Discussing the ineffable: Color in the paintings of James McNeill Whistler

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نویسنده: Haslett, Carrie J.

دانشگاه: Bryn Mawr College

: 0

: 1999

: Pdf

: انگلیسی

: 298

بحث در مورد شخص غیر قابل توصیف: رنگ در نقاشی از جیمز مک نیل ویسلر

Abstract: This study redirects attention to James McNeill Whistler as a colorist, a role perhaps undervalued in recent critical and historical writings about the artist. It also points to the importance, complexity, and interest of his use of color, not only to his contemporary viewers, but for any account we make of his work. To this end I analyze and compare two bodies of literature that address the subject of the color in Whistler\'s paintings of the 1860s and 1870s, first the body of criticism of those years, then the more recent accounts of conservators who have examined his work in detail. For early critics of Whistler\'s paintings, color was among the first stumbling blocks encountered, meeting no known or accepted aesthetic. The challenge of Whistler\'s color, while discouraging and frustrating many critics, motivated others to look to art from different cultures and of different media, and to examine their own personal responses; these explorations became key to critics not only in ascribing significance to their experiences of Whistler\'s paintings, but in opening up discussions of the nature of the viewer-object relationship in general. While many critics clung to the age-old notion of a secondary role for color, others found new ways to appreciate Whistler\'s color. Visual comparisons to color in Far Eastern art and exploration of personal responses to color, for instance, helped critics articulate their viewing experiences; however, analogies between color and music, proved to be the most resonant means of ascribing significance to Whistler\'s color. The writing of conservators tends towards the scientific, yet the decision of these writers to focus closely on Whistler\'s color places certain values on the artist\'s color. Their studies collectively establish a history of the paintings of this artist not explored before in this way, and provide a basis for our examining the complicated relationship between the perception and the practice of color. Whistler\'s conservators and critics shared common interests in his color practice, and the latter are shown here to be accurate observers at times; most often, however, the role of practice in creating observed visual effects goes unnoticed.

Keywords: Communication and the arts, Whistler, James McNeill, Ineffable, Color, Paintings

Subjects: Art History,