David Brown
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199248452
- eISBN:
- 9780191600524
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199248451.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
David Brown discusses how the humanity and divinity of Christ have been presented in twentieth‐century art. Some representative artists are examined: for painting, Bacon, Chagall, Dali, Ernst, ...
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David Brown discusses how the humanity and divinity of Christ have been presented in twentieth‐century art. Some representative artists are examined: for painting, Bacon, Chagall, Dali, Ernst, Magritte, O’Keeffe, Picasso, Rouault, Spencer, and Warhol; for sculpture, Epstein, Gill, and Moore. Brown concludes not only that the religious and incarnational impulse in modern art is healthier than is commonly supposed, but also that certain non‐Christians have been highly effective in conveying the truth of a doctrine in which they themselves do not believe. Even where this is not so, sometimes the implicit critique that they offer still requires careful consideration on the part of Christian believers. Brown also notes the wide range of means that have been employed to indicate divinity.Less
David Brown discusses how the humanity and divinity of Christ have been presented in twentieth‐century art. Some representative artists are examined: for painting, Bacon, Chagall, Dali, Ernst, Magritte, O’Keeffe, Picasso, Rouault, Spencer, and Warhol; for sculpture, Epstein, Gill, and Moore. Brown concludes not only that the religious and incarnational impulse in modern art is healthier than is commonly supposed, but also that certain non‐Christians have been highly effective in conveying the truth of a doctrine in which they themselves do not believe. Even where this is not so, sometimes the implicit critique that they offer still requires careful consideration on the part of Christian believers. Brown also notes the wide range of means that have been employed to indicate divinity.
Kálra Móricz
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520250888
- eISBN:
- 9780520933682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520250888.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter cites an excerpt from Octavio Paz's “The Castle of Purity,” an essay on Marcel Duchamp. In ancient religions, purity and impurity were strongly associated with taboos. Western culture ...
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This chapter cites an excerpt from Octavio Paz's “The Castle of Purity,” an essay on Marcel Duchamp. In ancient religions, purity and impurity were strongly associated with taboos. Western culture inherited the concept via Judaism. From the perspective of realized social utopias, purity can be seen as a tool of violence, hence the discomfort one feels in evoking the concept. Despite its central role in twentieth-century art, the significance of purity has been rarely, if ever, discussed, as if critics have wanted to “purify” history of the concept. The genocidal purification practiced during World War II and the numerous attempts at ethnic cleansings that still haunt the world have tainted the word with horrific associations.Less
This chapter cites an excerpt from Octavio Paz's “The Castle of Purity,” an essay on Marcel Duchamp. In ancient religions, purity and impurity were strongly associated with taboos. Western culture inherited the concept via Judaism. From the perspective of realized social utopias, purity can be seen as a tool of violence, hence the discomfort one feels in evoking the concept. Despite its central role in twentieth-century art, the significance of purity has been rarely, if ever, discussed, as if critics have wanted to “purify” history of the concept. The genocidal purification practiced during World War II and the numerous attempts at ethnic cleansings that still haunt the world have tainted the word with horrific associations.
Robyn Ferrell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231148801
- eISBN:
- 9780231504423
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231148801.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter talks about Utopia, a desert community in outback Australia, and how it conveys the engagement of Aboriginal Dreamtime. The story of how the Dreamings were reinvented as icons on the ...
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This chapter talks about Utopia, a desert community in outback Australia, and how it conveys the engagement of Aboriginal Dreamtime. The story of how the Dreamings were reinvented as icons on the international contemporary art scene is considered utopic; a utopia in which one becomes an artist in order to make a living. The painted expression of Dreamings does not decorate, but rather activates, a domain of intelligibility that created the Aboriginal world. The chapter discusses how abstraction in twentieth-century art theory develops a pompous narrative about the end of art, which leads to adopting abstraction as the metaphor for intelligibility and the crisis of meaning. Color, as painting, is an element of abstraction; it is the possibility of both substance and form. Lastly, the chapter recounts the history of batik-printing on fabric and how painting began.Less
This chapter talks about Utopia, a desert community in outback Australia, and how it conveys the engagement of Aboriginal Dreamtime. The story of how the Dreamings were reinvented as icons on the international contemporary art scene is considered utopic; a utopia in which one becomes an artist in order to make a living. The painted expression of Dreamings does not decorate, but rather activates, a domain of intelligibility that created the Aboriginal world. The chapter discusses how abstraction in twentieth-century art theory develops a pompous narrative about the end of art, which leads to adopting abstraction as the metaphor for intelligibility and the crisis of meaning. Color, as painting, is an element of abstraction; it is the possibility of both substance and form. Lastly, the chapter recounts the history of batik-printing on fabric and how painting began.
Rebecca Kosick
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474474603
- eISBN:
- 9781474490924
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474474603.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Material Poetics in Hemispheric America examines poets and artists in the Americas during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to show how they worked to make language into material ...
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Material Poetics in Hemispheric America examines poets and artists in the Americas during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to show how they worked to make language into material objects and material objects into language. It builds a theory of ‘material poetics’ that provides an alternative account of poetry in hemispheric America. It argues that by reframing American poetry to prominently include object-oriented practices within and beyond the United States, material poetry can be seen as representing a significant branch of the American poetic tradition. This book puts contemporary theories of objects and matter into conversation with a variety of American approaches to material poetics. These approaches result in one-word poems more concerned with the look of language than its meaning, artworks that invite viewers to physically engage with language, poems assembled from networks of out-of-place words and things, poetic monuments that meditate on (and take up) space, and poetry that attempts to materialise the remnants of lyrics and lives. By examining five case studies, drawn from Brazil, Chile, the United States, and Canada, it investigates five ways of conceptualizing these poetic objects—as autonomous, relational, assembled, architectural, and posthuman. Poets and artists featured include Haroldo de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Augusto de Campos, Ferreira Gullar, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Juan Luis Martínez, Ronald Johnson, and Anne Carson.Less
Material Poetics in Hemispheric America examines poets and artists in the Americas during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to show how they worked to make language into material objects and material objects into language. It builds a theory of ‘material poetics’ that provides an alternative account of poetry in hemispheric America. It argues that by reframing American poetry to prominently include object-oriented practices within and beyond the United States, material poetry can be seen as representing a significant branch of the American poetic tradition. This book puts contemporary theories of objects and matter into conversation with a variety of American approaches to material poetics. These approaches result in one-word poems more concerned with the look of language than its meaning, artworks that invite viewers to physically engage with language, poems assembled from networks of out-of-place words and things, poetic monuments that meditate on (and take up) space, and poetry that attempts to materialise the remnants of lyrics and lives. By examining five case studies, drawn from Brazil, Chile, the United States, and Canada, it investigates five ways of conceptualizing these poetic objects—as autonomous, relational, assembled, architectural, and posthuman. Poets and artists featured include Haroldo de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Augusto de Campos, Ferreira Gullar, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Juan Luis Martínez, Ronald Johnson, and Anne Carson.
Joseph P. Ansell
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774945
- eISBN:
- 9781789623314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774945.003.0019
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter asks what it means to be a political artist. It looks at Arthur Szyk's work within the context of ‘political’ art and twentieth-century art in general. The chapter asserts that Szyk was ...
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This chapter asks what it means to be a political artist. It looks at Arthur Szyk's work within the context of ‘political’ art and twentieth-century art in general. The chapter asserts that Szyk was at least a political artist throughout the years of the Second World War: he dedicated virtually all of his energies during this period towards fighting the Axis and bolstering the Allies. A ‘one-man war’, as he was sometimes characterized, must be a political being and, if he is an artist, then he must be, perforce, a political artist. Yet the chapter also phrases the question in a broader way — by asking what the artist should do with their talents, not just in times of crises, but throughout a professional career. In all likelihood Szyk would have responded that he was working ‘on behalf of humanity’. In this respect he was an anachronism among twentieth-century artists.Less
This chapter asks what it means to be a political artist. It looks at Arthur Szyk's work within the context of ‘political’ art and twentieth-century art in general. The chapter asserts that Szyk was at least a political artist throughout the years of the Second World War: he dedicated virtually all of his energies during this period towards fighting the Axis and bolstering the Allies. A ‘one-man war’, as he was sometimes characterized, must be a political being and, if he is an artist, then he must be, perforce, a political artist. Yet the chapter also phrases the question in a broader way — by asking what the artist should do with their talents, not just in times of crises, but throughout a professional career. In all likelihood Szyk would have responded that he was working ‘on behalf of humanity’. In this respect he was an anachronism among twentieth-century artists.
