- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press (Jan 26 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0300055269
- ISBN-13: 978-0300055269
- Product Dimensions: 26 x 21 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 Kg
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
This scholarly study of the radically inventive Romanian abstract sculptor looks at his life and work from a poststructuralist point of view. As she draws upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, among other things, Chave's obvious love for the outwardly simplistic beauty in Brancusi's oeuvre becomes quickly mired in the impenetrably abstruse prose of the academy. Chave states that she employs "a hermeneutic model of psychopoetics," fashioning a "counterorthodox or reinventive approach" to his sculpture. For all but those in academe to whom poststructuralism remains a viable paradigm, such language is excessive. Brancusi himself once cautioned his critics, "Don't look for obscure formulas or mystery. I offer you pure joy." Only those academic libraries seeking comprehensive coverage of 20th-century art need consider buying this. A far better purchase for most collections would be Radu Varia's handsome Brancusi (LJ 3/1/87), which remains in print.
Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Constantin Brancusi - the most influential sculptor of the 20th century - is usually viewed as a sculptor of pure, perfect, essential forms and as a lone visionary and exotic peasant-sage, aloof from both the social concerns of his age and from avant-garde affiliations. In this fascinating book, Anna C. Chave explodes many of the myths about Brancusi, offering a revised view of the sculptor as an artist creatively responding to avant-garde and social concerns of his day. Using both feminist and social historical lenses to view Brancusi's art, she explores the complex ways in which his works undermine established cultural hierarchies, challenge the fixed nature of sexual identity, and renounce notions of mastery and authority. She discusses, most specifically, how the imperiled status of the subject in an alienated, technological age is addressed by Brancusi's fragmented figures; how the inward-looking, modern subject is invoked by Brancusi's polished, mirroring sculptures that invite narcissistic reflection; and how the changing status of the handmade object in the age of mass production is suggested by Brancusi's use of repetition. Through these achievements, and by his reimagining of the concept of the base - which he generally poised in a dialogic and shifting relation to his sculpture - Brancusi would shift the foundations of art.
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