The Devil in the Gallery
How Scandal, Shock, and Rivalry Shaped the Art World
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But these potentially disastrous "negatives" can and have spurred the world of fine art to new heights. A look at the history of art tells us that rivalries have, in fact, not only benefited the course of art, from ancient times to the present, but have also helped shape our narrative of art, lending it a sense of drama that it might otherwise lack, and therefore drawing the interest of a public who might not be drawn to the objects alone.
The Devil in the Gallery is a guided tour of the history of art through it scandals, rivalries, and shocking acts, each of which resulted in a positive step forward for art in general and, in most cases, for the careers of the artists in question. In addition to telling dozens of stories of such dramatic moments and arguing how they not only affected the history of art but affected it for the better, we will also examine the proactive role of the recipients of these intentionally dramatic actions: The art historians, the critics and even you, the general public. The Devil likes to lurk in dark corners of the art world, morphing into many forms. Let us shed light upon him.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 26, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781666155693
- File size: 178461 KB
- Duration: 06:11:47
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Listeners will feel they are sitting in a museum gallery, hearing narrator Julian Elfer lecture in his cultured British voice about the positive effects of scandal, shock, and rivalry on the art world. While these subjects are enticing, the content of this audiobook is serious art history. Elfer has a lot of ground to cover in three lengthy chapters, each devoted to a single theme. The artists discussed range from Renaissance to contemporary, each examined for their ability to shock or create scandal. Rivals include conceptual artists Damien Hirst and Jason deCaires Taylor, along with Caravaggio and Giovanni Baglione. As engaging as Elfer is and as descriptive as the writing is, the listener would benefit from seeing the illustrations in the print version of the book. J.E.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine -
June 28, 2021
In this delightful romp, novelist and art history professor Charney (The Collector of Lives) makes a thrilling case for how “antagonistic actions, moods, and tendencies... actually helped shape and elevate the course of art.” Charney makes his case in often-irreverent prose (“Caravaggio was a major-league asshole”) and uses vignettes to demonstrate how his themes of scandal, shock, and rivalry have advanced the careers of artists and changed the trajectory of art from classical times through to the present. Notoriety and the risqué testing of society’s boundaries, for example, often accelerated the careers of such painters as Greuze, Manet, and Picasso, while controversy, Charney asserts, is not always bad: Duchamp’s Dadaist urinal created shock waves in its day, but seems tepid when compared to the bizarre performance art practiced by contemporary artists Ulay and Marina Abramovic (who “carved a star into her own stomach”). And rivalries—such as those between Italian painters Duccio and Giotto, sculptors Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, and Roman architects Bernini and Borromini—often pushed artists to new heights, yielding famous designs including Florence’s Gates of Paradise. Like the topics it addresses, this will undoubtedly add spice to conversations about the meaning and purpose of art.
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