Artists include Henry Fuseli, William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, Victor Hugo, Arnold Böcklin, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Félicien Rops, James Ensor, Max Klinger, Edvard Munch, Hans Bellmer and Max Ernst.
Edited by Felix Krämer. Text by Ingo Borges, Dorothee Gerkens, Johannes Grave, Mareike Henning, Felix Krämer, Manuela Mena Marqués, Claudia Wagner, et al.
From its very inception in the late eighteenth century, Romanticism’s celebration of euphoria and sublimity has been dogged by its equally intense fascination with melancholia, insanity, crime, the grotesque and the irrational. In 1930, the famous literary theorist Mario Praz named this strain in literature “Dark Romanticism,” but its equivalent in art has never been thoroughly assessed in art history. This volume is the first to examine a current that runs from Goya’s war etchings through Symbolism and up to Surrealism, presenting Romanticism as an intellectual position that was embraced throughout Europe and that endured into the twentieth century. Among the artists included are Henry Fuseli, William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, Victor Hugo, Arnold Böcklin, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Félicien Rops, James Ensor, Max Klinger, Edvard Munch, Hans Bellmer and Max Ernst.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Choice
L.R. Matteson
Most studies of Romanticism stress its exaltation of nature, its discovery of the imagination, and the ecstatic identification of the artist/poet with both. As this exhibition catalogue's title suggests, the curators of this exhibition from Frankfurt are more interested in the irrational, nether side of human nature that the Romantics unearthed. Their survey is encyclopedic, beginning in the 18th century with the ghoulish images of Goya and the Anglo-Swiss painter Fuseli, and ending with the nightmarish paintings of German surrealist Max Ernst. Of the 13 essays, the first 3 are prefatory in nature. The catalogue takes up the next seven essays, which are chronologically arranged and lavishly illustrated. [...] Equally important are the three last essays, which are devoted to exploring the grisly themes of decadence and death in opera, literature, and cinema.
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 304 pgs / 291 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $70.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $85 ISBN: 9783775733731 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 1/31/2013 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Felix Krämer. Text by Ingo Borges, Dorothee Gerkens, Johannes Grave, Mareike Henning, Felix Krämer, Manuela Mena Marqués, Claudia Wagner, et al.
From its very inception in the late eighteenth century, Romanticism’s celebration of euphoria and sublimity has been dogged by its equally intense fascination with melancholia, insanity, crime, the grotesque and the irrational. In 1930, the famous literary theorist Mario Praz named this strain in literature “Dark Romanticism,” but its equivalent in art has never been thoroughly assessed in art history. This volume is the first to examine a current that runs from Goya’s war etchings through Symbolism and up to Surrealism, presenting Romanticism as an intellectual position that was embraced throughout Europe and that endured into the twentieth century. Among the artists included are Henry Fuseli, William Blake, Caspar David Friedrich, Victor Hugo, Arnold Böcklin, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Félicien Rops, James Ensor, Max Klinger, Edvard Munch, Hans Bellmer and Max Ernst.
