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Title details for Art in a State of Siege by Joseph Leo Koerner - Wait list

Art in a State of Siege

by Joseph Leo Koerner
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An art historical epic for dangerous times
What do artworks look like in extreme cases of collective experience? What signals do artists send when enemies are at the city walls and the rule of law breaks down, or when a tyrant suspends the law to attack from inside? Art in a State of Siege tells the story of three compelling images created in dangerous moments and the people who experienced them—from Philip II of Spain to Carl Schmitt—whose panicked gaze turned artworks into omens.
Acclaimed art historian Joseph Koerner reaches back to the eve of iconoclasm and religious warfare to explore the most elusive painting ever painted. In Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Delights, enemies are everywhere: Jews and Ottomans at the gates, witches and heretics at home, sins overtaking the mind. Following a paper trail leading from Bosch's time to World War II, Koerner considers a monumental self-portrait painted by Max Beckmann in 1927. Created when Germany was often governed by emergency decree, this image brazenly claimed to decide Europe's future—until the Nazis deemed it to be a threat to the German people. For South African artist William Kentridge, Beckmann exemplified "art in a state of siege." Koerner shows how his work served as beacon during South Africa's racialist apartheid rule and inspired Kentridge's breakthrough animations of drawings being made, erased, and remade.
Spanning half a millennium but urgent today, Art in a State of Siege reveals how, in dire straits, art becomes the currency of last resort.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 4, 2025

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780691267241

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780691267241
      • File size: 173250 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      January 1, 2025
      Art as dissent. In this lavishly illustrated, wide-ranging book, Koerner, an esteemed art historian, turns his attention to three artists and three works organized as a triptych: the premodern Hieronymus Bosch'sGarden of Delights (1500), Max Beckmann'sSelf-Portrait in Tuxedo (1927), and William Kentridge'sArt in a State of Siege (1986). Koerner explores them in light of Kentridge's title, all in "states of temporal exception." In a siege, Koerner writes, "life becomes bare survival." He discusses in great depth others who have delved into what Bosch's well-traveled painting means--a "spectacle of lawless, godless, rebellious carnality punished without trial"--and the history surrounding it, including starting a war. "Siege is the occasion, theme, and aesthetic ground of Bosch's art." Beckman's work is an "iconic" Expressionist piece, emblematic of the Weimer Republic, when Germany "stumbled from crisis to crisis in a perpetual state of exception." Beckman's self-portrait, Koerner feels, reveals "Beckman as the artist of the state." In 1986-88, the South African artist Kentridge produced three silkscreen prints titledArt in State of Grace, Hope, Siege, when his country was in turmoil, its laws suspended. Inspired by Costa-Gavras' filmState of Siege, he had coined the term "Art in a State of Siege" for a public talk. Under siege conditions, art offers in numerous ways a form of dissent. Throughout, Koerner discusses many of these artists' other works. It takes a while to settle into Koerner's prose and dense detours into ancillary topics, but once acclimated, it's an engrossing ride. A challenging but rewarding read.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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