The Language of Displayed Art

The core of Michael O'Toole's study is the contention that semiotics - the study of sign systems - can assist in the search for a language through which our perceptions of a work of art can be shared. Books are written about individual works of art, groups of works, the artist's whole oeuvre, schools, movements, centuries of art. All these involve verbal discourses about art and about individual works, however they are diverse and competing discourses which do not, for the most part, help us to discuss works of art. Drawing from his background as a linguist, O'Toole deconstructs major works of art to show how the semiotic approach allows the individual to relate the immediate impact of a piece of work to the scene portrayed, the social, intellectual and economic world within which the artist and his patrons worked, or our own, and to incorporate ways of talking about composition, technique and the material qualities of the work. The examples, heavily illustrated with colour plates, range from Botticelli's "Primavera", Dame Hepworth's sculpture, Aalto's architecture, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock.
The volume will be an essential purchase for art curators, and those teaching art appreciation, art and design and cultural studies.