Edited by Ulf Küster. Text by Stéphane Guégan, Michel Hilaire, Ulf Küster, Laurence Madeline, Bruno Mottin, James Rubin.
Published for an exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, this volume concentrates on Gustav Courbet's position as the first avant-garde painter. With his provocative canvases and his emphasis on the artist as individual, Courbet was a crucial precursor of modernism who broke with the conventions of traditional academic training. Featuring self-portraits, representations of women and pictures of grottos and seascapes, this volume highlights Courbet's innovative implementation of color and his strategic use of ambiguity. Other themes include his break with French academic tradition, the development of Realism in art, his revolutionary impasto painting technique and his playful treatment of traditional motifs and symbols. Courbet's famous painting "L'origine du monde" is at the heart of the book and exhibition. Made in 1866, the painting was for decades the unknown masterpiece of the nineteenth century-a work that few saw at the time but which everyone discussed, and which retains its provocativeness even today. Courbet's landscapes-depicting the springs, caves, steep limestone cliffs and the forests of Jura around Ornans, where he was born-are often combined with representations of the female nude, uniting sexuality and nature in a fascinating equilibrium. Other canvases center on the impenetrable darkness of mountain caves (showing Courbet to have been a master of suggestion), and snowscapes.
Featured image is reproduced from Gustave Courbet.
In their Foreword to Gustave Courbet, the beautiful new exhibition catalog by Hatje Cantz, Fondation Beyeler's Sam Keller and Ulf Küster write, "Joachim Gasquet reports that Cézanne repeatedly voiced his enthusiasm for Courbet, referring to him approvingly as a 'bricklayer,' a 'rough and ready plasterer,' and a 'color grinder.' Cézanne was alluding to Courbet's revolutionary approach to paint as a substance with a life of its own. Color applied to the canvas with a palette knife acquired a significance in his work equal to that of the motif. For the first time ever, an artist's material was the 'real' subject of art: the motif decreased in importance as the how' of an image became more significant than the 'what'—one of the prime factors in the emergence of abstraction…. Courbet was the first artist to state publicly that he was answerable only to himself and his individual will—in full awareness of tradition, but independent of it. No 'higher powers,' no academic rules would prevent him from pursuing what he alone considered to be the correct path. This artistic ideal has remained definitive ever since." Featured image, "Courbet au chien noir (Portrait de l'artiste)" (1842) is reproduced from Gustave Courbet. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.75 x 12 in. / 192 pgs / 150 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $99 ISBN: 9783775738637 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 1/31/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited by Ulf Küster. Text by Stéphane Guégan, Michel Hilaire, Ulf Küster, Laurence Madeline, Bruno Mottin, James Rubin.
Published for an exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, this volume concentrates on Gustav Courbet's position as the first avant-garde painter. With his provocative canvases and his emphasis on the artist as individual, Courbet was a crucial precursor of modernism who broke with the conventions of traditional academic training. Featuring self-portraits, representations of women and pictures of grottos and seascapes, this volume highlights Courbet's innovative implementation of color and his strategic use of ambiguity. Other themes include his break with French academic tradition, the development of Realism in art, his revolutionary impasto painting technique and his playful treatment of traditional motifs and symbols. Courbet's famous painting "L'origine du monde" is at the heart of the book and exhibition. Made in 1866, the painting was for decades the unknown masterpiece of the nineteenth century-a work that few saw at the time but which everyone discussed, and which retains its provocativeness even today. Courbet's landscapes-depicting the springs, caves, steep limestone cliffs and the forests of Jura around Ornans, where he was born-are often combined with representations of the female nude, uniting sexuality and nature in a fascinating equilibrium. Other canvases center on the impenetrable darkness of mountain caves (showing Courbet to have been a master of suggestion), and snowscapes.
