The Subject in Art

Portraiture and the Birth of the Modern

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, Art History, General Art
Cover of the book The Subject in Art by Catherine M. Soussloff, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Catherine M. Soussloff ISBN: 9780822388531
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: October 4, 2006
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Catherine M. Soussloff
ISBN: 9780822388531
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: October 4, 2006
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

Challenging prevailing theories regarding the birth of the subject, Catherine M. Soussloff argues that the modern subject did not emerge from psychoanalysis or existential philosophy but rather in the theory and practice of portraiture in early-twentieth-century Vienna. Soussloff traces the development in Vienna of an ethics of representation that emphasized subjects as socially and historically constructed selves who could only be understood—and understand themselves—in relation to others, including the portrait painters and the viewers. In this beautifully illustrated book, she demonstrates both how portrait painters began to focus on the interior lives of their subjects and how the discipline of art history developed around the genre of portraiture.

Soussloff combines a historically grounded examination of art and art historical thinking in Vienna with subsequent theories of portraiture and a careful historiography of philosophical and psychoanalytic approaches to human consciousness from Hegel to Sartre and from Freud to Lacan. She chronicles the emergence of a social theory of art among the art historians of the Vienna School, demonstrates how the Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka depicted the Jewish subject, and explores the development of pictorialist photography. Reflecting on the implications of the visualized, modern subject for textual and linguistic analyses of subjectivity, Soussloff concludes that the Viennese art historians, photographers, and painters will henceforth have to be recognized as precursors to such better-known theorists of the subject as Sartre, Foucault, and Lacan.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Challenging prevailing theories regarding the birth of the subject, Catherine M. Soussloff argues that the modern subject did not emerge from psychoanalysis or existential philosophy but rather in the theory and practice of portraiture in early-twentieth-century Vienna. Soussloff traces the development in Vienna of an ethics of representation that emphasized subjects as socially and historically constructed selves who could only be understood—and understand themselves—in relation to others, including the portrait painters and the viewers. In this beautifully illustrated book, she demonstrates both how portrait painters began to focus on the interior lives of their subjects and how the discipline of art history developed around the genre of portraiture.

Soussloff combines a historically grounded examination of art and art historical thinking in Vienna with subsequent theories of portraiture and a careful historiography of philosophical and psychoanalytic approaches to human consciousness from Hegel to Sartre and from Freud to Lacan. She chronicles the emergence of a social theory of art among the art historians of the Vienna School, demonstrates how the Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka depicted the Jewish subject, and explores the development of pictorialist photography. Reflecting on the implications of the visualized, modern subject for textual and linguistic analyses of subjectivity, Soussloff concludes that the Viennese art historians, photographers, and painters will henceforth have to be recognized as precursors to such better-known theorists of the subject as Sartre, Foucault, and Lacan.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Recycled Stars by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Borrowed Time by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Transborder Lives by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Eating the Ocean by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Ziegfeld Girl by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Edward Said and the Work of the Critic by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Landscapes of Power and Identity by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Secretaries of the Moon by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Paper Families by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Making Samba by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book I'm Black When I'm Singing, I'm Blue When I Ain't and Other Plays by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book The Value of Comparison by Catherine M. Soussloff
Cover of the book Life Within Limits by Catherine M. Soussloff
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy