third of the known total), The Courtauld Gallery will
give audiences an unprecedented opportunity to see one of the
finest Romantic-period draughtsmen at his most innovative and
exciting. Visitors to the show and readers of the lavishly
illustrated catalogue will further be invited to consider how
Fuseli's drawings of women, as products of the turbulent aftermath
of the American and French Revolutions, speak to concerns about
gender and sexuality that have never been more relevant than they
are today. The exhibition showcases drawings brought together from
international collections, including the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the
Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand, and from other European and
North American institutions.
Cv Publications survey of crafts design and production includes
interviews, articles and showcases of emerging and established
practices in the UK and Ireland. The directory explores makers'
studios and provides a contact list of makers and suppliers, with
specialist outlets active in the chain of distribution. It also
contains contributions by specialist arts writers, David Rose,
Margaret MacNamidhe and Roberta Stoker.
Defining Decadence The legacy of Gustav Klimt A century after his
death, Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) still startles with
his unabashed eroticism, dazzling surfaces, and artistic
experimentation. This monograph gathers all of Klimt's major works
alongside authoritative art historical commentary and privileged
access to the artist's archive with some 179 letters, cards,
writings, and other documents. With top quality illustration,
including new photography of the celebrated Stoclet Frieze, the
book follows Klimt through his prominent role in the Secessionist
movement of 1897, his candid rendering of the female body, and his
lustrous "golden phase" when gold leaf brought a shimmering tone
and texture to such beloved works as The Kiss and Portrait of Adele
Bloch-Bauer I, also known as The Woman in Gold. Through luminous
spreads and carefully curated details, the monograph traces the
repertoire of Japanese, Byzantine, and allegorical stimuli that
informed Klimt's flattened perspectives, his symbolic vocabulary,
and his mosaic-like textures. Drawing upon contemporary critics and
voices, the book also examines the art world's polarized reception
to Klimt's pictures as much as his own stylistic trajectory. From
his landscape painting to erotic works to the controversial ceiling
for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna, we see how Klimt's
admixture of tradition and daring divided the press and public,
becried by some as a pornographer, hailed by others as a modern
maestro.
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