Mother Stone The Vitality Of Modern British Sculpture

In Mother Stone Anne Middleton Wagner looks anew at the carvings of the first generation of British modernists, a group centered around Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Jacob Epstein. Wagner probes the work of these sculptors, discusses their shared avant-garde materialism, and identifies a common theme that runs through their work and that of other artists of the period: maternity. Why were artists for three turbulent decades after the First World War seemingly preoccupied with representations of pregnant women and the mother and child? Why was this the great new subject, especially for sculpture? Why was the imagery of bodily reproduction at the core of the effort to revitalize what in Britain had become a somnolent art? Wagner finds the answers to these questions at the intersection between the politics of maternity and sculptural innovation. She situates British sculpture fully within the new reality of “bio-power”—the realm of Marie Stopes, Brave New World, and Melanie Klein. And in a series of brilliant studies of key works, she offers a radical rereading of this sculpture’s main concerns and formal language.

This companion is a collection of newly-commissioned essays written by leading scholars in the field, providing a comprehensive introduction to British art history. A generously-illustrated collection of newly-commissioned essays which provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of British art Combines original research with a survey of existing scholarship and the state of the field Touches on the whole of the history of British art, from 800-2000, with increasing attention paid to the periods after 1500 Provides the first comprehensive introduction to British art of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, one of the most lively and innovative areas of art-historical study Presents in depth the major preoccupations that have emerged from recent scholarship, including aesthetics, gender, British art’s relationship to Modernity, nationhood and nationality, and the institutions of the British art world

"A graduate of Leon Underwood's Brook Green School of Art in London, Gertrude Hermes (1901-83) trained as a painter and sculptor. Hermes and her husband, Blair Hughes-Stanton, who she met at Brook Green, went on to become leading lights in the early twentieth-century's wood-engraving revival. Although their marriage was short-lived, their exuberant visual inventions for Bunyan;s 'The Pilgrim's Progress' and T.E. Lawrence's 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' Brought them critical acclaim. Much has been written about Hermes' career as a wood engraver. In contrast, her contribution as a sculptor has been somewhat eclipsed--until now. 'The Sculpture of Gertrude Hermes' presents for the first time a full analysis of the artist's entire sculptural oeuvre. Along with a comprehensive catalogue of Hermes' sculpture, Jane Hill provides a full account of the artist's life in the context of her career as a sculptor. What results is a picture of a pioneering spirit who created busts and heads, functional designs, decorative work and reliefs that are dynamic and unpredictable. Featuring over 140 images, 'The Sculpture of Gertrude Hermes' is a groundbreaking study of an artist so long associated with one art form. This book redresses the imbalance and creates a new and fresh perspective on an important female artist of the twentieth century."--Publisher's website.

Anglo-American Exchange in Postwar Sculpture, 1945-1975 redresses an important art historical oversight. Histories of American and British sculpture are usually told separately, with artists and their work divided by nationality; yet such boundaries obscure a vibrant exchange of ideas, individuals, and aesthetic influences. In reality, the postwar art world saw dynamic interactions between British and American sculptors, critics, curators, teachers, and institutions. Using works of art as points of departure, this book explores the international movement of people, objects, and ideas, demonstrating the importance of Anglo-American exchange to the history of postwar sculpture.

During the years following World War II debates about the British landscape fused with questions of national identity as the country reconstructed its sense of self. For better or for worse artists, statesmen, and ordinary citizens saw themselves reflected in the landscape, and in turn helped to shape the way that others envisioned the land. While landscape art is frequently imagined in terms of painting, this book examines the role of landscape in terms of a broader definition of visual culture to include the discussion not only of works of oil on canvas, but also prints, sculpture, photography, advertising, fashion journalism, artists' biographies, and the multi-media stage of the national exhibition. Making extensive use of archival materials (newspaper reviews, radio broadcasts, interviews with artists, letters and exhibition planning documents), Catherine Jolivette explores the intersection of landscape art with a variety of discourses including the role of women in contemporary society, the status of immigrant artists in Britain, developments in science and technology, and the promotion of British art and culture abroad.

"Adrian Stokes (1902-72) - aesthete, critic, painter and poet - is among the most original and creative writers on art of the twentieth century. He was the author of over twenty critical books and numerous papers: for example, the remarkable series of books published in the 1930s; The Quattro Cento (1932), Stones of Rimini (1934), and Colour and Form (1937) that embraced Mediterranean culture and modernity. His criticism extends the evocative English aesthetic tradition of Walter Pater and John Ruskin into the present, endowed by a stern sensibility to the consolations offered by art and architecture, and the insights that psychoanalysis affords. Indeed, for Stokes architecture provides the entree into art, and this book is the first study to comprehensively examine Stokess theory of art from a specifically architectonic perspective. The volume explores the crucial experiences through which this architectonic awareness evolved; traces the influence upon Stokes of places, texts and personalities, and examines how his theory of art developed and matured. The argument is supported by appropriate illustrations to confirm the evidence that Stokess claim for architecture as mother of the arts carries the deepest experiential and psychological import."

Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead as both material and cultural signifier in modern and contemporary art. The book analyzes the work of a diverse group of artists working in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and takes into account the ways in which gender, race, and class can affect the cultural perception of lead. Bringing together contributions from a distinguished group of international contributors across various fields, this volume explores lead's relevance from a number of perspectives, including art history, technical art history, art criticism, and curatorial studies. Drawing on current art historical concerns with materiality, this volume builds on recent exhibitions and scholarship that reconsider the role of materials in shaping artistic meaning, thus giving a central relevance to the object and its physicality.

Just what do psychoanalysis and modern sculpture have to do with one another? The present collection of essays, unique in its field, shows how key metaphors of Freudian and Kleinian psychoanalysis - splitting, projection, sublimation, identification, the schizoid and reparative mechanisms - as well as Lacan's concepts of the stade du mirroir and the objet petit a, can be fruitfully applied to a range of modern three-dimensional art, from Surrealism to the present day. As these essays show, figures such as Barbara Hepworth, Eva Hesse, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Robert Morris, Donald Judd, Gilbert and George, Rebecca Horn and others have often approached the material of sculpture with something like these mechanisms in mind. The need to unlock the levels of psychoanalytic connection between artist, object and viewer in recent debate has fuelled the diverse proposals of this original and important book.