Potential images: ambiguity and indeterminacy in modern art

Abstract

"In this exploration of art of the modern period, Dario Gamboni explores the sources, intentions and effects associated with ambiguous images by examining the viewer's degree of participation, the nature of the latent of 'potential' image and its relation to issues of representation and abstraction. He also draws on disciplines as diverse as psychology, semiotics, literary theory, the art of the insane and popular visual riddles in his quest to decipher and interpret the significance of potential images in the history of modernism."-- Jacket.

Contents

Introduction. The 'sense of mystery' -- I. Ambiguity and indeterminacy -- II. From the origins to the classical age -- III. From the Enlightenment to Impressionism -- IV. Redon, Ensor, Seurat -- V. Gauguin, Pont-Aven and the Nabis -- VI. At the turn of the century -- VII. Cubism, Abstraction and Readymade -- VIII. In the society of images -- IX. In the company of words -- X. In the world of ideas -- XI. Between two wars -- XII. Ambiguity after Modernism -- Conclusion. Redistributions of authority.