English Art, 1860-1914: Modern Artists and Identity

by Lara Perry (Editor), Lara Perry (Editor), David Peters Corbett (Editor)

How "modern" is the art made in England between 1860 and 1914? England in this period was a highly modernized society, but the art it produced is not "modernist" in the sense that the word has been used to describe French art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book seeks to break the association of "modern" art in England with French models and to describe anew the relationship between English art, England's artists, and their modern culture. The collection presents in a single volume an introduction to the variety and depth of current innovative work on English art. Through a series of essays by leading scholars, dealing with themes including the new professionalism in art, the gendered nature of institutions, the rise of Aestheticism, and the fragmentation of the art world, the book brings into focus this crucial and fascinating period by offering a series of openings for a new map of modern art in England. By identifying an array of responses to modern life and experience, the essays inaugurate a revisionist view of the period and reveal that modern English artists and art were profoundly involved with questions about the relationship between artistic tradition and the circumstances and subjects of modern life and modern art practice. Contributors include Paul Barlow, Tim Barringer, Jane Beckett, Pamela Fletcher, Alicia Foster, Kenneth McConkey, Elizabeth Prettejohn, Andrew Stephenson, Lisa Tickner, and Janet Wolff.

274 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays pertaining to the on-going debate over whether English art of this period was or was not 1) modern and 2) aesthetically valuable. Art historians for decades disparaged English art and many still do, but there has been an increasing interest and sympathy since the turn of the millennium.

Established art history tends to understand modernism as a series of formal developments toward Abstract Expressionism. These developments respond to the changing conditions of the 19th century with oppositional and socially critical subjects and approaches. Idealizing French modernism, art critics have condemned contemporaneous English works as "bloodless, timid, and traditional." This type of comparison ignores the significance of individuality within a culture.