Objects in Air: Artworks and Their Outside around 1900 by Margareta Ingrid Christian (review)

Abstract

ways that modernist concepts persist beyond the 1920s (to which Jackson does nod in her Coda) and what transformations they have undergone up to today. Finally, the book is visually quite captivating. From the beautifully designed cover with Franz von Stuck’s painting of Tilla Durieux as Circe to the haunting photos of Gertrud Eysoldt as Elektra, Jackson pairs her narrative with evocative illustrations. A visual culture scholar might have looked for more ekphrastic interplay in the book’s analyses with the well-chosen images, but in many ways the pictures speak for themselves and encourage readers to stage their own dialogues with the author’s claims. That we desire to do so is another sign of this book’s success. Ellwood Wiggins, University of Washington, Seattle