The Self-portrait: A Cultural History

Hall, James

ISBN 10 : 0500292116 ISBN 13 : 9780500292112

Editeur : Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2015

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

Lively ... Hall's range of reference is polymathic and his writing often pithy. --The Daily Telegraph

Enthralling. --The Observer

A cultural map ... There is never a dull passage in this book: the detail is crisply imparted; the content richly arcane at times, but more usually profoundly human; the ideas come freshly coined. Hall manages to retain the intellectual high ground while writing with verve and enthusiasm. It is a creditable achievement, and, like all the best gifts, comes beautifully wrapped, in book production of the highest quality. --Francis Spalding, The Guardian

From the self-aggrandising to the self-mocking, from the solemn to the saucily teasing, a survey of self-portraiture in all its many manifestations emerges. ... This is a wide-ranging, richly researched and evocatively illustrated book ... The Self-Portrait has a wonderfully fresh feel. It is as varied, revelatory and idiosyncratic as the genre it takes as its subject. --The Times

A stimulating and demanding book that requires an equally serious engagement from any reader ... There's no questioning the scholarship that lies behind this book. --The Spectator

Fascinating, erudite and beautifully produced ... elegant. --The Sunday Times

Hall's boundless curiosity explodes in all directions from the relatively few pages he has been allocated. Mostly we want more: more detail, more explanation and many more pictures. Given that this is a chunky and well-illustrated volume, that is meant as high praise. --Andrew Marr, The New Statesman

Hall's writing is not only accessible for a general audience, but filled with notable insights, including spicy, prurient ones. --The Daily Beast

A graceful, sure-footed exposition, both authoritative and entertaining, of a long thread in cultural history ... I was hooked. --Carcassone

James Hall has all the gifts a great art historian should have: hawk's-eye vision, which sees every detail sharply without ever losing awareness of vast contexts; a vivid talent for description; a disciplined imagination; encyclopaedic knowledge; and a mind that is critical, constructive, and creative all at once. --Felipe Fernández-Armesto, The Art Newspaper

a textured biography of the genre, where familiar works cohabit easily with esoteric ones, veined by richly-detailed, penetrating observations. --Sunday Business Post, Brendan Daly

Exceptionally rich in detail. --The Good Book Guide

Detailed and informative ... a serious and scholarly work that nevertheless retains the reader's interest and attention and is generously and thoughtfully illustrated. --Art Book Review

Stimulating ... Hall writes with energetic freshness ... Hall's expositions of individual works are constantly perceptive ... Three of the most permanently valuable and inspiring books on art ... are Kenneth Clark's The Nude, Landscape into Art and The Gothic Revival. Hall honourably revives this tradition of scholarly elucidation in a highly engaged book that raises many questions about this intriguing and still-active genre. It deserves to be widely read. --The Literary Review

Spirited ... a well-crafted and refreshing appraisal ... Like the disarming image of Michelangelo's flayed skin, this book is unexpected in its wealth of interpretations ... The book's readability and the depth of research give it an engaging pace that makes it especially refreshing. --The Art Newspaper

Beautifully designed ... (Hall) delivers original and engaging interpretations. --RA Magazine

Présentation de l'éditeur :

In this broad cultural survey, James Hall brilliantly maps the history of self-portraiture, from the earliest myths of Narcissus and the Christian tradition of bearing witness to the prolific self-image-making of todays contemporary artists. Along the way he reveals the importance of the medieval mirror craze; the confessional self-portraits of Titian and Michelangelo; the role of biography for serial self-portraitists such as Courbet and van Gogh; themes of sex and genius in works by Munch and Bonnard; and the latest developments in our globalized age. Hall covers the full range of self-portraits, from comic and caricature self-portraits to invented or imaginary ones, and looks deeply into the worlds and mindsets of the artists who have created them. Offering a rich and lively history, this is an essential read for all those interested in this most enduringly popular and humane of art forms.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Thames & Hudson Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0500292116
• ISBN 13: 9780500292112
• Reliure: Livre broché
• Nombre de pages: 288