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Baroque between the Wars

Alternative Style in the Arts, 1918-1939

Jane Stevenson

$116.95

Hardback

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English
Oxford University Press
25 January 2018
Baroque between the Wars is a fascinating and new account of the arts in the twenties and thirties. We often think of this time as being dominated by modernism, yet the period saw a dialogue between modern baroque - eclectic, playful, camp, open to influence from popular culture yet in dialogue with the past, and unafraid of the grotesque or surreal

- and modernism, which was theory-driven, didactic, exclusive, and essentially neo-classical. Jane Stevenson argues that both baroque and classical forms were equally valid responses to the challenge of modernity, by setting painting and literature in the context of 'minor arts' such as interior design, photography, fashion, ballet, and flower arranging, and by highlighting the social context and sexual politics of creative production. Accessibly written and generously illustrated, the volume focuses on artists, artefacts, clients, places, and publicists to demonstrate how baroque offered a whole way of being modern which was actively subversive of the tenets of modernism and practised by the people modernism habitually defined as not worth listening to, particularly women and homosexuals.

By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 241mm,  Width: 162mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   714g
ISBN:   9780198808770
ISBN 10:   0198808771
Pages:   336
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Jane Stevenson was born in 1959 and mostly brought up in London. She studied at the University of Cambridge, and subsequently taught at the Universities of Sheffield and Warwick before moving to Aberdeen, where she is now Regius Professor of Humanity. Works include studies of women's writing in Latin, early modern women poets, a biography of the painter Edward Burra, and six novels.

Reviews for Baroque between the Wars: Alternative Style in the Arts, 1918-1939

With the scholarship, humanity, and wit that made her Edward Burra biography so outstanding, Jane Stevenson presents a shimmering bouquet of connected essays, animating the ghosts of early twentieth-century fashion and frolic, that propose a serious alternative to modernism. * Alan Powers * Stevenson's achievement is baroque in its richness and variety. Spanning the art forms, and bringing to new prominence the period's decorative taste-makers from Cecil Beaton to Elsa Schiaparelli, she turns a serious eye on the meanings of masquerade. The emphasis on art markets and circles of patronage contributes a wealth of new material to this thick-woven tapestry of ideas. * Alexandra Harris, Department of English Literature, University of Birmingham * Broad in scope, yet full of telling detail, this important study of the Baroque sensibility brilliantly illuminates a too-long-neglected era of artistic and cultural activity. * Stephen Calloway, author of Baroque Baroque: The Culture of Excess *


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