토머스 에이킨스: 해부학, 리얼리즘, 그리고 일그러진 근대의 초상
Thomas Eakins: Anatomy, Realism, and Distorted Self—Portrait of Modernity
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
Known as one of the most representative American Realist painter, Thomas Eakins(1844—1916) is unique in the art world in his time and place for the extent of his involvement with scientific and mathematical concerns, aspects of which gained new impetus from developments in the Guilded Age period. His interest in medicine, in particular, informed his art would not be equaled by any other painter in America at the time. This paper aims to explore how Thomas Eakins' interest in medicine (anatomy and dissection) affected his life and work. My analysis centers around Eakins' (semi—)nude paintings as well as the two clinic paintings, <The Gross Clinic>(1875) and <The Agnew Clinic>(1889). After chapter one which provides the introduction, chapter two of this paper discusses Eakins' work in relation to some previous scholarship which reflected an interpretation of the painter's legacy that was in effect a myth of heroism. Eakins was often interpreted as a heroic, scientific realist who fearlessly recorded the visual facts, no matter how unpleasant that “truth” might be for his viewers or how detrimental to his career. He was also understood as an artist whose work celebrated heroic, contemporary individuals. Not only his works, but the method he incorporated, and the education he received, added up to present Eakins as the icon of American modernity. However, in reconstructing the relationship between Eakins' art and its context, we find more problematic aspects of Eakins' life particularly involving the issue of sexuality. The third and fourth chapters comprise the main arguments of the paper. The third chapter explores how the artist's commitment to anatomy—based teaching methodology becomes a critical threat to artist's career. The discussion inevitably brings in the discussion of sexual ideology of the 19th century Philadelphia art world. the second part of chapter three re—reads Eakins' clinic paintings in attempt to trace the marks of sexual tension hidden in the works. Eakins' relentless pursuit of visual “truth” in appearance is questioned in the fourth chapter of this paper. What seems to be a documentary, archival record of what had actually happened before the artist's eye could be a constructed reality reflecting the artist's own subjectivity and unconsciousness desires. Accordingly, <Gross Clinic> and <Agnew Clinic> are read with allegorical meaning reflecting the artist's life and career in the last chapter. In conclusion, the paper discusses how Thomas Eakins's art reveals various contradictions and paradoxes involving aesthetic expectation, sexual ideology, the discourses of Modernity, and American Realism. Eakins's interest in medicine lies at the center of such contradictions, holding together the paradoxical elements in a creative tension.
Abstract
Known as one of the most representative American Realist painter, Thomas Eakins(1844—1916) is unique in the art world in his time and place for the extent of his involvement with scientific and mathematical concerns, aspects of which gained new impetus from developments in the Guilded Age period. His interest in medicine, in particular, informed his art would not be equaled by any other painter in America at the time. This paper aims to explore how Thomas Eakins' interest in medicine (anatomy and dissection) affected his life and work. My analysis centers around Eakins' (semi—)nude paintings as well as the two clinic paintings, <The Gross Clinic>(1875) and <The Agnew Clinic>(1889). After chapter one which provides the introduction, chapter two of this paper discusses Eakins' work in relation to some previous scholarship which reflected an interpretation of the painter's legacy that was in effect a myth of heroism. Eakins was often interpreted as a heroic, scientific realist who fearlessly recorded the visual facts, no matter how unpleasant that “truth” might be for his viewers or how detrimental to his career. He was also understood as an artist whose work celebrated heroic, contemporary individuals. Not only his works, but the method he incorporated, and the education he received, added up to present Eakins as the icon of American modernity. However, in reconstructing the relationship between Eakins' art and its context, we find more problematic aspects of Eakins' life particularly involving the issue of sexuality. The third and fourth chapters comprise the main arguments of the paper. The third chapter explores how the artist's commitment to anatomy—based teaching methodology becomes a critical threat to artist's career. The discussion inevitably brings in the discussion of sexual ideology of the 19th century Philadelphia art world. the second part of chapter three re—reads Eakins' clinic paintings in attempt to trace the marks of sexual tension hidden in the works. Eakins' relentless pursuit of visual “truth” in appearance is questioned in the fourth chapter of this paper. What seems to be a documentary, archival record of what had actually happened before the artist's eye could be a constructed reality reflecting the artist's own subjectivity and unconsciousness desires. Accordingly, <Gross Clinic> and <Agnew Clinic> are read with allegorical meaning reflecting the artist's life and career in the last chapter. In conclusion, the paper discusses how Thomas Eakins's art reveals various contradictions and paradoxes involving aesthetic expectation, sexual ideology, the discourses of Modernity, and American Realism. Eakins's interest in medicine lies at the center of such contradictions, holding together the paradoxical elements in a creative tension.
참고문헌 (21)
- Adams, Henry, "Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist" (2005), Oxford University Press
- Berger, Martin A, "Man Made: Thomas Eakins and the Construction of Gilded Age Manhood" (2000), University of California Press
- Berkowitz, Julie S, "Adorn the Halls: History of the Art Collection at Thomas Jefferson University" (1999), Thomas Jefferson University
- Chamberlin—Hellman, Maria, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher", Maria, pp.1981
- Foster, Kathleen A, "Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts" (1997), Yale University Press
- Foster, Kathleen A, "Writing About Eakins: Manuscripts in Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection" (1989), University of Pennsylvania Press
- Fried, Michael, "Realism, Writing, and Disfiguration: Thomas Eakins and Stephen Crane" (1987), The University of Chicago Press
- Goodbody, Bridget L, "The Present Opprobrium of Surgery: The Agnew Clinic and Nineteenth—Century Representation of Cancerous Female Breasts", American Art, 8(1), pp.33~51 (1994)
- Goodrich, Lloyd, "Thomas Eakins, 2 Vols" (1982), Harvard University Press for National Gallery of Art
- Hills, Patricia, "Thomas Eakins's Agnew Clinic and John S. Sargent's Four Doctors: Sublimity, Decorum, and Professionalism", Prospects, 11, pp.217~230 (1986)
- Homer, William I, "Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art" (1992), Abbeville Press
- Jones, Elizabeth, "Thomas Eakins: The Heroism of Modern Life" (1983), Princeton University Press
- Kirkpatrick, Sidney D, "The Revenge of Thomas Eakins" (2006), Yale University Press
- Leja, Michael, "Eakins and Icons", Art Bulletin, 83(3), pp.479~497 (2001)
- Long, Diana E, "The Medical World of The Agnew Clinic,” Prospects Ⅱ", 185~198 (1987)
- Lubin, David, "David. Act of Portrayal: Eakins, Sargent, James" (1985), Yale University Press
- Lubin, David, "Modern Psychological Selfhood in the Art of Thomas Eakins, In Inventing the Psychological: Toward a Cultural History of Emotional Life in America", pp.133~166 (1997), Yale University Press
- Milroy, Elizabeth, "Consummatum est...’: A Reassessment of Thomas Eakins's Crucifixion of 1880", Art Bulletin, 71, pp.270~284 (1989)
- Rosenberg, Eric M, "One of the Most Powerful, Horrible, and yet Fascinating Pictures’: Thomas Eakins's The Gross Clinic as History Painting, In Redefining American History Painting" (1995), Cambridge University Press
- Sewell, Darrel, "Thomas Eakins, exh. cat" (2001), Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Werbel, Amy, "Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia" (2007), Yale University Press