Neo-Classicism

by Hugh Honour

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English summary: Neo-classicism is often misunderstood as a cold, pedantic, even bombastic artistic movement. The present volume seeks to rehabilitate Neo-classicism, explaining its esthetic, philosophical, and political implications, through the example of both famous and little-known artists from across Europe. French description: De tous les courants artistiques europeens, le neo-classicisme est sans doute celui sur lequel s'accumule le plus grand nombre de malentendus. Heureusement, show more depuis une trentaine d'annees, en France et a l'etranger, de nombreuses expositions ont ete consacrees a ce mouvement ou a ses plus grands heros. Malgre tout, les cliches ont la vie dure, selon lesquels le neo-classicisme serait un compose de froideur et de pedanterie, un art litteraire et grandiloquent. Hugh Honour en propose une rehabilitation passionnante, qui embrasse toutes les techniques artistiques. Au lieu d'offrir un survol chronologique scolaire, il explicite les enjeux esthetiques, philosophiques ou politiques, analyse quelques exemples cles, fait decouvrir des artistes singuliers et meconnus, qui partageaient des ideaux voisins d'un bout a l'autre de l'Europe, et rend justice a des genies tels que Ledoux, David ou Canova, dont il fait ressortir toutes les facettes. show less

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A solid intro to Neo-classical art and philosophy of art. Useful illustrations, though I would wish for color rather than black and white. But I am not an early art historian, so what do I know. Easily accessible to the non-art crowd, but a working knowledge of the time period discussed would be useful.
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Patrick Hugh Honour was born in Eastbourne, East Sussex, United Kingdom on September 26, 1927. He received a bachelor's degree in 18th-century English literature from St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. In the mid-1950's, he started writing and editing with John Fleming. For Penguin Books, they edited the series Style and Civilization. They also show more edited two more series for Penguin: Architect and Society and Art in Context. Together they wrote The Visual Arts: A History, The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts, and The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture with Nikolaus Pevsner. Honour wrote several books on his own including Horace Walpole, Chinoiserie: A Vision of Cathay, The Companion Guide to Venice, Romanticism, The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the American Revolution to World War I, and The Venetian Hours of Henry James, Whistler, and Sargent. Honour organized the traveling exhibition The European Vision of America for the United States Bicentennial in 1976. As a companion to the exhibition, he wrote The New Golden Land: European Images of America from the Discoveries to the Present Time. He died on May 19, 2016 at the 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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Canonical title
Neo-Classicism

Classifications

Genres
Art & Design, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, History
DDC/MDS
709.033Arts & recreationArtsHistory, geographic treatment, biographyBy Period1500-1700-1799 18th Century; Rococco art
LCC
N6425 .N4 .H6Fine ArtsVisual artsHistory
BISAC

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Members
276
Popularity
117,646
Reviews
1
Rating
½ (3.38)
Languages
English, French, Italian, Spanish
Media
Paper
ISBNs
8
ASINs
8