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Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > From 1900
Volume 3 of Visual Century: South African Art in Context 1907-1948
is part of a four-volume publication that reappraises South African
visual art of the twentieth century from a postapartheid
perspective. Edited by Mario Pissarra, the volume looks at the
years 1973 to 1992. The forw0rd by Rashied Araeen titled `Art and
Human Struggle', sets the theme for this period. Bracketed by
porous transitional moments in the early 1970s and 1990s, this
volume covers a period characterised by a deepening of the struggle
for democracy, a time when historical preoccupations with race were
increasingly complemented with growing discourses on class and
gender. It was a time when unprecedented internal and external
pressure resulted in heightened introspection and action in and
through the visual arts. The essays address a multiplicity of ways
in which artists responded directly and indirectly to the
challenges of this period, mostly as individuals but also through
organisations. Resistance and complicity, and the spaces between,
found expression in the use of everyday themes, biblical sources,
ethnically derived themes, subtle and extreme forms of humour, as
well as through representations of conflict. This is a period when
challenging art was produced in community arts centres,
universities and in public places, a time when the cultural boycott
simultaneously united and polarised artists, and exiles mediated
the ambivalences of `home'.
Sometimes considered to be America's first indigenous modernist art
style, Precisionism, a movement principally of the 1920s and 1930s,
concentrated on depicting the urban and industrial landscape,
emphasizing the formal geometrical qualities of solid mass and
clean lines and rendering these vistas with simplified, sharp-edged
shapes and smooth, unmodulated application of pigment, void of
extraneous details and impersonal in tone. This annotated
bibliography deals with Precisionism and its ten leading
practitioners: George Ault, Peter Blume, Ralston Crawford, Charles
Demuth, Preston Dickinson, O. Louis Guglielmi, Louis Lozowick,
Morton L. Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, and Niles Spencer. Each
artist's chapter begins with a biographical sketch and includes
sections for Writings, Statements, and Interviews; Monographs and
Exhibition Catalogues; Articles and Essays; Exhibition Reviews;
Book Reviews; Dissertations and Theses; Reference Sources; and
Archival Sources. A special section at the end of each chapter
lists annotated reproductions of the artist's work appearing in any
of approximately 225 source volumes. Coverage extends to painting,
drawings, lithographs, and photographs. An opening chapter, also
divided by types of materials, covers Precisionism in general and
cites material in which two or more of the ten artists are
discussed. A keyword index provides full citations for the source
volumes. Three other indexes facilitate access by author,
short-title of exhibition catalogues, and subjects. The only
annotated bibliography on Precisionism, this volume will be a
valuable aid to research on a variety of subjects relating to
modern American art.
Theatre and Dictatorship in the Luso-Hispanic World explores the
discourses that have linked theatrical performance and prevailing
dictatorial regimes across Spain, Portugal and their former
colonies. These are divided into three different approaches to
theatre itself - as cultural practice, as performance, and as
textual artifact - addressing topics including obedience,
resistance, authoritarian policies, theatre business, exile,
violence, memory, trauma, nationalism, and postcolonialism. This
book draws together a diverse range of methodological approaches to
foreground the effects and constraints of dictatorship on
theatrical expression and how theatre responds to these
impositions.
This book was born from a year of exchanges of movement ideas
generated in cross-practice conversations and workshops with
dancers, musicians, architects and engineers. Events took place at
key cultural institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts,
London; and The Lowry, Salford, as well as on-site at architectural
firms and on the streets of London. The author engages with dance's
offer of perspectives on being in place: how the 'ordinary person'
is facilitated in experiencing the dance of the city, while also
looking at shared cross-practice understandings in and about the
body, weight and rhythm. There is a prioritizing of how embodied
knowledges across dance, architecture and engineering can
contribute to decolonizing the production of place - in particular,
how dance and city-making cultures engage with female bodies and
non-white bodies in today's era of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.
Akinleye concludes in response conversations about ideas raised in
the book with John Bingham-Hall, Liz Lerman, Dianne McIntyer and
Richard Sennett. The book is a fascinating resource for those drawn
to spatial practices from dance to design to construction.
This guide summarizes and evaluates the available literature
concerning the Dutch artistic movement De Stijl, which was headed
by art critic and painter Theo van Doesburg and was comprised of
such architects and artists as J.J.P. Oud, Piet Mondrian, Rovbert
van 't Hoff and Georges Vantongerloo. The loose-knit group took its
name from the avant garde journal they first published in October
1917: "De Stijl" (The Style). Although it was limited to Holland,
De Stijl promoted ideas about a universal art, combining tenets of
theosophy, an holistic view of the oneness of all things, including
arts and culture, and socialism. This bibliography examines
publications that deal with the movement and with affiliated groups
and individual members.
Art historians and scholars of modern and of Dutch art and
architecture will appreciate this comprehensive tool for further
research. Within individual sections for the movement and for its
members, entries are chronologically arranged with separate
categories for books, monographs and catalogs, and periodicals. A
final section analyzes and presents the contents of the journal "De
Stijl."
Rachel Owen's hauntingly beautiful illustrations for Dante's
Inferno take a radically new approach to representing the world of
Dante's famous poem. The images combine the artist's deep cultural
and historical understanding of 'The Divine Comedy' and its
artistic legacy with her unique talent for collage and printmaking.
These illustrations, casting the viewer as a first-person pilgrim
through the underworld, prompt us to rethink Dante's poem through
their novel perspective and visual language. Owen's work, held in
the Bodleian Library and published here for the first time,
illustrates the complete cycle of thirty-four cantos of the Inferno
with one image per canto. The illustrations are accompanied by
essays contextualising Owen's work and supplemented by six
illustrations intended for the unfinished Purgatorio series. Fiona
Whitehouse provides details of the techniques employed by the
artist, Peter Hainsworth situates Owen's work in the field of
modern Dante illustration and David Bowe offers a commentary on the
illustrations as gateways to Dante's poem. Jamie McKendrick and
Bernard O'Donoghue's translations of episodes from the 'Inferno'
provide complementary artistic interpretations of Dante's poem,
while reflections from colleagues and friends commemorate Owen's
life and work as an artist, scholar and teacher. This stunning
collection is an important contribution to both Dante scholarship
and illustration.
Enchanted Ground is about the challenge to modernist criticism by
Surrealist writers - mainly Andre Breton but also Louis Aragon,
Pierre Mabille, Rene Magritte, Charles Estienne, Rene Huyghe and
others - who viewed the same artists in terms of magic, occultism,
precognition, alchemy and esotericism generally. It introduces the
history of the ways in which those artists who came after
Impressionism - Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges
Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh - became canonical in the
20th century through the broad approaches we now call modernist or
formalist (by critics and curators such as Alfred H. Barr, Roger
Fry, Robert Goldwater, Clement Greenberg, John Rewald and Robert L.
Herbert), and then unpacks chapter-by-chapter, for the first time
in a single volume, the Surrealist positions on the same artists.
To this end, it contributes to new strains of scholarship on
Surrealism that exceed the usual bounds of the 1920s and 1930s and
that examine the fascination within the movement with magic.
Ellen Gallagher (b.1965) is one of the most celebrated painters of
her generation, coming to prominence in the mid-1990s in the wake
of the so-called 'culture wars' and the art world's controversial
embrace of identity-politics and multiculturalism. In this in-depth
look at her oeuvre, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith unpacks the
complexities of her richly layered paintings, examining themes such
as identity, race, displacement and the ecological environment,
which Gallagher has explored throughout her work. The author takes
the reader from Gallagher's early years - looking at her formative
influences - through her engagement, from the late 1990s on, with
the inherited modernist forms of the monochrome and the grid and
with the violence and division at the root of modernism itself.
Also explored are her phantasmagoric explorations of oceanic life,
which draw on the discoveries of natural science, the traumatic
history of the Atlantic slave trade and the speculative fictions of
Afrofuturism. For anyone interested in contemporary art and the
ways particular artists are expanding its borders, in form and
content, this is essential reading.
Gothic effigy brings together for the first time the multifarious
visual motifs and media associated with Gothic, many of which have
never received serious study before. This guide is the most
comprehensive work in its field, a study aid that draws links
between a considerable array of Gothic visual works and artifacts,
from the work of Salvator Rosa and the first illustrations of
Gothic Blue Books to the latest Gothic painters and graphic
artists. Currently popular areas such as Gothic fashion, gaming,
T.V. and film are considered, as well as the ghostly images of
magic lantern shows. This groundbreaking study will serve as an
invaluable reference and research book. In its wide range and
closely detailed descriptions, it will be very attractive for
students, academics, collectors, fans of popular Gothic culture and
general readers. -- .
In 1917, Marcel Duchamp sent out a 'telegram' in the guise of a
urinal signed R. Mutt. When it arrived at its destination a good
forty years later it was both celebrated and vilified as
proclaiming that anything could be art; from that point on, the
whole Western art world reconfigured itself as 'post-Duchamp'. This
book offers a reading of Duchamp's telegram that sheds new light
onto its first reception, corrects some historical mistakes and
reveals that Duchamp's urinal in fact heralds the demise of the
fine arts system and the advent of what Thierry de Duve calls the
'Art-in-General' system. Further, the author shows that this new
system does not date from the 1960s but rather from the 1880s.
Duchamp was neither its author nor its agent, but rather its
brilliant messenger.
The Birmingham Art Book is a tribute to a unique city whose
visionary scientists and inventors made it famous as a
manufacturing powerhouse. From heavy metal industry - here is where
the first steam trains were built- to heavy metal music - Black
Sabbath made their mark here, this is a place with a proud
heritage. Its handsome university is the original of the 'Redbrick'
universities, founded by a farsighted mayor in 1900 as a civic
place of learning, open to all, now with many world famous alumni
and staff, 10 of whom have won Nobel prizes. Local artists convey
the architectural glory of Victoria Square and the city centre
Museum and Art Gallery (which holds a sumptuous collection of
Pre-Raphaelite art). In their drawings, they echo the modern
vibrancy of buildings such as the iconic Selfridges department
store and the REP theatre. Collages and sketches depict a city
buzzing with vitality -from the world-renowned Hippodrome theatre,
to the shopping centres and legendary nightlife that are national
attractions. Quirky nooks like the Jewellery Quarter, the Electric
Cinema or the tranquil Botanic gardens hidden so close to the
centre are reflected in this lovely book. The green city with 8000
acres of public parks and many miles of canal paths dating from its
heyday in the Industrial Revolution is lovingly drawn and painted
by its artists. The Birmingham Art Book is where local artists
shine a light on the grand and the humdrum with equal affection.
Their love for the modern city is evident and their pride in its
heritage comes to the fore in this lovely book.
Etel Adnan (1925-2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist and
visual artist. This is the first book to present a full account of
Adnan's fascinating life and work, using the drama of her
biography, the complexity of her identity, and the cosmopolitan
nature of her experience to illuminate the many layers and
dimensions of her paintings and their progress over several crucial
decades. Adnan came relatively late to painting - her first images
were created in the late-1950s in response to the Californian
landscape. Her vocabulary of lines, shapes and colours changed
little over time, and yet there are huge variations in mood,
texture, composition and material. Similarly, there is a balance
between understanding her paintings as pure abstractions, emulating
the shape of thought, and seeing them for the actual landscapes of
the many places Adnan loved, embraced and responded to. Tackling
the complexities of her subject with skill and insight, Kaelen
Wilson-Goldie unpacks Adnan's multi-layered career to capture the
full scope of her artistic endeavours and impressive achievements.
The private collector's museum has become a phenomenon of the 21st
century. There are some 400 of them around the world, and an
astonishing 70% of those devoted to contemporary art were founded
in the past 20 years. Although private museums have been accused of
being tax-evading vanity projects or 'tombs for trophies', the
picture is far more complex and nuanced, as art-market journalist
Georgina Adam (author of best-selling Big Bucks and Dark Side of
the Boom) shows in her compelling new book. Georgina Adam's
investigation into this extraordinary proliferation, based on her
recent visits to over 50 private spaces across the US, Europe,
China and elsewhere, delves into the reasons behind this boom, the
different motivations of collectors to display their art in public,
and the various ways in which the institutions are financed.
Private museums can add greatly to the cultural life of a
community, giving a platform to emerging artists, supplying
educational programmes and revitalising declining or neglected
regions. But their relationship with public institutions can also
be problematic. Should private museums step in to fill a gap left
by declining public investment in culture, and what are the
implications for society and the arts? At a time of crisis in the
museums sector, this book is an essential and thought-provoking
read.
The most influential 20th century architects espousing modernism
are brought together in critical discussion and independent
profiles. This is accomplished through a short but discriminating
examination of each architect's design work, an essay outlining the
historical course and events that confirms his or her vital
position, and a substantial bibliography at the completion of each
profile. This sourcebook examines the life and creative activities
of such founding architects as Wright, Eisenman, Van der Rohe, and
Kahn, as well as their disciples. This volume will be of interest
to social and cultural historians, scholars, students of all ages,
architects, and the appreciative lay audience.
The architects and or firms chosen for the sourcebook were
selected as a result of many years of research that required
extensive reading of materials by respected experts. From such
research, the editors were able to determine the individuals or
groups who have been most influential in charting the course of a
Westernized modern architecture. From evidence of their productive
activities--proof in timber--there is a consensus that each made a
unique contribution. The nature and measure of the contribution is
discussed within each profile. Those whose reputations are based on
paper only, with few buildings to prove their worth, are not
included. The editors believe that architecture is an experiential
art: all the senses must participate, and that requires the actual
built product.
In this dynamic collection a team of experts map the development
of Live Art culturally, thematically and historically. Supported
with examples from around the world, the text engages with a number
of key practices, asking what these practices do and how they can
be contextualized and understood.
Modern Art: A Critical Introduction traces the historical and
contemporary contexts for understanding modern art movements, and
the theories which influenced and attempted to explain them. This
approach forgoes the chronological march of art movements and isms
in favour of looking at the ways in which art has been understood.
It investigates the main developments in art interpretation from
the same period, from Kant to post-structuralism, and draws
examples from a wide range of art genres including painting,
sculpture, photography, installation and performance art. The book
includes detailed discussions of visual art practices both inside
and outside the museum. This new edition has been restructured to
make the key themes as accessible as possible and updated to
include many more recent examples of art practice . An expanded
glossary and margin notes also provide definitions of the range of
terms used within theoretical discussion and critical reference.
Individual chapters explore key themes of the modern era, such as
the relationship between artists and galleries, the politics of
representation, the changing nature of self-expression, the public
monument, nature and the urban,
Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words is an incisive and
imaginative look at the international environmental sound art
movement, which emerged in the late 1960s. The term environmental
sound art is generally applied to the work of sound artists who
incorporate processes in which the artist actively engages with the
environment. While the field of environmental sound art is diverse
and includes a variety of approaches, the art form diverges from
traditional contemporary music by the conscious and strategic
integration of environmental impulses and natural processes. This
book presents a current perspective on the environmental sound art
movement through a collection of personal writings by important
environmental sound artists. Dismayed by the limitations and
gradual breakdown of contemporary compositional strategies,
environmental sound artists have sought alternate venues, genres,
technologies, and delivery methods for their creative expression.
Environmental sound art is especially relevant because it addresses
political, social, economic, scientific, and aesthetic issues. As a
result, it has attracted the participation of artists
internationally. Awareness and concern for the environment has
connected and unified artists across the globe and has achieved a
solidarity and clarity of purpose that is singularly unique and
optimistic. The environmental sound art movement is borderless and
thriving.
In this pathbreaking study, the historical relationship between
nineteenth-century spiritualism and twentieth-century surrealism is
the basis for a general examination of conflicting movements in
literature, art, philosophy, science, and other areas of social
life. Because spiritualism delved into the world beyond humanity
and surrealism was founded on the world within, the two provide a
provocative frame for examining the struggles within modern
culture. Cottom argues that we must conceive of interpretation in
terms of urgency, desire, fierce contention, and impromptu
deviation if we want to understand how things come to bear meaning
for us. He demonstrates that even when Victorians holding seances
and surrealists composing manifestoes were most foolish, they had
much that was valuable to say about the life (and death) of reason.
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