A reprint of the 1987 book of proceedings of the first conference held on the theme in 1985. It contains 26 papers on various aspects of art in Irish Archaeology.
The International Conference on Insular Art (IIAC) is the leading forum for scholars of the visual and material culture of early medieval Ireland and Britain, including manuscript illumination, sculpture, metalwork, and textiles, and encompassing the work of Anglo-Saxon-, Celtic- and Norse-speaking artists. The present volume contains a selection of papers presented at the eighth IIAC, which took place in Glasgow 11-14 July 2017. The theme of IIAC8 - Peopling Insular Art: Practice, Performance, Perception - was intended to focus attention on those who commissioned, created, and engaged with Insular art objects, and how they conceptualised, fashioned, and experienced them (with ‘engagement’ covering not only contemporary audiences, but later medieval and modern ones too). The twenty-one articles gathered here reflect the diverse ways in which this theme has been interpreted. They demonstrate the intellectual vibrancy of Insular art studies, its international outlook, its interdiscplinarity, and its openness to innovative technologies and approaches, while at the same time demonstrating the strength and enduring value of established methodologies and research practices. The studies collected here focus not only on made objects, but on the creative processes and intellectual decisions which informed their making. This volume brings Insular makers – the illuminators, pattern-makers, rubricators, carvers, and casters – to the fore.
"This collection of papers explores the artistic achievements of Early Medieval Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England and their continued resonance down to the Late Medieval period. Twenty-three interdisciplinary studies focus on a range of subjects from the world-famous Book of Kells to less well-known objects, such as Anglo-Saxon decorated pins. The presentation of recent discoveries and innovative research methodologies shed new light on familiar artworks, while more theoretical deliberations challenge traditional approaches to the study of this area. Almost without exception manuscripts, metalwork, sculpture and architecture are examined against their broader contexts--geographical, historical and cultural--illustrating the complexity of influences that contributed to the making and meaning of Insular art"--Jacket.
This book provides an invaluable historical document as well as the opportunity to listen once again to his incomparable, revelatory analyses of images through which he taught his students to see. Others can now follow the spellbinding lecturer as he works his way through an image, making us see what we had not, infecting
The islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima in Japan's Seto Inland Sea are places of pilgrimage for friends of contemporary art and architecture. Alongside works in public spaces as well as site-specific installations, the islands are also full of numerous museums and collections of contemporary art. This publication offers a comprehensive documentation of this unique cultural landscape surrounded by Japan's Inland Sea. The photographs by the Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, ranging from tiny details to giant panoramas, create a comprehensive portrait of the islands with their fluid transitions between nature, art, and architecture. Numerous texts introduce readers to the individual areas and projects that are either permanently on display on the islands or have taken place there temporarily. In addition, other essays deal with the island as a cultural concept and phenomenon. Among others, the book presents buildings by Kazuyo Sejima, Ruye Nishizawa, Tadao Ando, and Hiroshi Sambuichi. ILLUSTRATIONS: 300
A generously illustrated collection, The Insular Tradition explores the various ways in which tradition becomes part of our definition of insular culture and cultural history. The essays are the outcome of a conference held within the Medieval Academy of America meeting at Kalamazoo in 1991. Scholars from America, Scandinavia, Britain, and Ireland came together to discuss the latest research on the remarkable Christian art which flourished among the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon peoples in the Early Medieval Period. New discoveries and a renewed research interest are shedding light on the splendid manuscript illuminations, sculpture, and metalwork of the time. Historical sources are reanalyzed and, together with modern approaches to interpretation, provide fascinating new insights into the social, economic, and spiritual background of the creative artists. This book presents a number of challenging reinterpretations of landmark achievements such as the Book of Kells, the Irish High Crosses, and the enigmatic symbolic and decorative systems of the Pictish people of Scotland. The contributors discuss the processes of creativity, the way in which influences are transmitted, the cross-fertilization of the arts in different media, and the role of trade and exchange and of the patron. Extensive illustrations, some of them difficult to source elsewhere, and comprehensive up-to-date bibliographies make the volume especially useful to those wishing to find a suitable point of entry into this expanding and ever-changing field.
These essays from over forty leading experts on Insular art c.AD400-1500 cross all media, including stone, vellum, cloth, metal, and glass. Along with its customary focus on art of the Insular world of Britain and Ireland, the papers also consider the contemporary European and Mediterranean background and context of Insular art, under the headings of motif, theme, symbol, transmission, translation and scholarship. Offering new perspectives on familiar objects and introducing new finds, like the other volumes in the series, this lavishly illustrated book is a must for all serious students of Insular art. [Subject: Art History, Insular Art, Early Middle Ages, Irish Studies, European Studies, Mediterranean Studies]
When the USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana's harbor on February 15, 1898, the United States joined local rebel forces to avenge the Maine and "liberate" Cuba from the Spanish empire. "Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!" So went the popular slogan. Little did the Cubans know that the United States was not going to give them freedom--in less than a year the American flag replaced the Spanish flag over the various island colonies of Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Spurred by military successes and dreams of an island empire, the US annexed Hawai'i that same year, even establishing island colonies throughout Micronesia and the Antilles. With the new governmental orders of creating new art, architecture, monuments, and infrastructure from the United States, the island cultures of the Caribbean and Pacific were now caught in a strategic scope of a growing imperial power. These spatial and visual objects created a visible confrontation between local indigenous, African, Asian, Spanish, and US imperial expressions. These material and visual histories often go unacknowledged, but serve as uncomplicated "proof" for the visible confrontation between the US and the new island territories. The essays in this volume contribute to an important art-historical, visual cultural, architectural, and materialist critique of a growing body of scholarship on the US Empire and the War of 1898. Imperial Islands seeks to reimagine the history and cultural politics of art, architecture, and visual experience in the US insular context. The authors of this volume propose a new direction of visual culture and spatial experience through nuanced terrains for writing, envisioning, and revising US-American, Caribbean, and Pacific histories. These original essays address the role of art and architecture in expressions of state power; racialized and gendered representations of the United States and its island colonies; and forms of resistance to US cultural presence. Featuring interdisciplinary approaches, Imperial Islands offers readers a new way of learning the ongoing significance of vision and experience in the US empire today, particularly for Caribbean, Latinx, Pilipinx, and Pacific Island communities.
This volume contains the proceedings of the second International Conference on Insular Art held in the National Museums of Scotland in 1991. It covers the latest research by over 30 of Europe and America's leading scholars on the sculpture, metalwork and manuscripts of early-medieval northern Britain and Ireland. The book provides a detailed investigation into styles and influences, with keynote papers from Ernst Kitzinger, George Henderson, R.K.B. Stevenson and Isobel Henderson.