Material Imagination examines the interrelated concepts of matter, materialism, and materiality in postwar European art, from 1946-1972.
Provides a unique perspective on European art by prioritizing material dimensions over concept or context, while also paying attention to theoretical and historical concerns Explores artists’ methods and materials in order to better understand the social and cultural environments in which their works of art were made Demonstrates how materials can be harnessed to affect the critical interpretation of artwork Brings together exceptional illustrations and new research in eight essays by art historians and scholars
Edited by:
Natalie Adamson,
Steven Harris
Imprint: Blackwell Publishing
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 274mm,
Width: 211mm,
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 758g
ISBN: 9781119328575
ISBN 10: 1119328578
Series: Art History Special Issues
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 28 July 2017
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Notes on Contributors 6 Chapter 1 Material Imagination: Art in Europe, 1946–72 8 Natalie Adamson and Steven Harris Chapter 2 Black Flowers Blossom: Bachelard, Soulages and the Material Imaginary of Abstract Painting 22 Natalie Adamson Chapter 3 Materialism and Intersubjectivity in Cobra 44 Karen Kurczynski Chapter 4 Makeshift Wholes: Interiority and Texture in Postwar British Design 66 Alex Kitnick Chapter 5 Materializing Modernism in Postwar Italy: Fausto Melotti, Gio Ponti, and the 1961 88 Esposizione Internazionale del Lavoro Marin R. Sullivan Chapter 6 L’Optique Moderne: Daniel Spoerri’s ‘Optical Readymades’ 112 Jill Carrick Chapter 7 Terrain vague: Ben Vautier and the Ecole de Nice 140 Anna Dezeuze Chapter 8 ‘Not Yet’ Materialized: Carlfriedrich Claus’s ‘Talking Papers’ 164 Sarah E. James Chapter 9 The Longevity of Roman Opałka 188 Alistair Rider Index 209
Natalie Adamson is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of St Andrews, and was Deputy Editor of Art History from 2012 to 2017. She is the author of Academics, Pompiers, Official Artists and the Arriere-Garde: Defining Modern and Traditional in France, 1900-1960 (2009) and Painting, Politics, and the Struggle for the Ecole de Paris, 1944-1964 (2009). She currently holds a two-year Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust for a book project provisionally entitled Pierre Soulages: Radical Abstraction. Steven Harris is Associate Professor in History of Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Alberta. He is the author of articles on surrealism, postwar abstraction, and Fluxus, and the book Surrealist Art and Thought in the 1930's: Art, Politics and the Psyche (2004). His current research project, The Poetics of Disenchantment, investigates both the surrealist movement in the postwar period, and how surrealist ideas and values were taken up or challenged by postwar European collectives like Cobra, the College of 'Pataphysics, and the Situationist International.
