Sculpture and the Decorative in Britain and Europe: Seventeenth Century to Contemporary

Product Description

By foregrounding the overlaps between sculpture and the decorative, this volume of essays offers a model for a more integrated form of art history writing. Through distinct case studies, from a seventeenth-century Danish altarpiece to contemporary British ceramics, it brings to centre stage makers, objects, concepts and spaces that have been marginalized by the enforcement of boundaries within art and design discourse. These essays challenge the classed, raced and gendered categories that have structured the histories and languages of art and its making. Sculpture and the Decorative in Britain and Europe is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and practice of sculpture and the decorative arts and the methodologies of art history.

Review

“The rich case studies offered in this volume cumulatively propose a new framework for the study of three-dimensional representation, from figure to filigree. Its authors interrogate the unstable boundaries and porous relationships between sculptures and decorative objects, attending to contexts as varied as the architectural, the ceremonial, the national, the nautical, and the conceptual. Sculpture and the Decorative is the rare anthology that offers a broad chronological range-from the musical metaphors of 17th century altarpieces to institutional critique's reliance on the found object-in combination with a lively conversation among authors about the received terms through which art histories are narrated.” ―David J. Getsy, Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor of Art History, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA

“This timely volume insists on entanglement of sculpture and the decorative arts, too long separated from one another in Eurocentric histories of art. Spanning the period from the seventeenth century to the present, these essays challenge assumptions about the decorative arts' secondary role in relation to sculpture. Alongside stimulating theoretical and historical revisions of their intertwined histories, the book proposes vital new investigations of how formal debates intersect with urgent questions of gender, race, and nationalism.” ―Jo Applin, Reader in the History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art, UK

“Sculpture and decoration have a fraught relationship, often framed in terms of opposition: ornament is a condition that the sculptor struggles to transcend. This ground-breaking book shows the inadequacy of this view. Through a series of well-chosen case studies, it demonstrates that from the perspective of practitioners and the general public, these two artistic categories often combine, sometimes merging into new syntheses. Taken together, these accounts show how non-hierarchical approaches can open up new insights into the discipline of art history.” ―Glenn Adamson, author of Fewer Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects

“Timely and provocative, this volume brings together two artistic categories that the history of art has, for too long, treated apart. Arguing for a renewed re-evaluation of “high” and “low” within their specific historic and geographic settings, Sculpture and the Decorative is well-positioned to persuasively revise the canon and inform future art historical thinking. It is a must read for all students of visual and material culture, art history, design history, and architecture and a big challenge to any prior assumptions regarding disciplinary distinctions.” ―Anca I. Lasc, Associate Professor of Design History, History of Art & Design Department, Pratt Institute, USA

About the Author

Imogen Hart is Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of History of Art, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

Michael Yonan is Professor of Art History/Alan Templeton Endowed Chair in European Art, 1600–1830 at the University of California at Davis, USA. His research concentrates on eighteenth-century European art, particularly in Central Europe and Scandinavia; on the decorative arts, and on the theory