Research Catalog

Title

Animism and shamanism in twentieth-century art : Kandinsky, Ernst, Pollock, Beuys / Evan R. Firestone.

Author

Firestone, Evan R.

Publication

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 197 pages : illustrations; 26 cm

Summary

Wassily Kandinsky, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, and Joseph Beuys were the leading artists of their generations to recognize the rich possibilities that animism and shamanism offered. While each of these artists' connection with shamanism has been written about separately, Evan Firestone brings the four together in order to compare their individual approaches to anthropological materials and to define similarities and differences between them. The author's close readings of their works and examination of the relevant texts available to them reveal fresh insights and new perspectives.The importance of indigenous beliefs in animism for Kandinsky's philosophy of art and practice, especially the animism of inanimate objects, is analyzed for the first time in conjunction with his well-known enthusiasms for Symbolism and Theosophy. Ernst's collage novel, 'La femme 100 tetes' (1929), previously found to have significant alchemical content, also is shown to extensively utilize shamanism, thereby merging different branches of the occult that prove to have remarkable similarities. 0The in-depth examination of Pollock's works, both known and overlooked for shamanic content, identifies textual sources that heretofore have escaped notice. Firestone also demonstrates how shamanism was employed by this artist to express his desire for healing and transformation. The author further argues that the German edition of Mircea Eliade's 'Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' (1957) helped to revitalize Beuys's life and art, and that his ecological campaigns reflected a new consciousness later termed ecoanimism.

Subject

• Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944 > Criticism and interpretation
• Ernst, Max, 1891-1976 > Criticism and interpretation
• Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956 > Criticism and interpretation
• Beuys, Joseph > Criticism and interpretation
• Beuys, Joseph
• Ernst, Max, 1891-1976
• Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944
• Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956
• Art and religion
• Shamanism in art

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• "An Ashgate book".

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

• 9781472477347
• 1472477340

LCCN

^^2016010635

OCLC

• 959328611
• SCSB-9990635

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library