Synopses & Reviews
Inspired by the Sheldon Museum of Artand#8217;s holdings in geometric abstraction, this book introduces adventurous new thinking about a visual approach that has captivated both artists and viewers for more than a century. Four richly illustrated essays explore the European genesis of geometric abstraction, its translation into an American context, and its current direction, charting the styleand#8217;s aesthetic, intellectual, and social implications.
Sharon L. Kennedyand#8217;s essay draws on the Sheldonand#8217;s collection to trace the styleand#8217;s beginnings and its various transformations by twentieth-century American artists. Peter Halley invokes contemporary theory in rethinking how postmodern artists engage with geometry while challenging its most basic presumptions. Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe delves into the work of four contemporary artists who are taking geometry inand#160;new directions, and Jorge Daniel Veneciano reveals the persistent manner in which theorists and defenders of geometric abstraction have obscured aspects of its history and contributed to the esoteric aura of modern art.
Featured throughout are full-color reproductions of art from both the Sheldon and private collections, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by diverse artists such as Ilya Bolotowsky, Carmen Herrera, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Odili Donald Odita, Frank Stella, and Charmion von Wiegand.
Review
"The catalog beautifully illustrates each of the 47 prints and includes five scholarly essays on aspects of Renaissance visual culture."and#8212;Maine Antique Digest
Review
"This volume is a welcome stimulus to an important, fascinating subject that scholars will find has much left to explore. Recommended."and#8212;Choice
Review
"The catalogue creates and treats a category that has often been overlooked due to the rarity and unwieldiness of these awesome, erotic, almost always tour-de-force specimens of drawing, carving, and printing."and#8212;Evelyn Lincoln, Renaissance Quarterly
Review
"The catalogue essays range from broad overviews . . . to case studies of a sort, so that together they present a solid introduction to some fascinating and understudied material. Accessible enough for newcomers to the study of prints, the essays are nevertheless full of new insights for print specialists."and#8212;Susan Maxwell, Sixteenth Century Journal
Review
"The Geometric Unconscious is an excellent addition to the literature about abstract art."and#8212;Craig Adock,and#160; Great Plains Quarterly
Review
and#8220;The strength of this studyand#8212;in fact, its undeniable contribution to our knowledge of Daland#237;and#8212;lies in its very detailed and comprehensive expositionand#8212;indeed the close and quite perceptive analysis of the and#8216;little things,and#8217; as they emerge in Daland#237;and#8217;s early works. . . . Tiny Surrealism is a valuable contribution to a more comprehensive understanding of Daland#237;and#8217;s art and aesthetics.and#8221;and#8212;Haim Finkelstein, author of Salvador Daland#237;'s Art and Writing, 1927and#8211;1942
Review
and#8220;Rothmanand#8217;s book is a creative, readable, and invigorating reevaluation of the early career of Salvador Daland#237;, one of the most recognizable figures in twentieth century art and intellectual history, yet also one of the most vexing and misunderstood. . . . Rothmanand#8217;s discussions of Daland#237;and#8217;s texts and paintings are consistently enlightening and provocative, and the book promises to make a substantive impact in the fields of modernism and surrealism.and#8221;and#8212;Jonathan Eburne, author of Surrealism and the Art of Crime
Review
andquot;Undergraduates and general audiences will find distinct new approaches to the well-known but inadequately analyzed artist Dalandiacute;. Rothman's book opens pathways to insert Dalandiacute; into the scholarly discourses surrounding modern art.andquot;andmdash;Choice
Review
"Tiny Surrealism is a solid, nuanced piece of scholarly inquiry. . . . Rothman offers a fresher perspective and a richer vocabulary to rethink Daland#237;'s place in the surrealist universe. Tiny Surrealism successfully rescues Daland#237; from such unfair critical isolation and sheds overdue light on the intricacies of such a multidimensional artist."and#8212;Pablo Baler, Hispania
Review
andquot;Tiny Surrealism successfully dilutes the generic caricature of a camera-ready Dalandiacute;, haunting coffee-table books, wall calendars, and classroom discussions, while at the same time the study maintains an awareness of the centrality of satirical humor to Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s production. Written in a lucid and readable style appropriate even for the novice student of surrealism, Tiny Surrealism excavates a different side to Dalandiacute;: that of the empathetic, stunningly perspicacious, and vulnerable man, who is always favoring the underdog. . . . Tiny Surrealism has great potential to serve as an introduction to Dalandiacute;'s complex oeuvre, as it balances the investigation of the artistandrsquo;s visual artworks with nearly as many of his compelling writings, and furthermore because it surveys the trajectory of his career between the 1920s and 1930s.andquot;andmdash;Abigail Susik, Modernism/Modernity
Synopsis
Grand Scale brings to light rare surviving examples of mural-size printsand#151;a Renaissance art form nearly lost from historical record. The most famous 16th-century woodcuts, engravings, and etchings were those done on an intimate scale. Yet artists also worked in another entire category of print production, producing mural-size prints that sometimes reached as high as ten feet. This handsome book, which features nearly fifty examples from Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, explores these multi-block woodcut and multi-plate engraving ensembles as vital contributions to the visual culture of their time. Comprising five essays, Grand Scale documents the relationship of monumental prints to the history of prints in general and also to mapmaking, painting, and book illustration, while addressing image design and modular printing from multiple, repeating blocks.
Synopsis
Grand Scale brings to light rare surviving examples of mural-size prints--a Renaissance art form nearly lost from historical record. The most famous 16th-century woodcuts, engravings, and etchings were those done on an intimate scale. Yet artists also worked in another entire category of print production, producing mural-size prints that sometimes reached as high as ten feet. This handsome book, which features nearly fifty examples from Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, explores these multi-block woodcut and multi-plate engraving ensembles as vital contributions to the visual culture of their time. Comprising five essays,
Grand Scale documents the relationship of monumental prints to the history of prints in general and also to mapmaking, painting, and book illustration, while addressing image design and modular printing from multiple, repeating blocks.
Synopsis
'\'Today Renaissance-era prints are typically preserved behind glass or in solander boxes in museums, but these decorative objects were once a central part of everyday life.
Altered and Adorned is a delightful, surprising look at how prints were used: affixed on walls; glued into albums, books, and boxes; annotated; hand-colored; or cut apart.
This handsome volume introduces readers to the experimental world of printmaking in the mid-15th and 16th centuries and the array of objects it inspired, from illustrated books, sewing patterns, and wearable ornaments to printed sundials and anatomical charts. It features many never-before-published treasures from the Art Institute of Chicago\\\'s rich permanent collection, along with essays on the ways prints functionedin some cases as three-dimensional and interactive worksand how their condition communicates their use. \''
Synopsis
Though one of the most popular artists of the twentieth century, Salvador Daland#237; is typically seen as peripheral to the dominant practices of modernist painting. Roger Rothmanand#8217;s Tiny Surrealism argues that this marginal position is itself a coherent response to modernism. It demonstrates how Daland#237;and#8217;s practice was organized around the logic of the inconsequential by focusing on Daland#237;and#8217;s identification with things that are literally tiny (ants, sewing needles, breadcrumbs, blackheads, etc.) as well as those that are metaphorically small (the trivial, the weak, the superficial, and the anachronistic). In addition to addressing the imagery of Daland#237;and#8217;s paintings,
Tiny Surrealism demonstrates that the logic of the small was a fundamental factor in Daland#237;and#8217;s adherence to the techniques of miniaturist illusionism. Long derided as antimodernist and kitsch, Rothman demonstrates that Daland#237;and#8217;s style was itself a strategy of the small aimed at subverting the dominant values of modern painting.
Tiny Surrealism not only examines Daland#237;and#8217;s pictorial work, it also probes the artistand#8217;s many public pronouncements and private correspondences. By attending to the peculiarities of Daland#237;and#8217;s technique and examining overlooked aspects of his writings, Tiny Surrealism is the first study to detail his deliberate subversion of modernist orthodoxies.
About the Author
Larry Silver is Farquhar Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Wyckoff is Assistant Director and Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College.
Suzanne Boorsch is Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Yale University Art Gallery. Lilian Armstrong is Professor of Art Emerita, Wellesley College. Alison Stewart is Associate Professor of Art History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Stephen Goddard is Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence.