An attempt to come to terms with the challenging contemporary artist, Jasper Johns, that also provides a way of approaching American art of the 1950s and 1960s. Orton (history of art, U. of Leeds) focuses on three key works Untitled (1972), Flag (1954-55), and Painted Bronze (1960). He shows how John's work makes use of the modernist opposition between surface and subject, how it manifests both relatively private and relatively public meanings, and how it develops a self-consciously figurative visual language. Includes 69 color and b&amp;w illustrations. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Figuring Jasper Johns (Essays in Art and Culture)

Arts & Photography

ORTON, FRED

History & Criticism

Harvard University Press

Figuring Jasper Johns

The matter of meaning, for painter and viewer alike, is crucial to this book, a deeply felt and richly considered attempt to come to terms with one of the most challenging artists of our day. An illuminating look at an enigmatic painter, Figuring Jasper Johns also provides a way of approaching American art of the 1950s and 1960s.

The authors of this text, Orton and Pollock, are considered exponents of the social history of art. Their approach to the study of art began in 1978 with the publication of their analysis of popular artists such as Van Gogh which denied the simplistic interpretations of the popular art world of such "Masters" of art. Over the past 20 years they have continued to re-appraise and re-invent art historical analyses, focusing on the formation of European modernism in the 19th century and the later American appropriation of its legacy during the 20th century. This book combines new work on critical and theoretical issues of agency and the problems of autobiography and monographic studies in art history, with the authors' earlier articles, complete with reappraisals of this earlier work. By addressing key issues in visual culture and the politics of representation, this book provides both a useful reference and an analysis of the work of these authors during this tumultuous period in art history.

Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed

POLLOCK, GRISELDA

Manchester Univ Pr

History

Manchester University Press

Fragments of history: Rethinking the Ruthwell and Bewcastle monuments

Fragments of history: Rethinking the Ruthwell and Bewcastle monuments is an innovative study of the two premier survivals of pre-Viking Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture. Both monuments are rich in finely carved images and complex inscriptions. Though in some way related, in this book, they have very different histories. This ambitious study draws the reader in through a vivid exposition of the problems left by earlier interpretations, shows him or her how to understand the monuments as social products in relation to a history of which our knowledge is so fragmentary, and concludes with a deeply persuasive discussion of their underlying premises. Orton, Wood and Lees bring their research in art history and antiquarianism, history and archaeology, medieval literature, philosophy and gender studies into a successful and coherent whole, organised around certain key notions, such as place, history and tradition, style, similarity and difference, time, textuality and identity. Theoretically astute, rigorously researched, vivid and readable, Fragments of history is a model of how interdisciplinary research can be conducted, written and published. It will be required reading in a number of disciplines, including art history, Anglo-Saxon studies, medieval language and literature, history and ecclesiastical history, antiquarianism and archaeology.

Fragments of History: Rethinking the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Monuments

WOOD

Lees, Clare

Wood, Ian

Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture significantly advances the complex study of Anglo-Saxon carved monuments, such as the Ruthwell Cross, by adopting more explicit theoretical approaches to the subject. Scholars included here are explicit in describing how their approaches complement (or, more often, contradict) the work of others. This book comes as a shot across the bow of these vessels. Contributors include the best scholars on this subject matter in England, Ireland, and America.

THEORIZING ANGLO-SAXON STONE SCULPTURE (WV MEDIEVEAL EUROPEAN STUDIES)

KARKOV, CATHERINE E.

West Virginia University Press

The matter of meaning, for painter and viewer alike, is crucial to this book, a deeply felt and richly considered attempt to come to terms with one of the most challenging artists of our day. An illuminating look at an enigmatic painter, Figuring Jasper Johns also provides a way of approaching American art of the 1950s and 1960s. Fred Orton's reading of John's oeuvre focuses on three key works - Untitled (1972), Flag (1954-55), and Painted Bronze (1960). Adroitly combining formal theoretical analyses and historical reflection, Orton explores each painting until the distinction between "picture" and "context" dissolves and his subject appears in a wholly new frame. Here we see how Johns's work makes use of the modernist opposition between surface and subject, how it manifests both relatively private and relatively public meanings, and how it develops a self-consciously figurative visual language. With reference to ideas in contemporary critical theory, Orton considers Johns's work as allegory and assesses the value and effect of doing so. A practical demonstration of how theory can work to generate new interpretations and unsettle old ones (some of them the product of Johns's own mythologizing), this book offers the clearest and most penetrating picture yet of Jasper Johns and in the process contributes considerably to the continuing rethinking of art history.

Reaktion

The author begins this challenging monograph by probing Modernism's surfaces and subjects, its public and private meanings, in order to establish Johns's importance as the modern allegorical artist in the years after Abstract Expressionism. Yet, Figuring Jasper Johns is not an essay that presumes to offer an instant interpretation. Rather, Fred Orton self-consciously constructs a "Jasper Johns" whose work is introduced and explained in three chapters, each of which addresses a specific picture or sculpture like Flag, Painted Bronze (Savarin) and Untitled 1992. These in-depth studies situate individual works in their social context as well as in Johns's oeuvre. Fred Orton's purpose is to get to terms with – and find terms for – a difficult and elusive body of work by one of the most important artists of the 20th century.

Reaktion Books

Fred Orton's teaching and writing has always combined theoretical and formal-which is to say structural-analysis with historical research and reflection. This collection of essays brings together some of his most decisive contributions to thinking about fine art practice and rethinking the theory and methods of the social history of art. In this collection Orton brilliantly moves from Paul Cezanne to Jasper Johns, from the American cultural critic Harold Rosenberg to a discussion of Marx and Engels' notion of ideology. What emerges is more than an anthology, this collection offers a vivid demonstration of the way theory can work to generate new interpretations and unsettle old ones.

Aesthetic Thinking: Essays on Intention, Painting, Action, and Ideology (Historical Materialism)

Haymarket Books

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Books by ORTON, FRED

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

Figuring Jasper Johns (Essays in Art and Culture)

Figuring Jasper Johns

Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed

Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed

Fragments of History: Rethinking the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Monuments

Fragments of history: Rethinking the Ruthwell and Bewcastle monuments

THEORIZING ANGLO-SAXON STONE SCULPTURE (WV MEDIEVEAL EUROPEAN STUDIES)

Figuring Jasper Johns

Figuring Jasper Johns (Essays in Art and Culture)

Aesthetic Thinking: Essays on Intention, Painting, Action, and Ideology (Historical Materialism)