Books by Jon L. Seydl
Gerhard Richter: Early Work, 1951–1972
by Christine Mehring, Jeanne Anne Nugent, Jon L. Seydl
Born in Dresden in 1932, Gerhard Richter was first educated under the prevailing doctrine of Socialist Realism and retrained after emigrating to West Germany, thus uniquely embodying the division of Germany during the Cold War. This volume brings together new studies of his early career by an international group of scholars.
The authors approach the context from a variety of angles including the social and political histories of a divided Germany, the conflicted development of Soviet Socialist Realism in East Germany, a Cold War visuality integrating pre- and post-resettlement works, the archival dimension of the artist’s output in relation to Richter’s Atlas, and the artist’s involvement in the representation of his work in archives, exhibitions, and catalogues. The essays began as papers delivered at a symposium held at the Getty Research Institute in 2007 in conjunction with the exhibition From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Copies
No copies available.
The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection
by Kenneth Lapatin, Jon L. Seydl, Victoria C. Gardner Coates
Destroyed yet paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Pompeii and other nearby sites are usually considered places where we can most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than present these sites as windows to the past, however, the authors of The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection explore Pompeii as a modern obsession, in which the Vesuvian sites function as mirrors of the present. Through cultural appropriation and projection, outstanding visual and literary artists of the last three centuries have made the ancient catastrophe their own, expressing contemporary concerns in diverse media—from paintings, prints, and sculpture, to theatrical performances, photography, and film. This lavishly illustrated volume—featuring the works of artists such as Piranesi, Fragonard, Kaufmann, Ingres, Chassériau, and Alma-Tadema, as well as Duchamp, Dalí, Rothko, Rauschenberg, and Warhol—surveys the legacy of Pompeii in the modern imagination under the three overarching rubrics of decadence, apocalypse, and resurrection.
Decadence investigates the perception of Pompeii as a site of impending and well-deserved doom due to the excesses of the ancient Romans, such as paganism, licentiousness, greed, gluttony, and violence. The catastrophic demise of the Vesuvian sites has become inexorably linked with the understanding of antiquity, turning Pompeii into a fundamental allegory for Apocalypse, to which all subsequent disasters (natural or man-made) are related, from the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina. Resurrection examines how Pompeii and the Vesuvian cities have been reincarnated in modern guise through both scientific archaeology and fantasy, as each successive cultural reality superimposed its values and ideas on the distant past.
An exhibition of the same name will be on view at the Getty Villa from September 12, 2012, through January 7, 2013; at the Cleveland Museum of Art from February 24 through May 19, 2013; and at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec from June 13 through November 8, 2013.
Copies
No copies available.