Venus in Exile
Subtitle: The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-century Art
Publisher: Free Press
Published: July 31, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780684857817
Subjects: Philosophy Of Art; Feminine beauty (Aesthetics); 20th Century Art; Art & Art Instruction; Women in art; Art; Popular Culture - General; Philosophy; Criticism; Art / Popular Culture; 20th century; Arts, Modern
First sentence: In the twentieth century, the avant-garde declared a clean break with history, but their hostility to the female subject and the beauty she symbolized had deep roots in the past.
Description: "Whereas previous eras had celebrated beauty as the central aim of art, the modernist avant-garde were deeply suspicious of beauty and its perennial symbols, woman and ornament, preferring instead the thrill and alienation of the sublime. They rejected harmony, empathy, and femininity in a denial still reverberating through art and social relations today.

Exploring this casting of Venus, with all her charms, into exile, Wendy Steiner's analysis explores the twentieth century's troubled relationship with beauty."--BOOK JACKET.