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Synopsis
Though many observers tend to overlook the still life as a genre -- after all, those are just random objects on a table, are they not? -- Guy Davenport, in his delightful volume Objects on a Table, explores the still life and its role in our culture much more closely. In Davenport's view, an apple is not merely an apple or a pear a pear: "Culture is like a magnetic field," he writes, "...invisible, even unsuspected, until a receiver sensitive enough to pick up its messages can give it a voice."
Booknews
Four meditations on the art of the still life blend art history with literary criticism, looking closely at iconic and symbolic functions of objects and how they are represented in culture. Esteemed art critic Davenport studies Egyptian tomb images, Neolithic cave paintings, the Dutch masters, and painters such as Cezanne and van Gogh, as well as photography and the collage in order to analyze the forces that have motivated and shaped the use of this form over the centuries. Contains eight b&w illustrations. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.