OUR STORE IS CLOSED ON ANZAC DAY: THURSDAY 25 APRIL

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

A Theory of the Tache in Nineteenth-Century Painting

Øystein Sjåstad

$83.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Routledge
11 September 2019
Without question, the tache (blot, patch, stain) is a central and recurring motif in nineteenth-century modernist painting. Manet's and the Impressionists’ rejection of academic finish produced a surface where the strokes of paint were presented directly, as patches or blots, then indirectly as legible signs. Cézanne, Seurat, and Signac painted exclusively with patches or dots. Through a series of close readings, this book looks at the tache as one of the most important features in nineteenth-century modernism. The tache is a potential meeting point between text and image and a pure trace of the artist’s body. Even though each manifestation of tacheism generates its own specific cultural effects, this book represents the first time a scholar has looked at tacheism as a hidden continuum within modern art.

With a methodological framework drawn from the semiotics of text and image, the author introduces a much-needed fine-tuning to the classic terms index, symbol, and icon. The concept of the tache as a ’crossing’ of sign-types enables finer distinctions and observations than have been available thus far within the Peircean tradition. The ’sign-crossing’ theory opens onto the whole terrain of interaction between visual art, art criticism, literature, philosophy, and psychology.

By:  
Imprint:   Routledge
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 156mm, 
Weight:   272g
ISBN:   9780367432843
ISBN 10:   0367432846
Series:   Studies in Art Historiography
Pages:   192
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Primary ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Øystein Sjåstad is a lecturer in art history at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo, Norway.

See Also