{"title":"The Phantom Image: Seeing the Dead in Ancient Rome. Patrick R. Crowley. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019. 308 pp.; 25 color and 71 b/w ills. Cloth $60.00. ISBN 9780226648293","authors":"Nathaniel B. Jones","doi":"10.1086/721227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721227","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44513911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay considers the role of lost-wax casting, electrotyping, and the model metalwork provided more generally for the production and distribution of serial sculpture in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. Responses by major critics of the decorative arts, from Gottfried Semper to Max Sauerlandt, inform analyses of various examples, including reductions of sculptures by Max Klinger issued by the Galdenbeck Bronzegießerei and electrotypes of the Bamberg Rider marketed by the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF).
{"title":"Metalwork and Serial Sculpture in Germany, 1870–1930","authors":"M. Luke","doi":"10.1086/721210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721210","url":null,"abstract":"This essay considers the role of lost-wax casting, electrotyping, and the model metalwork provided more generally for the production and distribution of serial sculpture in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. Responses by major critics of the decorative arts, from Gottfried Semper to Max Sauerlandt, inform analyses of various examples, including reductions of sculptures by Max Klinger issued by the Galdenbeck Bronzegießerei and electrotypes of the Bamberg Rider marketed by the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF).","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47968615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay considers a number of artists, including David Smith, Theodor Roszak, and Herbert Ferber, who utilized the welding process in the decades following World War II to invest their sculptures with a sense of precarious danger that summoned the violence of militarized technology and the fearful possibility of future nuclear annihilation. These works’ notably figurative allusions to technologically driven apocalypse align them with Cold War–era science fiction, a comparison that complicates their status within modernist aesthetic criteria.
这篇文章考虑了一些艺术家,包括David Smith, Theodor Roszak和Herbert Ferber,他们在第二次世界大战后的几十年里利用焊接工艺为他们的雕塑注入了一种不稳定的危险感,这种危险感召唤了军事化技术的暴力和未来核毁灭的可怕可能性。这些作品明显隐喻了科技驱动的世界末日,使它们与冷战时期的科幻小说保持一致,这种比较使它们在现代主义美学标准中的地位变得复杂。
{"title":"Metal Welding in Postwar US Sculpture: Between Expressionism and Vulgarity","authors":"Robert S. Slifkin","doi":"10.1086/721214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721214","url":null,"abstract":"This essay considers a number of artists, including David Smith, Theodor Roszak, and Herbert Ferber, who utilized the welding process in the decades following World War II to invest their sculptures with a sense of precarious danger that summoned the violence of militarized technology and the fearful possibility of future nuclear annihilation. These works’ notably figurative allusions to technologically driven apocalypse align them with Cold War–era science fiction, a comparison that complicates their status within modernist aesthetic criteria.","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46296711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Drawing upon the examination of historical examples and historical records, and informed by fieldwork in contemporary practices, this study of the production of copper-alloy utensils in South Asia highlights important metalworking technology far from Europe. In the medieval and early modern periods, South Asian craftspeople relied on deep tacit knowledge of local materials, direct low-technology approaches, and a distributed labor system to produce high-quality copper-alloy vessels.
{"title":"Utensils and Metallurgical Knowledge in South Asia","authors":"E. Cooke","doi":"10.1086/721204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721204","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing upon the examination of historical examples and historical records, and informed by fieldwork in contemporary practices, this study of the production of copper-alloy utensils in South Asia highlights important metalworking technology far from Europe. In the medieval and early modern periods, South Asian craftspeople relied on deep tacit knowledge of local materials, direct low-technology approaches, and a distributed labor system to produce high-quality copper-alloy vessels.","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46236963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Determining the original color of ancient bronzes is difficult. Over the millennia Shang dynasty Chinese bronze vessels were depicted as dull green corroded objects without color. Discovery through examination and scientific research has determined that many vessels were originally a golden bronze with red or black inlays highlighting their intricate designs.
{"title":"Color in Ancient Chinese Bronzes","authors":"D. Strahan","doi":"10.1086/721216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721216","url":null,"abstract":"Determining the original color of ancient bronzes is difficult. Over the millennia Shang dynasty Chinese bronze vessels were depicted as dull green corroded objects without color. Discovery through examination and scientific research has determined that many vessels were originally a golden bronze with red or black inlays highlighting their intricate designs.","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44148938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fungible Things: Economies of Desire in the (De)formation of Chinese Bronzes","authors":"Jeffrey Moser","doi":"10.1086/721212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721212","url":null,"abstract":"the meagerness of his","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43709331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The European reception of gold and brass castings from West Africa was steeped in contradictions at the turn of the twentieth century: on the one hand, the works were admired for their technical mastery and the inherent value of their media; on the other, the narratives of imperial submission with which they were entangled left little room for sober appreciation.
{"title":"Shifting Expectations: Metalwork and the Reception of African Arts at the Turn of the Twentieth Century","authors":"Yaëlle Biro","doi":"10.1086/721200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721200","url":null,"abstract":"The European reception of gold and brass castings from West Africa was steeped in contradictions at the turn of the twentieth century: on the one hand, the works were admired for their technical mastery and the inherent value of their media; on the other, the narratives of imperial submission with which they were entangled left little room for sober appreciation.","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42807716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A copper ingot found in Cyprus signifies both the beginning and the end of life for many items of metalwork. The ingot (fig. 1) either was made from smelted copper unearthed from the Cypriot copper mines and formed into its shape or represents the afterlife of a broken, dysfunctional vessel or other object, melted down only to be shaped again into an ingot in an endless cycle of material and form. The ingot has the potentiality to mutate into a near-limitless variety of objects, through either simple hammering techniques or more complex ones involving casting. As a resource for artisans, the ingot could also serve as commodity money in an exchange. In its amorphic presence, the humble object thus offers a springboard for pondering all that metalwork is and can be, while elaborating on ideas of its design, making, use, and reception. sum
{"title":"Editors’ Introduction: Putting Work into Metal","authors":"Caspar Meyer, Ittai Weinryb","doi":"10.1086/721196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721196","url":null,"abstract":"A copper ingot found in Cyprus signifies both the beginning and the end of life for many items of metalwork. The ingot (fig. 1) either was made from smelted copper unearthed from the Cypriot copper mines and formed into its shape or represents the afterlife of a broken, dysfunctional vessel or other object, melted down only to be shaped again into an ingot in an endless cycle of material and form. The ingot has the potentiality to mutate into a near-limitless variety of objects, through either simple hammering techniques or more complex ones involving casting. As a resource for artisans, the ingot could also serve as commodity money in an exchange. In its amorphic presence, the humble object thus offers a springboard for pondering all that metalwork is and can be, while elaborating on ideas of its design, making, use, and reception. sum","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46374727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Arctic: Culture and Climate. Edited by Amber Lincoln, Jago Cooper, and Jan Peter Laurens Loovers. London: Thames & Hudson, 2020. 304 pp.; 350 color ills. Hardcover $60.00. ISBN 9780500480663","authors":"Sarah M. Pickman","doi":"10.1086/721222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721222","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47800548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Real to Virtual and Back Again","authors":"Wendy Yothers","doi":"10.1086/721220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/721220","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53917,"journal":{"name":"West 86th-A Journal of Decorative Arts Design History and Material Culture","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47897967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}