Signs of Psyche in Modern and Postmodern Art (Contemporary Artists and their Critics) - Softcover

Kuspit, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521446112 ISBN 13: 9780521446112

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Signs of Psyche in Modern and Post-Modern Art examines the psychological dimension of visual culture in the twentieth century. Analysing the ways in which psychoanalysis can be used to understand art and culture, Donald Kuspit argues that modern art affirms subjectivity, whereas postmodern art, which is characterised as cynical and glamorous, denies it while, paradoxically, being unable to escape it. Assessing the depth-psychological implications of works by, among others, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, André Breton, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter, this study persuasively demonstrates how the methods of psychoanalysis can be used to probe art works created at critical junctures of this century.

About this title

Synopsis

Signs of Psyche in Modern and Post-Modern Art examines the psychological dimension of visual culture in the twentieth century. Analysing the ways in which psychoanalysis can be used to understand art and culture, Donald Kuspit argues that modern art affirms subjectivity, whereas postmodern art, which is characterised as cynical and glamorous, denies it while, paradoxically, being unable to escape it. Assessing the depth-psychological implications of works by, among others, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Andre Breton, Anselm Kiefer, and Gerhard Richter, this study persuasively demonstrates how the methods of psychoanalysis can be used to probe art works created at critical junctures of this century.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521446112
• ISBN 13: 9780521446112
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 389