1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910795000203321

Autore

Sharpe William

Titolo

Grasping shadows : the dark side of literature, painting, photography, and film / / William Chapman Sharpe

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford, [England] : , : Oxford University Press, , 2017

©2017

ISBN

0-19-068226-4

0-19-068225-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (441 pages) : illustrations, photographs

Classificazione

ART000000PHI001000

Disciplina

701/.82

Soggetti

Shades and shadows in art

Shades and shadows in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Machine generated contents note: -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The Shadow Speaks -- Chapter 2: The Vital Shadow -- Chapter 3: The Look Elsewhere Shadow -- Chapter 4: The Completing Shadow -- Chapter 5: The Independent Shadow -- Chapter 6: City of Shadows -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

"With the shadow's seductive associations to sexuality, mystery, danger, intangible power, and death, the use of shadows as artistic technique saturates both classic and modern art forms, and yet the practice remains almost invisible. As the first full-length study of art shadows in over a decade, Grasping Shadows ranges from classic works by Rembrandt, Dickens, Picasso, Disney, and Warhol to contemporary street art, popular songs, billboards, and architecture to propose a general theory of how all shadows function in texts and visual media, ultimately offering four main categories. Sharpe explores the diverse ways shadows appear in literature, painting, photography, and film, insisting that literary and visual meanings of shadows cannot be separated, and that art-shadows must be analyzed as part of a cultural field in which words and images continually overlap and reinforce each other's meanings. Beginning with a summary of scholarship to date, the introduction addresses how real-world shadows function, and gives an



overview of the strategies involved in representing shadows from the Renaissance onward. The first chapter sets out a theory of how the meanings of shadows are generated. Subsequent chapters, each centered on an influential literary text, explore in detail the four kinds of shadows that visual artists and writers use. The last chapter presents a case study of how shadows have impacted the art of the modern city, from Renoir and Zola to film noir to advanced projection systems capturing the shadows of passers-by on streets around the globe. The book concludes with a philosophical meditation on how living with shadows enriches everyday life. "--

"Grasping Shadows is the most comprehensive book to date on the artistic use of cast shadows, the first to offer a general theory of how all shadows function in texts and visual images. Accessibly written, it gives new insight into classic works while also exploring contemporary street art, popular songs, and advertising"--