Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art

Gamboni, Dario

ISBN 10: 1861891490 / ISBN 13: 9781861891495

Published by Reaktion Books, 2004

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # wbs6703621631

Synopsis:

Ambiguity is inherent in images because visual perception is an interpretative act involving memory and imagination. Modern art has made this aspect of perception crucial to its relationship with the viewer. Potential Images, the first systematic exploration of this topic, considers those works of art that rely to a great degree on imaginative response. Dario Gamboni concentrates on the last decades of the nineteenth century and first decades of the twentieth, during which ambiguity and indeterminacy became defining characteristics of art. He examines how work by Redon, Gauguin, Rodin, Duchamp and numerous others sought to involve the beholder and reshaped artistic communication. Drawing on a vast range of sources, Gamboni finds striking parallels in other realms of contemporary culture and points to the intense exchanges that supported this process of cultural transformation. Potential Images also identifies the historical antecedents of this appeal to the viewer, finally proposing a conception of art in which artist and audience occupy symmetrical, equal and even interchangeable positions.

About the Author: Dario Gamboni is Professor of Art History at the University of Geneva. He has written widely in the field of art history, and his books include The Destruction of Art (1997), Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art (2002) and Paul Gaugin: The Mysterious Centre of Thought (2014), all published by Reaktion Books.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Potential Images: Ambiguity and ...
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good