Enchanted Objects: Visual Art in Contemporary Fiction by Allan Hepburn

By Allan Hepburn

Enchanted Objects investigates the connection among visible paintings and modern fiction, addressing the issues that come up whilst work, deluxe books, porcelains, or statues are represented in modern novels. the excellence among items and artwork gadgets will depend on aesthetics. whereas a few gadgets are authenticated via museum shows, others are hidden, damaged, missed, coveted, hoarded, or salvaged.

Allan Hepburn asks 4 large questions about aesthetics and cost: what's a element in visible artwork? Is all artwork decorative? Does the price of an item elevate since it is fragile? What defines ugliness? modern novels, reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Barry Unsworth's Stone Virgin, and Bruce Chatwin's Utz provide implicit solutions to those questions whereas critiquing museums and the selection to speculate gadgets with worth via reveal. Addressing present debates in museum reviews, cultural stories, paintings heritage, and literary feedback, Enchanted Objects develops an in depth thought of ways modern literature engages with and pertains to aesthetic objects.

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By Allan Hepburn

Enchanted Objects investigates the connection among visible paintings and modern fiction, addressing the issues that come up whilst work, deluxe books, porcelains, or statues are represented in modern novels. the excellence among items and artwork gadgets will depend on aesthetics. whereas a few gadgets are authenticated via museum shows, others are hidden, damaged, missed, coveted, hoarded, or salvaged.

Allan Hepburn asks 4 large questions about aesthetics and cost: what's a element in visible artwork? Is all artwork decorative? Does the price of an item elevate since it is fragile? What defines ugliness? modern novels, reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Barry Unsworth's Stone Virgin, and Bruce Chatwin's Utz provide implicit solutions to those questions whereas critiquing museums and the selection to speculate gadgets with worth via reveal. Addressing present debates in museum reviews, cultural stories, paintings heritage, and literary feedback, Enchanted Objects develops an in depth thought of ways modern literature engages with and pertains to aesthetic objects.

Show description

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Extra resources for Enchanted Objects: Visual Art in Contemporary Fiction

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William Beckford in The Volcano Lover begs to be immersed in display: ‘Show me more. More. More’ (Sontag 86). Playing on visual insatiability, the conditions of display heighten the perception of the desirability, unusualness, or intricacy in objects while limiting access. No one is much given to studying bedpans as objects of interest until they appear inside a vitrine, as they do in Beuys’s display cases. To focus on display issues a challenge to the paradigms in which objects are interpreted.

They pass before one, then pass out of range. Distance vanquishes objects to the point that aesthetics no longer matter. The Cavaliere spends several decades in Naples as British ambassa- Introduction: Art and Objects in Contemporary Fiction 43 dor to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Far from England, he feels cut off from those pursuits that impassion him: ‘Distance has betrayed him’ (256). Distance traduces his aspirations for a better diplomatic posting. As he learns belatedly, he has kept his distance too well.

Skeletons were far from the only thing that Peter the Great collected; in fact, his collections Introduction: Art and Objects in Contemporary Fiction 35 served as the foundation for the first academy of sciences in Russia. Among other specimens, he saved human teeth that he himself had pulled (figure 6). The tray of teeth, neatly displayed, evokes pain and seriality, traits that haunt collections of all sorts. Tied with a ribbon into individual compartments in a display case, the teeth occupy discrete spaces as if they have nothing to do with each other.

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