This is a study of the guillotine and its role in the French Revolution, concentrating as much upon the social and psychological contexts - the "mythology" and theatre of the guillotine - as upon the history and transformations of the guillotine's invention. The book offers a thesis which argues, for example, that the guillotine acts as an enlightenment machine, as the begetter of a new physiology of the headless body politic, as an aristocratic/democratic art of dying, and as the source of a new kind of criminological portraiture.

The Guillotine and the Terror

ARASSE, Daniel

History

Penguin Group USA

This monograph uses a thematic and chronologial approach to explore the many facets of Anselm Kiefer's work. By examining his influences, style and recurring motifs, Daniel Arasse highlights Kiefer's rich culture and his philosophical and artistic practice, while demonstrating the unity and continuity in his work that transcends any linear concept of time. Arasse takes as his starting point the 1980 Venice Biennale, a key moment in the artist's career, as it marked the birth of both his international reputation and the controversy over the "Germanness" of his work. Through the six main chapters, the author delves into the central themes of Kiefer's paintings and their evolution. Nordic and Germanic mythologies, Jewish mysticism, the cosmos, the legends of the ancient world, links between heaven and earth, men and the gods, transmutation, the role of the human body - all of these lie at the heart of Kiefer's thought. Interspersed with the main discussion are five sub-chapters that shed a new light on the fabric and subject of Kiefer's art by examining his favourite motifs and the ways that they have mutated through time and thematic shifts.

Anselm Kiefer

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

A richly illustrated monograph of one of the most controversial and important artists at work today Anselm Kiefer, born in 1945, is one of the most important and controversial artists at work in the world today. Through such diverse mediums as painting, photography, artists’ books, installations, and sculpture, he has interpreted the great political and cultural issues at the heart of the modern European sensibility: the connections between memory, history, and mythology; war; the Holocaust; and ethnic and national identity. In this extensively illustrated, thoughtful survey of his work, available again in a new and compact format, author Daniel Arasse analyzes Kiefer’s education, influences, philosophy, and art, while demonstrating the unity and continuity of his work. Arasse takes as his starting point the 1980 Venice Biennale, a key moment in Kiefer’s career that marked the birth of both his international reputation and the controversy over the strong focus on German civilization that characterized much of his work. Equal parts eloquent tribute and respected monograph, Anselm Kiefer is organized both chronologically and to reflect the artist’s recurrent motifs, including Nordic and Germanic mythologies, Jewish mysticism, the cosmos, the legends of the ancient world, and many more. Approximately 250 full-color images reproduce his art at the highest possible quality, to trace Kiefer’s creative evolution and reveal as fully as possible his works’ scope and power. 409 illustrations, 394 in color

Through a historical analysis of Vermeer's method of production and a close reading of his art, Daniel Arasse explores the originality of this artist in the context of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. Arguing that Vermeer was not a painter in the conventional, commercial sense of his Dutch colleagues, Arasse suggests that his confrontation with painting represented a very personal and ambitious effort to define a new pictorial practice within the classical tradition of his art. By examining Vermeer's approach to image-making, the author finds that his works demonstrate the concept of painting as a medium through which the viewer senses the ungraspable and mysterious presence of life. Not only does this concept of painting carry on the traditions of Classical Antiquity and the High Renaissance, but it also relates to Catholic ideas about spiritual meditation and the power of images.
 Arasse shows that although Vermeer usually uses secular subject matter commonplace among his contemporaries, his treatment of iconography, light, and line, for example, varies greatly from theirs. Iconographical elements tend to hold meaning in suspense rather than to explicate; dazzling light emanates from interior objects; sfumato renders the presence of objects without depicting them. Discussing these and other aspects of Vermeer's art, Arasse locates the painter's genius in the reflexive, meditative nature of his works, each of which seems to be a painting about painting.

Vermeer

Princeton University Press

Through a historical analysis of Vermeer's method of production and a close reading of his art, Daniel Arasse explores the originality of this artist in the context of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. Arguing that Vermeer was not a painter in the conventional, commercial sense of his Dutch colleagues, Arasse suggests that his confrontation with painting represented a very personal and ambitious effort to define a new pictorial practice within the classical tradition of his art. By examining Vermeer's approach to image-making, the author finds that his works demonstrate the concept of painting as a medium through which the viewer senses the ungraspable and mysterious presence of life. Not only does this concept of painting carry on the traditions of Classical Antiquity and the High Renaissance, but it also relates to Catholic ideas about spiritual meditation and the power of images. Arasse shows that although Vermeer usually uses secular subject matter commonplace among his contemporaries, his treatment of iconography, light, and line, for example, varies greatly from theirs. Iconographical elements tend to hold meaning in suspense rather than to explicate; dazzling light emanates from interior objects; sfumato renders the presence of objects without depicting them. Discussing these and other aspects of Vermeer's art, Arasse locates the painter's genius in the reflexive, meditative nature of his works, each of which seems to be a painting about painting.

Vermeer: Faith in Painting

Individual Artists

What painting can teach us―if we can really learn to see them
What happens when we look at a painting? What do we think about? What do we imagine? How can we explain, even to ourselves, what we see or think we see? And how can art historians interpret with any seriousness what they observe? In six engaging, short narrative "fictions," each richly illustrated in color, Daniel Arasse, one of the most brilliant art historians of our time, cleverly and gracefully guides readers through a variety of adventures in seeing, from Velázquez to Titian, Bruegel to Tintoretto.
By demonstrating that we don't really see what these paintings are trying to show us, Arasse makes it clear that we need to take a closer look. In chapters that each have a different form, including a letter, an interview, and an animated conversation with a colleague, the book explores how these pictures teach us about ways of seeing across the centuries. In the process, Arasse freshly lays bare the dazzling power of painting. Fast-paced and full of humor as well as insight, this is a book for anyone who cares about really looking at, seeing, and understanding paintings.

Take a Closer Look

This is a study of the guillotine and its role in the French Revolution, concentrating as much upon the social and psychological contexts, the "mythology" and theatre of the guillotine, as upon the history and transformations of Dr Guillotin's ubiquitous invention.

World

Viking Adult

Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) is one of the most important and controversial artists of the twentieth century. This book, the first to analyze the essence of his work, begins with Kiefer's arrival on the international art scene at the 1980 Venice Biennale, when he sparked heated debate and controversy over the "Germanity" of his pieces. Since that time, through such diverse mediums as painting, gouache and watercolor, photography, artist's books, engravings, installations, and sculpture, Kiefer has created a body of work that is protean, theatrical, monumental, or intimate, depending on the period. He has interpreted the great political and cultural issues at the heart of the modern European sensibility: the connections among memory, history, and mythology; war; the Holocaust; and ethnic and national identity.

Harry N. Abrams

Histoires de Peintures

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Фоліо

On n'y voit rien - Histoires de peintures

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Books by ARASSE, Daniel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by ARASSE, Daniel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Guillotine and the Terror

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer

Vermeer

Vermeer: Faith in Painting

Take a Closer Look

The Guillotine and the Terror

Anselm Kiefer

Histoires de Peintures

On n'y voit rien - Histoires de peintures