Francis Frascina Books

Modern Art and Modernism offers first-hand material for the study of issues central to the development of modern art, its theory and criticism. The history of modern art is not simply a history of works of art, it is also a history of ideas and interpretations. The works of critics and theorists have not merely been influential in deciding how modern art is to be seen and understood, they have also influenced the course it has taken. The nature of modern art cannot be understood without some analysis of the concept of Modernism itself. Modern Art and Modernism presents a selection of texts by the major contributors to debate on this subject, from Baudelaire to Zola in the 19th century to Greenburg and T J Clark on our own times. It offers a balanced selection of essays by contributors to the mainstream of Modernist criticism, representative examples of writing on the themes of abstraction and expressionism in modern art, and a number of important contributions to the discussion of aesthetics and the social role of the artist.

This volume presents a survey of art from the first two decades of the twentieth century. The authors begin by exploring how aspects of the primitive were invoked by the rural artists' colonies formed in France and Germany at the end of the nineteenth century and by the work of the Fauves and the German Expressionists a few years later. The book then develops an analysis of Cubist works based on semiotic theory, considering the social and cultural values encoded in such signifying systems, and investigating the relationship between representation and ideology. The final chapter considers some problems of interpretation and evolution posed by specific examples of abstract art ranging from Malevich to Mondrian.

Neste livro cinco autores abordam aspectos essenciais na formação de movimentos, como o realismo, o impressionismo e o pós-modernismo, em Paris, entre 1848 e 1900. Analisam os argumentos em favor e em oposição a uma "história social da arte", que compreende as representações como produtos de práticas sociais demarcadas e destacam aspectos pouco estudados, como a influência do feminismo na pintura impressionista.