The Enigmatic Body: Essays on the Arts

by Jean-Louis Schefer, Paul Smith (Editor)

Overview

This volume presents for the first time in English the work of one of the most important French theorists of today. The selection represents the whole of Schefer's career, from the 1960s, when he was influenced by structuralism, to his more lyrical and autobiographical essays of the 1990s, which meditate on the role of the spectator in relation to art practice. Schefer considers the nature of art, film and writing through his close examination of artists as diverse as Uccello, Poussin and Cy Twombly, and writers such as Paul Valéry and Roland Barthes. These provocative essays register the writer's direct confrontation with these media in a way that stands as a corrective to the formal traditions of interpretation and criticism. Schefer's work offers some of the most original interpretations of art available today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521378253
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/16/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in New Art History and Criticism
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.60(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction Paul Smith; Foreword Jean-Louis Schefer; 1. Split Colour/Blur; 2. On the object of figuration; 3. Thanatography/skiagraphy; 4. The plague; 5. Light and its prey; 6. Someone writing; 7. Roland Barthes; 8. Cinema; 9. On La Jetée; 10. Cy Twombly: uncertainty principle; 11. What are red things?; Notes; Selected bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

A selection of 11 essays by the French art theorist Schefer, spanning his whole career from the 1960s to the 1990s. He provides a direct and personal confrontation with art, film, and writing in contrast to more formal approaches to criticism. Among the artists he discusses are Uccello, Poussin, and Cy Twombly; the writers include Paul Valery and Roland Barthes. No subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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