David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art
- ISBN-10
- 1594037221
- ISBN-13
- 9781594037221
- Category
- Art
- Pages
- 368
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016-01-05
- Publisher
- Encounter Books
- Author
- Victoria C. Gardner Coates
Description
Throughout Western history, the societies that have made the greatest contributions to the spread of freedom have created iconic works of art to celebrate their achievements. Yet despite the enduring appeal of these works—from the Parthenon to Michelangelo’s David to Picasso’s Guernica—histories of both art and democracy have ignored this phenomenon. Millions have admired the artworks covered in this book but relatively few know why they were commissioned, what was happening in the culture that produced them, or what they were meant to achieve. Even scholars who have studied them for decades often miss the big picture by viewing them in isolation from a larger story of human striving. David’s Sling places into context ten canonical works of art executed to commemorate the successes of free societies that exerted political and economic influence far beyond what might have been expected of them. Fusing political and art history with a judicious dose of creative reconstruction, Victoria Coates has crafted a lively narrative around each artistic object and the free system that inspired it. This book integrates the themes of creative excellence and political freedom to bring a fresh, new perspective to both. In telling the stories of ten masterpieces, David’s Sling invites reflection on the synergy between liberty and human achievement.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Blue Book of Art Values: Artists & Their Works from Around the World
By William Edwin DayBlue Book of Art Values: Artists & Their Works from Around the World
-
New Deal Art in Alabama: The Murals, Sculptures and Other Works, and Their Creators
By Anita Price Davis, Jimmy S. EmersonPeter Jennings and Todd Brewster, The Century (New York: Doubleday, 1998), 154. 8. Time-Life Editors, This Fabulous Century, Vol. IV, 23. 9.
-
The World of Bob Timberlake
By Bob TimberlakeOffers a selection of eighty-seven full-color reproductions of Timberlake's paintings, with an introduction by the painter
-
The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop
By Karen L. Maness, Richard M. IsackesTHE FERRELL BROTHERS, WILBUR AND WARREN , in their own words "were not known as singular artists but a duo." Wilbur began his career as a motion picture ...
-
John Singer Sargent and His Muse: Painting Love and Loss
By Karen Corsano, Daniel WillimanAdelson, Warren, “John Singer Sargent and the 'New Painting,'” in Stanley Olson, Warren Adelson, and Richard Ormond, Sargent at Broadway: The Impressionist ...
-
The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop
By Karen L. Maness, Richard M. IsackesThis is a rich undiscovered history—a history replete with competing art departments, dynastic scenic families, and origins stretching back to the films of Méliès, Edison, Sennett, Chaplin, and Fairbanks.
-
Chaos and Cosmos: On the Image in Aesthetics and Art History
By Karen LangThrough careful research, Carol Gibson-Wood exposes the mythology surrounding the Morellian method, especially the mythology of the coherence and primacy of his method of attribution. She argues that it “could also be said that Berenson ...
-
Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity
By Karen B. SternGibson translates from the Phoenician: “Beware! Behold, there is disaster for you ... !” (SSI 3, no. 5=KAI nr. 2). Examples from Cyprus include SSI 3, no. 12=KAI nr. 30. Gibson's translation of the Phoenician reads (SSI 3, ...
-
Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age, 1940-1960
By Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Kevin Stayton, Brooklyn Museum of ArtExamines the emergence of abstract organic forms and their assimilation into the popular arts and culture of American life from 1940-1960, covering advertising, decorative arts, commercial design, and the fine arts.
-
Typography: A Very Short Introduction
By Paul Luna... S. Newman ACCOUNTING Christopher Nobes ADAM SMITH Christopher J. Berry ADOLESCENCE Peter K. Smith ADVERTISING ... ALGEBRA Peter M. Higgins AMERICAN CULTURAL HISTORY Eric Avila AMERICAN HISTORY Paul S. Boyer AMERICAN IMMIGRATION ...