Items related to Imagining the Pacific: In the Wake of the Cook Voyages
In this book Bernard Smith continues his careful examination of how European artists and scientists travelling to the Pacific during the time of Cook's voyages were stimulated to see the world in new and creative ways.
In analysing intensely personal responses to a new accessible environment, Bernard Smith shows how science, topography and travel had an impact on current pictorial genres. In analysing intensely personal responses to a new accessible environment, Bernard Smith shows how science, topography and travel had an impact on current pictorial genres. Among many surprising findings he argues that the obligation science placed on art to provide information was a factor in the triumph of Impressionism during the late nineteenth century.
With its breadth of vision and attention to detail, its exploration of the complex relationship between the pursuit of knowledge and the exercise of power, Imagining the Pacific takes its place alongside Bernard Smith's earlier work as a milestone in historical scholarship."
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Back Cover:
In this book Bernard Smith explores in more depth the issues first dealt with in his classic European Vision and the South Pacific. He continues his careful examination of how European artists and scientists travelling to the Pacific during the time of Cook's voyages were stimulated to see the world in new and creative ways. In analysing intensely personal responses to a newly accessible environment, Bernard Smith shows how science, topography and travel had an impact on current pictorial genres, how an empirical naturalism affected long-standing classical conventions, and how difficult it was for the artists to portray people and places they knew little about. Smith's scrutiny of the pictorial and documentary evidence results in some surprising findings. He argues that the obligation science placed on art to provide information was a factor in the triumph of Impressionism during the late nineteenth century. He points out, for example, that William Hodges, Cook's official artist on his second voyage to the Pacific, was one of the first artists to adopt plein-air methods of painting. Describing the impact of the Pacific world on burgeoning English Romanticism, Smith tells of the crucial influence of Cook's astronomer, William Wales, on S.T. Coleridge's imaginative development. He describes how John Webber's apparently documentary art was fashioned to suit political concerns. He examines critically the relevance of Edward Said's Orientalism for our understanding of European perceptions of the Pacific. With its breadth of vision and attention to detail, its exploration of the complex relationship between the pursuit of knowledge and the exercise of power, Imagining the Pacific will takeits place alongside Bernard Smith's earlier work as a milestone in historical scholarship and a major contribution to an understanding of the development of European art.
About the Author:
Bernard Smith is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art and former director of the Power Institute of Fine Arts, University of Sydney. He is the author of Place, Taste and Tradition: A Study of Australian Art since 1788, Australian Painting 1788-1990 (with Terry Smith) and The Death of the Artist as Hero. He is co-author of The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages and co-editor of The Art of the First Fleet and other Early Australian Drawings.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMelbourne Univ Pr
- ISBN 10 0522846629
- ISBN 13 9780522846621
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Stock Image
IMAGINING THE PACIFIC. In the Wake of the Cook Voyages.
Published by
Melbourne University Press, 1992.
(1992)
ISBN 10: 0522846629
ISBN 13: 9780522846621
Used
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description 4to, 262pp. Colour and black & white illustrations. A very good paperback copy. Spine slightly faded. Seller Inventory # 118333
Buy Used
US$ 19.85
Convert currency
Stock Image
Imagining the Pacific - In the Wake of the Cook Voyages
Published by
Melbourne University Publishing
ISBN 10: 0522846629
ISBN 13: 9780522846621
Used
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. European artists and scientists traveling to the Pacific during the time of Cook's voyages were often stimulated to see the world in new and creative ways. In this book, a preeminent art historian discusses how these voyages influenced art and literature of the period. Bernard Smith discusses in detail such issues as the impact of science, topography, and travel on the genres of the academy; the effects of empirical naturalism on long-standing classical conventions; and the difficulties faced by artists who were totally ignorant of the people and places they were to portray. Smith argues that the obligation science placed on art to provide information was a factor in the triumph of Impressionism during the late nineteenth century, pointing out, for example, that William Hodges, Cook's official artist on his second voyage to the Pacific, was one of the first artists to adopt plein-air methods of painting. Describing the impact of the Pacific world on burgeoning English Romanticism, Smith tells of the crucial influence that Cook's astronomer, William Wales, had on S.T. Coleridge. He also delineates the ways in which an apparently documentary art can be fashioned to suit political concerns, revealing how John Webber, the official artist on the third voyage, composed his drawings to suggest that Cook's relationships with the peoples of the Pacific were amicable when they often were not. In this handsome book Smith explores in greater detail, in more depth, and across a shorter time span some of the historical problems that he first addressed in his classic European Vision and the South Pacific. This book will take its place alongside the earlier work as a milestone in historical scholarship. 2.1 Centimeters X 20.5 Centimeters X 28.2 Centimeters. Seller Inventory # 23127833
Buy Used
US$ 21.28
Convert currency