Title: Hang-ups : essays on painting (mostly) /
Authors: Schama, Simon
Publisher: BBC Books,
Year: 2004
Subjects: Painting History; Art History; Art Philosophy; Art criticism.
Abstract: Pre-eminent author and art historian Simon Schama has written widely on art for many years to great acclaim. In Hang-Ups, a personal selection of his articles from, amongst others, The New Yorker, appears in Britain for the very first time. Brilliantly and lucidly written by one of the most singular voices in non-fiction, this volume of provocative and often idiosyncratic essays makes hugely satisfying reading for lovers of both art and social history. In contains pieces on artists as diverse as David Hockney, Rembrandt and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and on such subjects as the unforgettable peculiarity of Stanley Spencer. From the author whose writing has been called sublime and whose ability to bring art and history vividly to life has earned him admiration worldwide, Hang-Ups is Schamas rallying cry for the art lover to look at familiar works of art and their artists and embrace a new way of seeing.
Contents: Lunches at Courauld -- Another dimension (Michael Sweerts) -- Did he do it (Rembrandt) -- Hendrick Goltzius -- Through a glass brightly (Johannes Vermeer) -- Flashes of the peacocks tail (Thomas Lawrence -- Rolandson in the round (Thomas Rowlandson) -- Mad cows and Englishmen (William Hogarth) -- Church of me (Stanley Spencer) -- Homers Odyssey (Winslow Homer -- American illusions (Trompe l'Oeil painting in the gilded cage) -- Cezannes mission -- Tunnel vision (Egon Schiele) -- Gut feeling (Chaim Soutine) -- True grid (Piet Mondrian) -- California dreamer (David Hockney) -- Head honcho (Chuck Close) -- Dangerous curves (Ellsworth Kelly) -- Alex Katz's landscapes -- Cy Twombly -- Illumination (Anna Ruth Henriques) -- Looking Jewish (photographs of Frederic Brenner) -- Anselm Kiefer -- Andy Goldworthy -- Pangs (Irish hunger memorial) -- Heavy metal (Renaissance armour) -- Narrow spaces (In the salons of the court Jews and the cellars of resistance Holland) -- Trellis and the rose (Charles Rennie Mackintosh) -- Modes of seduction (Haute couture) -- Dandy Dutch (Dutch fashion now and then) 1492 (Columbus Show 1991)