Modernism and Still Life

Reviews / Votes

Modernism and Still Life reminds us that Modernism not only introduced new ways of making art but also new ways of looking at art. Tobin is alert to the paradoxes inherent in the title 'still life' but also to the many ways in which stillness and movement enter into conversation in early modernism. This is a work of deft scholarship and considerable originality of thought. It makes a fresh intervention into a major subject and deepens understanding, offering another landmark in the historiography of Modernism. * Frances Spalding, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge * Overall, Modernism and Still Life convincingly draws together aesthetic a?nities between art forms but resists the temptation of simple analogies. The moments of intermedial collaboration are documented through discrete case studies but Tobin is keenly aware of the divergent aesthetic vocabularies and historical development of painting and literature, dance and sculpture, and other art forms. The book also historicises the scienti?c and theological thought of the time that gave signi?cance to respective writer's invocation of quivering, vibration, rhythm, transubstantiation, and a wider vocabulary of modern stillness. Modernism and Still Life is measured in the illuminating inter-aesthetic parallels it draws, while a uned to medium speci?city and wary of comparing apples and oranges, or indeed apples and lemons. -- Jack Quin, University of Birmingham * The Modernist Review * Overall, Modernism and Still Life convincingly draws together aesthetic a?nities between art forms but resists the temptation of simple analogies. The moments of intermedial collaboration are documented through discrete case studies but Tobin is keenly aware of the divergent aesthetic vocabularies and historical development of painting and literature, dance and sculpture, and other art forms. The book also historicises the scienti?c and theological thought of the time that gave signi?cance to respective writer's invocation of quivering, vibration, rhythm, transubstantiation, and a wider vocabulary of modern stillness. Modernism and Still Life is measured in the illuminating inter-aesthetic parallels it draws, while a uned to medium speci?city and wary of comparing apples and oranges, or indeed apples and lemons. -- Jack Quin, University of Birmingham * The Modernist Review * In this richly illustrated, closely argued, and carefully researched study, Claudia Tobin asks us to think afresh about the nature of modernist still life (including still-life paintings; still life in sculptural form; still life as represented in dance and in photographic documentation of the same; still life in poetry; and still life as it figures in contemporary criticism, aesthetic theory, and philosophical commentary).[...] Tobin's primary aim is to enable us to understand that still life is not what we (probably) thought it was and to guide us to read it as a suggestive and vibrant form, which for those who developed the genre in the inter-war period offered new ways of thinking about stasis and mobility, aesthetics, objects, processes and, importantly in Tobin's view, spirituality. [...] What we can take from Tobin's impressive study is an understanding of the value of the slow contemplation of objects in (apparent) stasis as a mode of active engagement. Whether the tendency that she identifies in this selection of artists and thinkers is a manifestation of, or resistant to, the forces of modernity is still up for debate. Nevertheless, as Tobin concludes, there is evidence here that 'transformation and movement live at the heart of stillness and the ordinary'. -- Jo Gill, University of Exeter * The Review of English Studies * In this richly illustrated, closely argued, and carefully researched study, Claudia Tobin asks us to think afresh about the nature of modernist still life (including still-life paintings; still life in sculptural form; still life as represented in dance and in photographic documentation of the same; still life in poetry; and still life as it figures in contemporary criticism, aesthetic theory, and philosophical commentary).[...] Tobin's primary aim is to enable us to understand that still life is not what we (probably) thought it was and to guide us to read it as a suggestive and vibrant form, which for those who developed the genre in the inter-war period offered new ways of thinking about stasis and mobility, aesthetics, objects, processes and, importantly in Tobin's view, spirituality. [...] What we can take from Tobin's impressive study is an understanding of the value of the slow contemplation of objects in (apparent) stasis as a mode of active engagement. Whether the tendency that she identifies in this selection of artists and thinkers is a manifestation of, or resistant to, the forces of modernity is still up for debate. Nevertheless, as Tobin concludes, there is evidence here that 'transformation and movement live at the heart of stillness and the ordinary'. -- Jo Gill, University of Exeter * The Review of English Studies * Modernism and Still Life is a valuable and artfully elegant contribution to studies of the inter-arts aesthetic of modernist culture. -- Lee M. Jenkins, University College Cork * Wallace Stevens Journal * Modernism and Still Life is a valuable and artfully elegant contribution to studies of the inter-arts aesthetic of modernist culture. -- Lee M. Jenkins, University College Cork * Wallace Stevens Journal *