Art and artifice in visual culture: eighteenth century to the present

Abstract

"This edited volume explores the notion of "artifice" in modern visual culture, ranging from the eighteenth century to the present, in countries around the globe. Artifice has been regarded as a primarily Western phenomenon, playing as it does a central role in European art theory since the Renaissance. This volume proposes that artifice is better understood as a transcultural artistic phenomenon and requires far broader conceptualization across international contexts. It acquaints readers with works of art, visual modes of communication, and concepts originating in France, Germany, the United States, Japan, and China, and includes painting, sculpture, prints, photographs, film, and VR/AR objects. Contributors demonstrate how practices of artifice function as both symbol and form, in parallel and divergent ways, in multiple cultural settings. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, and material culture"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction. Art and artifice in a transcultural perspective / Sonia Coman, Vasile-Ovidiu Prejmerean, and Michael Yonan -- Part I. Artifice and spectatorship -- Fractured perception : drawings, prints, and verres-cassés / J. Cabelle Ahn -- Rococo Aesthetics and the Problem of Trompe l'Oeil / Michael Yonan -- Degas's "Histories" and the Foreshadowing Artifice of Self-Candaulism / Vasile-Ovidiu Prejmerean -- Part II. Haptic illusions -- Suggestive surfaces : the self-referential texture of woodgrain in Japanese woodblock prints / Kit Brooks -- Reconsidering the Origins of Yongsheng Guwantu: From the Aniconic Period to Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra / Chih-En Chen -- Fooling Art History: John F. Peto and William Harnett / Yinshi Lerman-Tan -- Part III. Alternative realities -- First Nations' Wampum Belts: A Colonial Vision of Artifice in Eigtheenth-Century New France / Clémence Fort -- "An Opportunity to Grapple with the Picture Plane...": The Stereo-Illusion's History of Frustration / Eszter Polonyi -- Self-reference and medium-reference in virtual reality and trompe l'oeil / Sonia Coman.