by Kathleen Nicholson (1990)
Now famous for their immediate impact of color, light, and atmostpheric effect, the landscapes of Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) were at first the object of opposing critical claims: from one side the British artist was charged with painting "pictures of nothing and very like," from the other, with allowing too much "content" to eclipse his presentation of nature. Taking this paradox as its starting point, Kathleen Nicholson's richly illustrated book proposes a thorough revision of how we understand the enigmatic artist who revolutionized landscape painting. Advancing the growing interest in Turner's handling of content, without ignoring questions of style, Nicholson shows how Turner used the themes of antiquity to explore the ways natural imagery can embody meaning, and how he came to view interpretation itself as a primary subject. Nicholson maintains that by seeking themes in ancient myth, culture, and history, Turner was able to reinvest nature with new values and concepts, thereby accomplishing a genuinely modern revision of classical landscape in an early nineteenth-century idiom. His inquiry into the nature of meaning, she argues, led him to articulate a narrative that engaged the viewer in "reading" or interpreting both symbolic and purely visual imagery - a narrative that finds its most striking enactment in his 1806 work The Goddess of Discord Choosing the Apple of Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides. Among the first to analyze systematically the themes treated in Turner's early sketchbooks, Nicholson traces the artist's understanding of a given legend, ancient author, or formal source as it developed over time, providing rare insight into the extent and character of his manipulation of subject matter. -- from dust jacket.
Werner Hofmann
"An appraisal of Caspar David Friedrich, the leading 19th-century German Romantic, whose work has undergone a steady rise in appreciation over the past three decades. This volume features his paintings, watercolours and drawings, and also explores the critical judgements of his contemporaries."--BOOK JACKET.
Doug Elliott and Bill Barnes
***Australia and Sherlock Holmes*** is the third title in The Baker Street Irregulars’ International Series, which brings the best non-fiction Holmesian writing from around the world to a larger audience. The history of Australian Sherlockians can be traced back over 100 years to a photograph of a group of miners printed in *The Strand Magazine* in 1904. ***Australia and Sherlock Holmes*** captures the distinctive Sherlockian voice from Down Under. Editors Bill Barnes and Doug Elliott provide context for, and an introduction to, Sherlock Holmes in Australia. They gathered materials written between 1959 and 2007, mostly from *News from the Diggings* and T*he Passengers’ Log*. These incisively written scholarly essays includes two pieces about the larger-than-life Richard Hughes, an Australian journalist who made one of the scoops of the (last) century by obtaining the first interview with the Cambridge spies Burgess and Maclean. (Hughes was a real-life inspiration for novelists John le Carré and Ian Fleming.) Popular culture is well represented by a piece covering Sherlock Holmes films conceived but never filmed, and accompanied by delightful, apocryphal movie posters. Well-reasoned papers link both Watson’s childhood and the speckled band snake to Australia; a fine, perhaps definitive essay addresses “The *Gloria Scott*.” There is much more in this volume attesting to the continuing remarkable popularity of the great detective around the globe, and particularly in Australia, and the creative whimsy with which Holmesian scholars play “The Game.”
[work edited by Federico Zeri
Books invites the reader on a journey through the most famous paintings in the history of art. Detailed, informative, and stimulating portraits of the individual artist are documented alongside beautiful glossy illustrations and detailed keys to the paintings.
Hubertus Butin
The phrase "unique pieces in series" seems to be contradictory at first sight. For how can something that only exists once be present several times? But some of Gerhard Richter's editions embody this particular principle of uniqueness in series. In paintings, photographic works, prints, and drawings, Richter has developed the possibility to vary individual copies in their appearance. The entire set of an edition thus consists of unicultural variants whose difference is intended. Probably no other artist has made this design concept into a fundamental method of their art in such a fascinatingly diverse way. Die Formulierung "Unikate in Serie" scheint auf den ersten Blick in sich widersprüchlich zu sein. Denn wie kann etwas, was nur einmal vorhanden sein soll, mehrfach vorliegen? Doch manche von Gerhard Richters Auflagenwerken verkörpern dieses besondere Prinzip der Einzigartigkeit in Serie. In Malerei-Editionen, Fotoarbeiten, Druckgrafiken, Zeichnungen und Multiples hat Richter die Möglichkeit entwickelt, im Rahmen der jeweils gleichen Produktionsweise einzelne Exemplare in ihrer Erscheinung zu variieren. Die gesamte Auflage einer Edition besteht somit aus unikatären Varianten, deren Unterschiedlichkeit intendiert ist. Wohl kein anderer Künstler hat dieses gestalterische Konzept auf so faszinierend vielfältige Weise zu einer grundsätzlichen Methode seiner Kunst gemacht.