Meyer Schapiro’s Critical Debates

Meyer Schapiro’s Critical Debates

Author: C. Oliver O’Donnell

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0271085541

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Described in the New York Times as the greatest art historian America ever produced, Meyer Schapiro was both a close friend to many of the famous artists of his generation and a scholar who engaged in public debate with some of the major intellectuals of his time. This volume synthesizes his prolific career for the first time, demonstrating how Schapiro worked from the nexus of artistic and intellectual practice to confront some of the twentieth century’s most abiding questions. Schapiro was renowned for pioneering interdisciplinary approaches to interpreting visual art. His lengthy formal analyses in the 1920s, Marxist interpretations in the 1930s, psychoanalytic critiques in the 1950s and 1960s, and semiotic explorations in the 1970s all helped open new avenues for inquiry. Based on archival research, C. Oliver O’Donnell’s study is structured chronologically around eight defining debates in which Schapiro participated, including his dispute with Isaiah Berlin over the life and writing of Bernard Berenson, Schapiro’s critique of Martin Heidegger’s ekphrastic commentary on Van Gogh, and his confrontation with Claude Lévi-Strauss over the applicability of mathematics to the interpretation of visual art. O’Donnell’s thoughtful analysis of these intellectual exchanges not only traces Schapiro’s philosophical evolution but also relates them to the development of art history as a discipline, to central tensions of artistic modernism, and to modern intellectual history as a whole. Comprehensive and thought-provoking, this study of Schapiro’s career pieces together the separate strands of his work into one cohesive picture. In doing so, it reveals Schapiro’s substantial impact on the field of art history and on twentieth-century modernism.


Book Synopsis Meyer Schapiro’s Critical Debates by : C. Oliver O’Donnell

Download or read book Meyer Schapiro’s Critical Debates written by C. Oliver O’Donnell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Described in the New York Times as the greatest art historian America ever produced, Meyer Schapiro was both a close friend to many of the famous artists of his generation and a scholar who engaged in public debate with some of the major intellectuals of his time. This volume synthesizes his prolific career for the first time, demonstrating how Schapiro worked from the nexus of artistic and intellectual practice to confront some of the twentieth century’s most abiding questions. Schapiro was renowned for pioneering interdisciplinary approaches to interpreting visual art. His lengthy formal analyses in the 1920s, Marxist interpretations in the 1930s, psychoanalytic critiques in the 1950s and 1960s, and semiotic explorations in the 1970s all helped open new avenues for inquiry. Based on archival research, C. Oliver O’Donnell’s study is structured chronologically around eight defining debates in which Schapiro participated, including his dispute with Isaiah Berlin over the life and writing of Bernard Berenson, Schapiro’s critique of Martin Heidegger’s ekphrastic commentary on Van Gogh, and his confrontation with Claude Lévi-Strauss over the applicability of mathematics to the interpretation of visual art. O’Donnell’s thoughtful analysis of these intellectual exchanges not only traces Schapiro’s philosophical evolution but also relates them to the development of art history as a discipline, to central tensions of artistic modernism, and to modern intellectual history as a whole. Comprehensive and thought-provoking, this study of Schapiro’s career pieces together the separate strands of his work into one cohesive picture. In doing so, it reveals Schapiro’s substantial impact on the field of art history and on twentieth-century modernism.

Iconography Beyond the Crossroads

Iconography Beyond the Crossroads

Author: Pamela A. Patton

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2023-03-23

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 0271093005

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This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume’s case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.


Book Synopsis Iconography Beyond the Crossroads by : Pamela A. Patton

Download or read book Iconography Beyond the Crossroads written by Pamela A. Patton and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2023-03-23 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume assesses how current approaches to iconology and iconography break new ground in understanding the signification and reception of medieval images, both in their own time and in the modern world. Framed by critical essays that apply explicitly historiographical and sociopolitical perspectives to key moments in the evolution of the field, the volume’s case studies focus on how iconographic meaning is shaped by factors such as medieval modes of dialectical thought, the problem of representing time, the movement of the viewer in space, the fragmentation and injury of both image and subject, and the complex strategy of comparing distant cultural paradigms. The contributions are linked by a commitment to understanding how medieval images made meaning; to highlighting the heuristic value of new perspectives and methods in exploring the work of the image in both the Middle Ages and our own time; and to recognizing how subtle entanglements between scholarship and society can provoke mutual and unexpected transformations in both. Collectively, the essays demonstrate the expansiveness, flexibility, and dynamism of iconographic studies as a scholarly field that is still heartily engaged in the challenge of its own remaking. Along with the volume editors, the contributors include Madeline H. Caviness, Beatrice Kitzinger, Aden Kumler, Christopher R. Lakey, Glenn Peers, Jennifer Purtle, and Elizabeth Sears.

Too Jewish or Not Jewish Enough

Too Jewish or Not Jewish Enough

Author: Jeffrey Abt

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2024-02-02

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1805392794

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Displays of Jewish ritual objects in public, non-Jewish settings by Jews are a comparatively re-cent phenomenon. So too is the establishment of Jewish museums. This volume explores the origins of the Jewish Museum of New York and its evolution from collecting and displaying Jewish ritual objects, to Jewish art, to exhibiting avant-garde art devoid of Jewish content, created by non-Jews. Established within a rabbinic seminary, the museum’s formation and development reflect changes in Jewish society over the twentieth century as it grappled with choices between religion and secularism, particularism and universalism, and ethnic pride and assimilation.


Book Synopsis Too Jewish or Not Jewish Enough by : Jeffrey Abt

Download or read book Too Jewish or Not Jewish Enough written by Jeffrey Abt and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2024-02-02 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Displays of Jewish ritual objects in public, non-Jewish settings by Jews are a comparatively re-cent phenomenon. So too is the establishment of Jewish museums. This volume explores the origins of the Jewish Museum of New York and its evolution from collecting and displaying Jewish ritual objects, to Jewish art, to exhibiting avant-garde art devoid of Jewish content, created by non-Jews. Established within a rabbinic seminary, the museum’s formation and development reflect changes in Jewish society over the twentieth century as it grappled with choices between religion and secularism, particularism and universalism, and ethnic pride and assimilation.

Thinking of the Medieval

Thinking of the Medieval

Author: Benjamin A. Saltzman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-10-13

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1108807968

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The mid-twentieth century gave rise to a rich array of new approaches to the study of the Middle Ages by both professional medievalists and those more well-known from other pursuits, many of whom continue to exert their influence over politics, art, and history today. Attending to the work of a diverse and transnational group of intellectuals – Hannah Arendt, Erich Auerbach, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Erwin Panofsky, Simone Weil, among others – the essays in this volume shed light on these thinkers in relation to one another and on the persistence of their legacies in our own time. This interdisciplinary collection gives us a fuller and clearer sense of how these figures made some of their most enduring contributions with medieval culture in mind. Thinking of the Medieval is a timely reminder of just how vital the Middle Ages have been in shaping modern thought.


Book Synopsis Thinking of the Medieval by : Benjamin A. Saltzman

Download or read book Thinking of the Medieval written by Benjamin A. Saltzman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-13 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mid-twentieth century gave rise to a rich array of new approaches to the study of the Middle Ages by both professional medievalists and those more well-known from other pursuits, many of whom continue to exert their influence over politics, art, and history today. Attending to the work of a diverse and transnational group of intellectuals – Hannah Arendt, Erich Auerbach, W. E. B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Erwin Panofsky, Simone Weil, among others – the essays in this volume shed light on these thinkers in relation to one another and on the persistence of their legacies in our own time. This interdisciplinary collection gives us a fuller and clearer sense of how these figures made some of their most enduring contributions with medieval culture in mind. Thinking of the Medieval is a timely reminder of just how vital the Middle Ages have been in shaping modern thought.

Uncontrollable Beauty

Uncontrollable Beauty

Author: David Shapiro

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001-10-01

Total Pages: 999

ISBN-13: 1621531112

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In this acclaimed art anthology, a prestigious group of artists, critics, and literati offer their incisive reflections on the questions of beauty, past, present, and future, and how it has become a domain of multiple perspectives. Here is Meyer Schapiro’s skeptical argument on perfection . . . contributions from artists as profound as Louise Bourgeois and Agnes Martin . . . and reflections of critics, curators, and philosophers on the problems of beauty and relativism. Readers will find fascinating insights from such art theorists and critics as Dave Hickey, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Donald Kuspit, Carter Ratcliff, and dozens more.


Book Synopsis Uncontrollable Beauty by : David Shapiro

Download or read book Uncontrollable Beauty written by David Shapiro and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-10-01 with total page 999 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this acclaimed art anthology, a prestigious group of artists, critics, and literati offer their incisive reflections on the questions of beauty, past, present, and future, and how it has become a domain of multiple perspectives. Here is Meyer Schapiro’s skeptical argument on perfection . . . contributions from artists as profound as Louise Bourgeois and Agnes Martin . . . and reflections of critics, curators, and philosophers on the problems of beauty and relativism. Readers will find fascinating insights from such art theorists and critics as Dave Hickey, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Donald Kuspit, Carter Ratcliff, and dozens more.

Art and Form

Art and Form

Author: Sam Rose

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2019-05-10

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0271084308

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This important new study reevaluates British art writing and the rise of formalism in the visual arts from 1900 to 1939. Taking Roger Fry as his starting point, Sam Rose rethinks how ideas about form influenced modernist culture and the movement’s significance to art history today. In the context of modernism, formalist critics are often thought to be interested in art rather than life, a stance exemplified in their support for abstract works that exclude the world outside. But through careful attention to early twentieth-century connoisseurship, aesthetics, art education, design, and art in colonial Nigeria and India, Rose builds an expanded account of form based on its engagement with the social world. Art and Form thus opens discussions on a range of urgent topics in art writing, from its history and the constructions of high and low culture to the idea of global modernism. Rose demonstrates the true breadth of formalism and shows how it lends a new richness to thought about art and visual culture in the early to mid-twentieth century. Accessibly written and analytically sophisticated, Art and Form opens exciting new paths of inquiry into the meaning and lasting importance of formalism and its ties to modernism. It will be invaluable for scholars and enthusiasts of art history and visual culture.


Book Synopsis Art and Form by : Sam Rose

Download or read book Art and Form written by Sam Rose and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2019-05-10 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important new study reevaluates British art writing and the rise of formalism in the visual arts from 1900 to 1939. Taking Roger Fry as his starting point, Sam Rose rethinks how ideas about form influenced modernist culture and the movement’s significance to art history today. In the context of modernism, formalist critics are often thought to be interested in art rather than life, a stance exemplified in their support for abstract works that exclude the world outside. But through careful attention to early twentieth-century connoisseurship, aesthetics, art education, design, and art in colonial Nigeria and India, Rose builds an expanded account of form based on its engagement with the social world. Art and Form thus opens discussions on a range of urgent topics in art writing, from its history and the constructions of high and low culture to the idea of global modernism. Rose demonstrates the true breadth of formalism and shows how it lends a new richness to thought about art and visual culture in the early to mid-twentieth century. Accessibly written and analytically sophisticated, Art and Form opens exciting new paths of inquiry into the meaning and lasting importance of formalism and its ties to modernism. It will be invaluable for scholars and enthusiasts of art history and visual culture.

Interpreting Art

Interpreting Art

Author: Sam Rose

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2022-02-10

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1800081774

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How do people make sense of works of art? And how do they write to make others see the same way? There are many guides to looking at art, histories of art history and art criticism, and accounts of various ‘theories’ and ‘methods’, but this book offers something very unlike the normal search for difference and division: it examines the general and largely unspoken norms shared by interpreters of many kinds. Ranging widely, though taking writing within the Western tradition of art history as its primary focus, Interpreting Art highlights the norms, premises, and patterns that tend to guide interpretation along the way. Why, for example, is the concept of artistic ‘intention’ at once so reviled and yet so hard to let go of? What does it really involve when an interpretation appeals to an artwork’s ‘reception’? How can ‘context’ be used by some to keep things under control and by others to make the interpretation of art seem limitless? And how is it that artworks only seem to grow in complexity over time? Interpreting Art reveals subtle features of art writing central to the often unnoticed interpretative practices through which we understand works of art. In doing so, the book also sheds light on possible alternatives, pointing to how writers on art might choose to operate differently in the future.


Book Synopsis Interpreting Art by : Sam Rose

Download or read book Interpreting Art written by Sam Rose and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do people make sense of works of art? And how do they write to make others see the same way? There are many guides to looking at art, histories of art history and art criticism, and accounts of various ‘theories’ and ‘methods’, but this book offers something very unlike the normal search for difference and division: it examines the general and largely unspoken norms shared by interpreters of many kinds. Ranging widely, though taking writing within the Western tradition of art history as its primary focus, Interpreting Art highlights the norms, premises, and patterns that tend to guide interpretation along the way. Why, for example, is the concept of artistic ‘intention’ at once so reviled and yet so hard to let go of? What does it really involve when an interpretation appeals to an artwork’s ‘reception’? How can ‘context’ be used by some to keep things under control and by others to make the interpretation of art seem limitless? And how is it that artworks only seem to grow in complexity over time? Interpreting Art reveals subtle features of art writing central to the often unnoticed interpretative practices through which we understand works of art. In doing so, the book also sheds light on possible alternatives, pointing to how writers on art might choose to operate differently in the future.

Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich

Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich

Author: Richard A. Etlin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2002-10-15

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 0226220877

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Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich explores the ways in which the Nazis used art and media to portray their country as the champion of Kultur and civilization. Rather than focusing strictly on the role of the arts in state-supported propaganda, this volume contributes to Holocaust studies by revealing how multiple domains of cultural activity served to conceptually dehumanize Jews and other groups. Contributors address nearly every facet of the arts and mass media under the Third Reich—efforts to define degenerate music and art; the promotion of race hatred through film and public assemblies; views of the racially ideal garden and landscape; race as portrayed in popular literature; the reception of art and culture abroad; the treatment of exiled artists; and issues of territory, conquest, and appeasement. Familiar subjects such as the Munich Accord, Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds, and Lebensraum (Living Space) are considered from a new perspective. Anyone studying the history of Nazi Germany or the role of the arts in nationalist projects will benefit from this book. Contributors: Ruth Ben-Ghiat David Culbert Albrecht Dümling Richard A. Etlin Karen A. Fiss Keith Holz Kathleen James-Chakraborty Paul B. Jaskot Karen Koehler Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien Jonathan Petropoulos Robert Jan van Pelt Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn and Gert Gröning


Book Synopsis Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich by : Richard A. Etlin

Download or read book Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich written by Richard A. Etlin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2002-10-15 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art, Culture, and Media Under the Third Reich explores the ways in which the Nazis used art and media to portray their country as the champion of Kultur and civilization. Rather than focusing strictly on the role of the arts in state-supported propaganda, this volume contributes to Holocaust studies by revealing how multiple domains of cultural activity served to conceptually dehumanize Jews and other groups. Contributors address nearly every facet of the arts and mass media under the Third Reich—efforts to define degenerate music and art; the promotion of race hatred through film and public assemblies; views of the racially ideal garden and landscape; race as portrayed in popular literature; the reception of art and culture abroad; the treatment of exiled artists; and issues of territory, conquest, and appeasement. Familiar subjects such as the Munich Accord, Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds, and Lebensraum (Living Space) are considered from a new perspective. Anyone studying the history of Nazi Germany or the role of the arts in nationalist projects will benefit from this book. Contributors: Ruth Ben-Ghiat David Culbert Albrecht Dümling Richard A. Etlin Karen A. Fiss Keith Holz Kathleen James-Chakraborty Paul B. Jaskot Karen Koehler Mary-Elizabeth O'Brien Jonathan Petropoulos Robert Jan van Pelt Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn and Gert Gröning

Art, Politics and Dissent

Art, Politics and Dissent

Author: Francis Frascina

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780719044694

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Art, Politics and Dissent provides a counter history to conventional accounts of American art. Close historical examinations of particular events in Los Angeles and New York in the 1960s are interwoven with discussion of the location of these events, normally marginalized or overlooked, in the history of cultural politics in the United States during the postwar period.


Book Synopsis Art, Politics and Dissent by : Francis Frascina

Download or read book Art, Politics and Dissent written by Francis Frascina and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art, Politics and Dissent provides a counter history to conventional accounts of American art. Close historical examinations of particular events in Los Angeles and New York in the 1960s are interwoven with discussion of the location of these events, normally marginalized or overlooked, in the history of cultural politics in the United States during the postwar period.

Tradition and Creativity

Tradition and Creativity

Author: Ching-i Tu

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9781412840255

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The terms "culture" and "civilization" have too often been used interchangeably in referring to accomplishments in the spiritual, intellectual, and material domains, and human progress from the uncultivated to the refined. But in reality, they have a twofold meaning, as the essays in this book attest. The eight prominent scholars in this volume, working in their respective areas of expertise, offer either new perspectives or new syntheses on the study of the subjects under discussion. In discussing various aspects of Chinese and Japanese cultures, these essays either offer new perspectives or new syntheses on the study of the topics under discussion. In addition, they share a common effort to underscore the importance of the humanistic tradition in East Asian civilization. Authored by leading scholars in the field, they represent the current scholarship in the West on the study of Chinese and Japanese cultures, and contribute significantly to a better understanding of East Asia. Contents: Preface: Ching-I Tu; Popular Religions in Japan: Faith, Belief, and Behavior, Robert J. Smith; Virtuous Wives and Good Mothers-Women in Chinese Society, Marilyn B. Young; Popular Culture in China, Evelyn S. Rawski; Japanese Culture and Foreign Affairs, Akira Iriye; Chinese Culture: High Integration and Hard Modernization, James T.C. Liu; Modern Art Criticism and Chinese Painting History, Wen C. Fong; Religion and Literature in China: The "Obscure Way" of The Journey to the West, Anthony C. Yu; Management and Labor in the Japanese Economy, Solomon B. Levine


Book Synopsis Tradition and Creativity by : Ching-i Tu

Download or read book Tradition and Creativity written by Ching-i Tu and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1987 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The terms "culture" and "civilization" have too often been used interchangeably in referring to accomplishments in the spiritual, intellectual, and material domains, and human progress from the uncultivated to the refined. But in reality, they have a twofold meaning, as the essays in this book attest. The eight prominent scholars in this volume, working in their respective areas of expertise, offer either new perspectives or new syntheses on the study of the subjects under discussion. In discussing various aspects of Chinese and Japanese cultures, these essays either offer new perspectives or new syntheses on the study of the topics under discussion. In addition, they share a common effort to underscore the importance of the humanistic tradition in East Asian civilization. Authored by leading scholars in the field, they represent the current scholarship in the West on the study of Chinese and Japanese cultures, and contribute significantly to a better understanding of East Asia. Contents: Preface: Ching-I Tu; Popular Religions in Japan: Faith, Belief, and Behavior, Robert J. Smith; Virtuous Wives and Good Mothers-Women in Chinese Society, Marilyn B. Young; Popular Culture in China, Evelyn S. Rawski; Japanese Culture and Foreign Affairs, Akira Iriye; Chinese Culture: High Integration and Hard Modernization, James T.C. Liu; Modern Art Criticism and Chinese Painting History, Wen C. Fong; Religion and Literature in China: The "Obscure Way" of The Journey to the West, Anthony C. Yu; Management and Labor in the Japanese Economy, Solomon B. Levine