Morandi is often defined within the traditions of still life and landscape painting, and is known for the domestic and local source of his subject matter. However, the radical nature of his work addresses themes that have become central within contemporary artistic practice. An exploration of the influence of his work on generations of British artists, this fascinating exhibition will juxtapose paintings and drawings by Morandi with signature works by artists such as David Hockney, Tony Cragg, Patrick Caulfield, Euan Uglow and Ben Nicholson.
The making of shadows is an act as old as architecture itself. From the gloom of the medieval hearth through to the masterworks of modernism, shadows have been an essential yet neglected presence in architectural history. Shadow-Makers tells for the first time the history of shadows in architecture. It weaves together a rich narrative – combining close readings of significant buildings both ancient and modern with architectural theory and art history – to reveal the key places and moments where shadows shaped architecture in distinctive and dynamic ways. It shows how shadows are used as an architectural instrument of form, composition, and visual effect, while also exploring the deeper cultural context – tracing differing conceptions of their meaning and symbolism, whether as places of refuge, devotion, terror, occult practice, sublime experience or as metaphors of the unconscious. Within a chronological framework encompassing medieval, baroque, enlightenment, sublime, picturesque, and modernist movements, a wide range of topics are explored, from Hawksmoor's London churches, Japanese temple complexes and the shade-patterns of Islamic cities, to Ruskin in Venice and Aldo Rossi and Louis Kahn in the 20th century. This beautifully-illustrated study seeks to understand the work of these shadow-makers through their drawings, their writings, and through the masterpieces they built.
There are a number of recent texts that draw on psychoanalytic theory as an interpretative approach for understanding architecture, or that use the formal and social logics of architecture for understanding the psyche. But there remains work to be done in bringing what largely amounts to a series of independent voices, into a discourse that is greater than the sum of its parts, in the way that, say, the architect Peter Eisenman was able to do with the architecture of deconstruction or that the historian Manfredo Tafuri was able to do with the Marxist critique of architecture. The discourse of the present volume focuses specifically for the first time on the subject of the unconscious in relation to the design, perception, and understanding of architecture. It brings together an international group of contributors, who provide informed and varied points of view on the role of the unconscious in architectural design and theory and, in doing so, expand architectural theory to unexplored areas, enriching architecture in relation to the humanities. The book explores how architecture engages dreams, desires, imagination, memory, and emotions, how architecture can appeal to a broader scope of human experience and identity. Beginning by examining the historical development of the engagement of the unconscious in architectural discourse, and the current and historical, theoretical and practical, intersections of architecture and psychoanalysis, the volume also analyses the city and the urban condition.
The first comprehensive history of Italian Socialism in English, this book ranges from the defeat of Socialism by Mussolini in 1926 to its resurgence as a powerful force in Italian politics today. Di Scala has not only combed the archives of Italy and America, but also interviewed an array of prominent Italian and American sources, providing testimonies that are themselves likely to become important historical documents. His sweeping, intensive survey sheds new light on important Socialists such as Rodolfo Morandi and Pietro Nenni, and highlights the tremendous accomplishments of Italy's first Socialist prime minister, Bettino Craxi. Di Scala demonstrates that through a remarkable intellectual and political revival, the Socialists overcame their subjection by the Communists and Christian Democrats and went on to radically transform the politics, economy, and international affairs of modern Italy.
Flow combines cutting-edge scholarship with practitioner perspectives to address the concept of 'flow' and how it connects interiors, landscapes and buildings, expanding on traditional notions of architectural prominence. Contributors explore the transitional and intermediary relationships between inside/outside. Through a range of case studies, authors extend the notion of flow beyond the western industrialised world and embrace a wider geography while engaging with the specificity of climate and place. Accompanied by stunning colour illustration and photography, Flow brings together historical, theoretical and practice-based approaches to consider themes of nature, mobility, continuity and frames.
Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. The Lady Anatomist tells the story of her arresting life and times, in light of the intertwined histories of science, gender, and art that complicated her rise to fame in the eighteenth century. Examining the details of Morandi’s remarkable life, Rebecca Messbarger traces her intellectual trajectory from provincial artist to internationally renowned anatomical wax modeler for the University of Bologna’s famous medical school. Placing Morandi’s work within its cultural and historical context, as well as in line with the Italian tradition of anatomical studies and design, Messbarger uncovers the messages contained within Morandi’s wax inscriptions, part complex theories of the body and part poetry. Widely appealing to those with an interest in the tangled histories of art and the body, and including lavish, full-color reproductions of Morandi’s work, The Lady Anatomist is a sophisticated biography of a true visionary.
This exhibition presents new insights into these artists' visual deconstructions of language and examines the connections and collisions among visual art, the word and the social world.
Still life painting is an exciting genre, which allows the artist to explore colour, shape and form using as many or as few objects as they like. A still life can be quiet, tranquil and contemplative in mood, or be a celebration of pure colour and expression. This book introduces the genre using the medium of oil paint as a step-by-step process, from painting simple compositions of one object to complex arrangements of more unusual subject matter. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of preparing for a painting: from studying a still life using a variety of drawing techniques to basic colour theory; from painting with a limited tonal range to using the full impressionist palette. The compositions studied include traditional still life subjects and more unusual objects, and advice is given on materials, including how to stretch your own canvas. The work of notable still life painters is used as inspiration for your work, and the book introduces painting still life within the genre of portraiture. Aimed at beginners and the more experienced; untutored groups and individual artists and beautifully illustrated with 190 colour illustrations.
A lushly illustrated, magisterial exploration of the imaginative truth of the gospel In the modern academy, truth and imagination are thought to be mutually exclusive. But what if truth can spring from other fonts, like art, literature, and invention? The legacy of the Enlightenment favors historical and empirical inquiry above all other methods for searching for truth. But this assumption stymies our theological explorations. Though the historicity of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection is important, it is not of sole importance. For instance, is John’s Gospel any less “true” than the Synoptics just because it’s less historically accurate? David Brown challenges us to expand our understanding of the gospel past source criticism and historical Jesus studies to include works of imagination. Reading Scripture in tandem with works of art throughout the centuries, Brown reenvisions the gospel as an open text. Scholars of theology and biblical studies, freed from literalism, will find new avenues of revelation in Gospel as Work of Art. This volume includes over one hundred color illustrations.
