CAA News Today

Stephanie S. Dickey reads Facts and Feelings: Retracing Emotions of Artists, 1600–1800, edited by Hannelore Magnus and Katlijne Van der Stighelen. The book’s goal “is not to gauge the expression of emotion in art, but instead to plumb the emotions of artists themselves.” Interestingly, “the visual record is mostly avoided in favor of documentary sources that find artists in emotionally charged situations.”  Read the full review at caa.reviews.

Eric Palazzo discusses Jeffrey F. Hamburger’s Script as Image, “a deeply engaging book, or rather a lengthy essay, on the ‘double page’ in the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.” The author starts “by exploring the possibility of considering writing as an image,” and “his approach focuses on a new exploration of the common nature of the written word and image” in visual culture. Read the full review at caa.reviews.

Arthur J. DiFuria reviews Pieter Bruegel’s Historical Imagination by Stephanie Porras. The “well-written, beautifully produced book” brings “a supremely important aspect of Bruegel’s art” to light, offering “a carefully considered take on his notion of the Netherlandish past” and portraying him “as an erudite artist who formulated a Netherlandish antiquarian vernacular.”  Read the full review at caa.reviews.

John P. Bowles examines the exhibition Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, curated by Pamela McClusky and Erika Dalya Massoquoi. The show and catalogue question “how African cultural traditions circulate and influence global contemporary art,” arguing that “the artists of ‘global Africa’ have begun to address this issue, changing how we understand African art.” Read the full review at caa.reviews.