Nature's Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form

Nature's Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form argues-rightly and boldly-that symbolism's stark formal experiments, which have so often been taken to point the way toward twentieth-century abstraction, were tied to an explorative scientific culture concerned with the status of the modern body and mind and their pathologies. It is the first book to take seriously the semantic proximity between the terms 'form' and 'deformation,' including the gamut of ethical conundrums stretching between them. In this regard, Nature's Experiments is a revelation, allowing us to see afresh a set of familiar paintings by Denis, Vuillard, and Munch, among others, through period eyes schooled in the scientific language of experiment. -Andre Dombrowski, author of Cezanne, Murder, and Modern Life The full scope of Nature's Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form will likely be most accessible to those already well-read on symbolism and its precursors, but the fresh understanding that Morehead establishes will serve a wide range of readers, and the author's nuanced reading of Strindberg and Munch will impact multidisciplinary considerations of these luminaries. -Janet S. Rauscher, Scandinavian Studies Nature's Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form provides the framework for a completely reformed picture of symbolism's place in the broader history of art. -Marnin Young, Art History There are so many contributions this author makes toward better understanding Symbolist art, from the close reading of key words, to letting the artists' voices be heard, to learning more about the concept of truth at the beginning of the century. -Serena Keshavjee, CAA.Reviews