Bodies of Modernity offers a wealth of new insights into the representation of masculinity and femininity at a time when gender distinctions were strictly enforced. In late nineteenth-century France, men and women were believed to be polar opposites, and were required to express this in the clothes they wore, the poses they struck and the behaviour they exhibited. Tamar Garb investigates how these notions can be traced in the representation of men and women in the work of some of the most important painters of the period as well as in a range of other media, including photography, advertising and caricature.
Garb (art history, U. College of London) explores the representation of men and women, masculinity and femininity, in some of the most important painters of late 19th-century France, as well as in a range of other media including photography, advertising, and caricature. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
INTERPLAY: A series that addresses controversial themes and issues in the arts. Bodies of Modernity explores the ways in which men's and women's bodies are represented in late nineteenth-century France. Thought to be unequivocally different from one another, modern men and women were expected to express their sexuality and social positions in the clothes they wore, the poses they struck, and the behavior they exhibited. In a series of case studies, Bodies of Modernity looks at works by Cezanne, Renoir, Seurat, Tissot, and Caillebotte as well as photographs of male body builders to establish an image of the modern body. Well-known works such as Renoir's Nude in the Sunlight, Seurat's Young Woman Powdering Herself, and Cezanne's Large Bathers are given new interpretations, while lesser known paintings like Tissot's series on The Women of Paris or Caillebotte's iconoclastic Man at the Bath are looked at seriously for the first time. Bodies of Modernity is an original account of one of the best-loved periods in Western art history. By taking "figure and flesh" as its focus, it bypasses traditional art historical categories and style labels to provide a reading of the work of the Impressionists and their contemporaries that gets to the heart of French society of the period.
Bodies of Modernity explores the ways in which men's and women's bodies are represented in late nineteenth-century France.
