Saving Abstraction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Dohoney
Keyword(s):  
Altered States ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Spiritual Orientation ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Religious Sensibility ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spiritual Intervention ◽  
Musical Modernism

Saving Abstraction takes up the conflicted history of Morton Feldman’s most important collaboration—his work with Dominique and John de Menil on music for the Rothko Chapel in Houston. These collaborators struggled over fundamental questions about the emotional efficacy of artistic practice and its potential translation into religious feeling. At the center of this study is the question of ecumenism—that is, in what terms can religious encounters be staged for fruitful dialog to take place? And how might abstraction (both visual and musical) be useful to achieving it? This was a dilemma for Feldman, whose music sought to produce sublime “abstract experience,” as well as for the de Menils, who envisioned the Rothko Chapel as a space for spiritual intervention into late modernity. Saving Abstraction develops two central concepts: “abstract ecumenism” and “agonistic universalism.” The former characterizes a broad spiritual orientation within postwar musical modernism and experimentalism that aspired to altered states of ego-loss. This emerged as a renewed religious sensibility in late modernist experimentalism. The latter concept describes the particular religious form that Feldman’s music achieves within Rothko Chapel—an ascetic mode of existence that endures hopefully the aporia of postwar modernization’s destructiveness and modernism’s failure to effectively counter it.

‘A disoriented vision of … fact’: Brian Friel, Francis Bacon, and Faith Healer

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-336
Author(s):  
Zosia Kuczyńska
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Faith Healer ◽  
Brian Friel ◽  
History Of ◽  
Composition Process

The Brian Friel Papers at the NLI reveal a long and relatively unexplored history of major and minor influences on Friel's plays. As the archive attests, these influences manifest themselves in ways that range from the superficial to the deeply structural. In this article, I draw on original archival research into the composition process of Friel's genre-defining play Faith Healer (1979) to bring to light a model of influence that operates at the level of artistic practice. Specifically, I examine the extent to which Friel's officially unacknowledged encounter with a book of interviews with painter Francis Bacon influenced the play in terms of character, language, and form. I suggest that Bacon's creative process – incorporating his ideas on the role of the artist, the workings of chance, and the extent to which art does violence to fact – may have had a major influence on both the play's development and on Friel's development as an artist.

The Politics and Poetics of Cicero's Brutus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher S. van den Berg
Keyword(s):  
Roman Republic ◽  
Literary History ◽  
Political History ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Literary Historiography ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
History Of

Cicero's Brutus (46 BCE), a tour-de-force of intellectual and political history, was written amidst political crisis: Caesar's defeat of the republican resistance at the battle of Thapsus. This magisterial example of the dialogue genre capaciously documents the intellectual vibrancy of the Roman Republic and its Greco-Roman traditions. This book is the first study of the work from several distinct yet interrelated perspectives: Cicero's account of oratorical history, the confrontation with Caesar, and the exploration of what it means to write a history of an artistic practice. Close readings of this dialogue-including its apparent contradictions and tendentious fabrications-reveal a crucial and crucially productive moment in Greco-Roman thought. Cicero, this book argues, created the first nuanced, sophisticated, and ultimately 'modern' literary history, crafting both a compelling justification of Rome's oratorical traditions and also laying a foundation for literary historiography that abides to this day.

Co-operation, compromise and confrontation: the Universal News, 1860–69

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (139) ◽  
pp. 311-326
Author(s):  
Anthony McNicholas
Keyword(s):  
Church And State ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Irish Nationalism ◽  
The Press ◽  
Religious Sensibility ◽  
Irish Catholics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

The Universal News was published in London for nine years between December 1860 and December 1869. It originated as a co-operative effort between Irish and English Catholics to produce a newspaper which, though essentially secular, was to be imbued with a religious sensibility. The great majority of Catholics, however, were by this stage overwhelmingly Irish and wanted news of Ireland and Irish politics. This was not necessarily to the taste of all, so from the outset a balancing act was required between the wants and needs of English and Irish Catholics. This was not to be without its problems, for as the decade progressed and the struggle developed between a secular Irish nationalism and church and state, divisions deepened. The Universal News quickly became a paper for Irish Catholics, spanned a turbulent decade and mirrored in its own history both the internal and external struggles of the Irish in England. Furthermore, the history of the Universal News demonstrates the centrality, in Irish journalism in England, of the influence of the church, and the central question for the press of the migrants was how, in a hostile political environment, to produce and sustain newspapers that were at the same time secular but operated within a system of distribution particularly sensitive to clerical control.

Agafonov’s Early Kharkiv Creative Period: Dialogue with the Theatre

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
V. Chechyk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Partial Reconstruction ◽  
Theatrical Space ◽  
Native Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
Artistic Values ◽  
First Time ◽  
History Of Formation

This article is dedicated to the study of the nature of E. Agafonov’s creative ties with the theater – a topic that has been insufficiently covered in the native art history. The author’s field of view is set in the artist’s early Kharkiv period, marked as the years of 1905–1913. The article focuses on the exceptional role of E. Agafonov in the organization and the artistic practice of the first modernist theater “Blakytne Oko” in Kharkiv (1909–1911). Agafonov belonged to the constellation of masters who was very sensitive to the problem of evolving the artistic speech. He viewed the theater as a convincing platform for promoting and approving of the latest artistic values, discovered by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Experiments in easel art (with color, plastic, line, techniques, materials, etc.), largely inspired by the work of D. Burliuk (1906–1908), were directly reflected in Agafonov’s stage practice, namely in numerous designs of the modernist productions based on plays by M. Maeterlinkc, A. Schnitzler, S. Pshybyshevsky and O. Blok. In turn, it was established that theatrical motives were reflected in E. Agafonov’s easel art, as well as in the art of the students of his artistic studio – O. Rybnikov, I. Terentyev, M. Sinyakova, and K. Storozhnichenko. In this regard, a special attention is given to the linocuts by F. Nadezhdin. It was found that the program of “total” design of theatrical space (stage and auditorium), as well as the implementation of production ideas in the cabaret theater “Blakytne Oko” were the result of the master’s fascination with the concepts of artistic synthesis, actualized in the era of Modern. Agafonov moved from dramatization of paintings (of A. Beklin, F. Malyavin, and O. Rodin) to staging experimental show-programs like “The Evening of Autumn”, “Visiting Pierrot” and “In the Middle of Nowhere”, partial reconstruction of which was undertaken for the first time by the author of the article. Agafonov was close to the idea of artistic synthesis, identified by him in F. Malyavin’s paintings, in V. Komissarzhevska’s theatre and I. Duncan’s choreography. The study of E. Agafanov’s theatrical art expands the understanding of the history of formation and development of Ukrainian scenography at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter extends the book’s insights about nature, technology, and nation to the larger history of the modern period. While the modern nation loses its grip as a locus of identity and analysis, attempts to understand the operation, disruption, and collapse of continental and global infrastructures continue to mix the natural and the machinic in ways that define them both. Those vulnerabilities emphasize large-scale catastrophe; historiographically, they mask the crucial role of small-scale failures in the experience and culture of late modernity, including its definition of nature. Historical actors turned the uneven geographical distribution of small-scale failures into a marker of distinctive local natures and an element of regional and national identity. Attending to those failures helps not only situate cold-war technologies in the larger modern history of natural and machinic orders; it helps provincialize the superpowers by casting problematic “other” natures as central and primary.

Precarious lives?

Focaal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (66) ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haldis Haukanes
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Analysis ◽  
Normal Pattern ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intergenerational Dynamics

Framed by questions concerning the normal biography and its distortion in late modernity, this article examines the biographical narratives of two different generations of Czechs. Through a parallel analysis of retrospective and future-oriented imaginations of life, the article explores the extent to which the two generations' narratives are structured along the expectations implicated in the normal biography and the kinds of disturbances to the “normal“ pattern that surface in these accounts. Moreover, it explores intergenerational dynamics by examining the narratives' generational tropes and the level of generational reflexivity they display. I argue that while their key tropes of narration have changed substantially, people of both generations share an adherence to the normal biography as well as a lack of interest in placing their own biography in relation to the history of the nation.

PANDORA'S BOX: WALTER CRANE, “OUR SPHINX-RIDDLE,” AND THE POLITICS OF DECORATION

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-326
Author(s):  
Morna O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Arts And Crafts ◽  
Artistic Practice ◽  
Oil Painting ◽  
Homi Bhabha ◽  
Classical Mythology ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Political Agitation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right ◽  
Cultural Hierarchies

WITH WALTER CRANE, marginality is a question of medium. For his contemporaries, Crane's artistic practice embodied the ethos of Arts and Crafts eclecticism, apparent in this view of his studio from 1885 (Figure 15): watercolor, oil painting, tempera, sculpture, design, and illustration vie for our attention. As the painter Sir William Rothenstein recalled, “Crane could do anything he wanted, or anyone else wanted” (292). As an artist, designer, and – crucially – a socialist, Crane disregarded the traditional distinctions between high art and popular culture. With a history of art constructed along the fault lines of media, school, and style, Crane's diverse artistic practice and radical politics defy easy categorization. And this is precisely the point: his work requires the viewer to think across media, to move from the margins of wallpaper and illustration to the center of painting and back again. Or perhaps it is more fruitful to think of this process as one of inversion, placing wallpaper at the center and painting at its margins. According to Homi Bhabha, it is this “disjunctive temporality” (151) of the margins that allows cultural identity and political solidarities to emerge. The forging of political solidarities through art was the crux of Crane's project, and the disruption of established cultural hierarchies signaled the central role of art in political agitation. Visible on the right margin of photograph of Crane's studio (see Figure 15), the watercolor Pandora from 1885 (Figure 16) provides an ideal starting point for an exploration of the ways in which socialist politics move from the decorative margins to the very heart of Crane's art, a process enabled by the artist's politicized reinterpretation of classical mythology.

Gestchwind syndrome and epileptic psychosis, beyond the schizophrenia frontier

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S639-S639
Author(s):  
V. Rodriguez ◽  
C. Gómez ◽  
C. Gomis ◽  
L. González ◽  
E. Tercelán ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Correct Diagnosis ◽  
Personal History ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Delusional Ideation ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Cognitive Disturbances ◽  
History Of ◽  
False Diagnosis ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
Clonic Convulsions

During late 19th and early 20th century neuropsychiatrists began to identify common behavioral and cognitive disturbances in epilepsy, but it is not until 1973 that Norman Gestchwind described the basics of what we know as Gestchwind syndrome. This syndrome includes the triada of hyper-religiosity, hypergraphia and hypo/hypersexuality and it was mainly associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. Moreover, it is well known the association between epilepsy and psychotic symptoms, the so-called schizophrenia-like syndrome, which can lead us to a false diagnosis of schizophrenia. We report a 44-year-old man who was brought to the hospital with delusional ideation of prosecution and reference in his work environment with important behavioral disruption, as well as delusional ideation of religious content. He had a diagnosis of schizophrenia since he was 18-years-old and personal history of generalized tonic-clonic convulsions in his twenties. During the admission, he recovered ad integrum very rapidly with low doses of risperidone, but referred recurrence of déjà vu episodes. After reviewing his patobiography and past medical history, we identified the presence of hypergraphia, hypersexuality and a profound religious feeling, fulfilling the criteria for Gestchwind syndrome, in the context of which was later diagnosed as chronic epileptic psychosis. It is very important a careful approach to the patobiography and personal history. Also, we should include classic differential diagnosis such as Gestchwind syndrome, as they can lead us finally to the correct diagnosis, which in this case meant not only a different treatment but also a better prognosis.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Mulieres sanctae

1973 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda M. Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
Secular Clergy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mendicant Orders ◽  
The Church

The early thirteenth century was an extraordinary period in the history of piety. Throughout Europe, and especially in urban communities, lay men and women were seized by a new religious fervour which could be satisfied neither by the new orders nor by the secular clergy. Lay groups proliferated, proclaiming the absolute and literal value of the gospels and practising a new life-style, the vita apostolica. This religious feeling led to the formation, on the eve of the fourth lateran council, of numerous orders of ‘poor men’ and shortly afterwards, to the foundation of the mendicant orders. From this novel interpretation of evangelical life women by no means wished to be excluded and many female groups sprang simultaneously into being in areas as far distant as Flanders and Italy. Yet how were such groups to be regarded because current attitudes to women were based on inconsistent and contradictory doctrines? It was difficult to provide the conditions under which they could achieve their desire for sanctity as they were not allowed to enter the various orders available to men. How then were men to reply to the demands of these women for participation in religious life? That there should be a reply was evident from the widespread heresy in just those areas in which the ferment of urban life encouraged the association of pious women. And heretics were dangerously successful with them! For the church, the existence of religious and semi-religious communities of women raised, in turn, many problems, not least the practicalities involved in both pastoral care and economic maintenance. Only, after 1215, when it attempted to regulate and discipline them, did it realise the widespread enthusiasm on which their movement was based.

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