Natures Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form (Paperback)

Allison Morehead

ISBN 10: 0271076755 / ISBN 13: 9780271076751

Published by Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. This provocative study argues that some of the most inventive artwork of the 1890s was strongly influenced by the methods of experimental science and ultimately foreshadowed twentieth-century modernist practices.Looking at avant-garde figures such as Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard, August Strindberg, and Edvard Munch, Allison Morehead considers the conjunction of art making and experimentalism to illuminate how artists echoed the spirit of an increasingly explorative scientific culture in their work and processes. She shows how the concept of natures experimentsthe belief that the study of pathologies led to an understanding of scientific truths, above all about the human mind and bodyextended from the scientific realm into the world of art, underpinned artists solutions to the problem of symbolist form, and provided a ready-made methodology for fin-de-siecle truth seekers. By using experimental methods to transform symbolist theories into visual form, these artists broke from naturalist modes and interrogated concepts such as deformation, automatism, the arabesque, and madness to create modern works that were radically and usefully strange.Focusing on the scientific, psychological, and experimental tactics of symbolism, Natures Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form demystifies the avant-garde value of experimentation and reveals new and important insights into a foundational period for the development of European modernism. Examines the influence of experimental science, concerned with the workings of the body, the mind, and their various pathologies, on the works of late nineteenth-century artists Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard, August Strindberg, and Edvard Munch. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780271076751

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Natures Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form (Paperback)
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271076755
• ISBN 13: 9780271076751
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This provocative study argues that some of the most inventive artwork of the 1890s was strongly influenced by the methods of experimental science and ultimately foreshadowed twentieth-century modernist practices.

Looking at avant-garde figures such as Maurice Denis, Édouard Vuillard, August Strindberg, and Edvard Munch, Allison Morehead considers the conjunction of art making and experimentalism to illuminate how artists echoed the spirit of an increasingly explorative scientific culture in their work and processes. She shows how the concept of “nature’s experiments”―the belief that the study of pathologies led to an understanding of scientific truths, above all about the human mind and body―extended from the scientific realm into the world of art, underpinned artists’ solutions to the problem of symbolist form, and provided a ready-made methodology for fin-de-siècle truth seekers. By using experimental methods to transform symbolist theories into visual form, these artists broke from naturalist modes and interrogated concepts such as deformation, automatism, the arabesque, and madness to create modern works that were radically and usefully strange.

Focusing on the scientific, psychological, and experimental tactics of symbolism, Nature’s Experiments and the Search for Symbolist Form demystifies the avant-garde value of experimentation and reveals new and important insights into a foundational period for the development of European modernism.

About the Author

Allison Morehead is Associate Professor of Art History and Cultural Studies at Queen’s University.