This volume is part of a four-volume series about art and its interpretation in the 19th and 20th centuries. The books provide an introduction to modern European and American art and criticism that should be valuable both to students and to the general reader. The book presents a survey of art from the first two decades of the 20th century. The authors begin by exploring how aspects of the primitive were invoked by rural artists' colonies formed in France and Germany at the end of the 19th 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.

Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century (Modern Art-Practices and Debates)

Arts & Photography

Frascina, Francis

Perry, Gill

Harrison, Dr. Charles

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

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.

Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century (Modern Art : Practices and Debates)

Harrison, Charles

During the Georgian period there was a remarkable proliferation of seductive visual imagery and written accounts of female performers. Focusing on the close relationship between the dramatic and visual arts at this time, this beautiful and stimulating book explores popular ideas of the actress as coquette, whore, celebrity, muse, and creative agent, charting her important symbolic role in contemporary attempts to professionalize both the theatre and the practice of fine art. Gill Perry shows how artists such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hoppner or Lawrence produced complex images of female performers as fashion icons, coquettes, dignified queens or creative artists. The result is a rich interdisciplinary study of the Georgian actress.

Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in British Art and Theater, 1768-1820

Humor & Entertainment

Paul Mellon Centre

Women first appeared on the legitimate stage in England following the Restoration in 1660, heralding a major change in British theater. The First Actresses: From Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons explores the vibrant and sometimes controversial relationship between art, gender, and the English theater in the 18th century. The richly illustrated book combines both well-known and seldom-seen portraits with fascinating essays that explore the ways that actresses used portraiture to enhance their reputations, deflect scandal, and increase their popularity and professional status. The featured works include paintings by major artists such as Johann Zoffany, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Thomas Lawrence. Created to accompany the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of the same name, The First Actresses provides a vivid spectacle of femininity, fashion, and theatricality from Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons, during a period when portraiture became an important vehicle for the expression of concerns about female sexuality, social status, decorum, gender, and celebrity. The authors also chart the commercialization of the spectacle of the actress, as well as the connections between the 18th-century “star system” and modern celebrity culture.

The First Actresses: From Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons

West, Shearer

Roach, Joseph

University of Michigan Press

This illustrated book examines the work and artistic culture of women artists in France during the period when Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani were guiding the development of modern art. Although this period is better known for the canonical fauvist and cubist works of artists such as Matisse and Picasso, Gill Perry takes as her focus several women artists who were active on the fringes of modernist groups, and whose works were widely exhibited and reviewed in the early-20th century. Apart from the better known names of Suzanne Valadon and Marie Laurencin, these artists include Emilie Charmy, Maria Blanchard, Alice Halicka, Marevna Vorobev and Jacqueline Marval. Perry explores the critical culture through which their work was represented and patronized, and the contemporary perceptions of femininity involved. Drawing on unpublished material, including letters and diary extracts, and some works in French public and private colelctions, she argues that a lack of historical material and limited access to relevant works by these artists has encouraged some mis-representations of the many complex relationships which many women negotiated with avant-garde groups and artistic players.

Women Artists and the Parisian Avant-Garde: Modernism and 'Feminine' Art, 1900 to the Late 1920s

Manchester Univ Pr

This illustrated book examines the work and artistic culture of women artists in France during the period when Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani were guiding the development of modern art. Although this period is better known for the canonical fauvist and cubist works of artists such as Matisse and Picasso, Gill Perry takes as her focus several women artists who were active on the fringes of modernist groups, and whose works were widely exhibited and reviewed in the early-20th century. Apart from the better known names of Suzanne Valadon and Marie Laurencin, these artists include Emilie Charmy, Maria Blanchard, Alice Halicka, Marevna Vorobev and Jacqueline Marval. Perry explores the critical culture through which their work was represented and patronized, and the contemporary perceptions of femininity involved. Drawing on unpublished material, including letters and diary extracts, and some works in French public and private colelctions, she argues that a lack of historical material and limited access to relevant works by these artists has encouraged some mis-representations of the many complex relationships which many women negotiated with avant-garde groups and artistic players.

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

 Art Since the ’80s, a new series from Reaktion Books, seeks to offer compelling surveys of popular themes in contemporary art. In the first book in the series, Gill Perry reveals how the house and the idea of home have inspired a range of imaginative and playful works by artists across the globe. Exploring how artists have engaged with this theme in different contexts—from mobile homes and beach houses to haunted houses and broken homes—Playing at Home shows that our relationship with houses involves complex responses in which gender, race, class, and status overlap, and that through these relationships we turn a house into a home. Perry looks at the works of numerous artists, including Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Michael Landy, Mike Kelley, and Peter Garfield, as well as the work of artists who travel across continents and see home as a shifting notion, such as Do-Ho-Suh and Song Dong. She also engages with the work of philosophers and cultural theorists from Walter Benjamin and Gaston Bachelard to Johan Huizinga and Henri Lefebvre, who inform our understanding of living and dwelling. Ultimately, she argues that irony, parody, and play are equally important in our interpretations of these works on the home. With over one hundred images, Playing at Home covers a wide range of art and media in a fascinating look at why there’s no place like home.

Playing at Home: The House in Contemporary Art (Art Since the '80s)

Reaktion Books

A profound journey through diverse representations of islands in contemporary art. &nbsp; In this groundbreaking exploration, Gill Perry looks at the vital role that islands play in contemporary visual arts. Responding to the urgency of migration, climate change, and colonialism, artists create compelling and provocative works that resonate across colonized archipelagos. Perry navigates the British Isles, Ireland, the Caribbean, Pacific Oceania, and the Galápagos and illuminates the role of islands in installation, multimedia, and film projects by renowned artists such as Robert Smithson, Lisa Reihana, Roni Horn, Rodney Graham, Tacita Dean, Cornelia Parker, and others from the 1970s to today.

Islands and Contemporary Art

In the interwar period art revealed itself as part of the social and ideological order. The work of art became a point of intersection for the modern, unstable and ambiguous world. Works of art produced in these decades reflect a range of discourses on power and subjectivity. They contribute to the foundation of the post-war development of aesthetic pluralism and point out the socially conditioned framings of the Fine Arts. During the last decades, research in the field of interwar art has reworked and reconceptualized existing notions on the period. This book offers four new approaches which also contribute to reflections on methodological questions regarding the changes in the discipline of Art History since the early 1970s. The articles discuss topics such as Le Corbusier's connection with the French fascist movement, the position of women in the avant-garde movement, Giorgio de Chirico's play with kitsch and avant-garde practices, and the semiotics of the surrealist image.

Rethinking Art Between the Wars: New Perspectives in Art History

Braun, Emily

Antliff, Mark

Sjolin, Jan Gunnar

Museum Tusculanum

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

Books by Perry, Gill

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

Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century (Modern Art-Practices and Debates)

Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century (Modern Art : Practices and Debates)

Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in British Art and Theater, 1768-1820

The First Actresses: From Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons

Women Artists and the Parisian Avant-Garde: Modernism and 'Feminine' Art, 1900 to the Late 1920s

Women Artists and the Parisian Avant-Garde: Modernism and 'Feminine' Art, 1900 to the Late 1920s

Playing at Home: The House in Contemporary Art (Art Since the '80s)

Islands and Contemporary Art

Rethinking Art Between the Wars: New Perspectives in Art History