Art and the Home: Comfort, Alienation and the Everyday
- Submitting institution
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Coventry University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 11596124
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
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- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Academic
- ISBN
- 9781780762005
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- January
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- There has been limited critical writing exploring the role of the home in post-war Western art. Art and the Home: Comfort, Alienation and the Everyday is an illustrated monograph of c 80,000 words, and was the first single-authored book on the subject. The book provides a thematic investigation into how Western post-war artists interpreted the physical and emotional engagement they have with the home.
The research involved mapping, analysing and synthesising a disparate and complex range of archival and primary research materials from an array of different libraries and archival collections from around the country including the Henry Moore Institute, Tate archive and library, National Art Library and archive, viewing the works in galleries and exhibitions, and discussing them with curators and the artists.
A theme-led discussion is provided on how the physical experience of the dwelling space and the psychological complexities of the domestic are manifested in art, focusing mainly on sculpture, installation and object-based practice; discussing the work and ideas of artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Gordon Matta-Clark, George Segal and Cornelia Parker. Case studies bring together and illustrate new ideas within relevant cultural and social frameworks, providing links between art and the everyday
The study has proven to be influential in a variety of disciplinary fields intersecting in the home, including cultural studies and criminology, memory studies, dance and performance, and LGBTQ studies. It has led to talks at the Freud Museum and the Royal College of Art.
The monograph includes summaries and citations of research carried out by Racz involving analysis of specific works that make up a small part of the corpus of study here, appearing in articles and chapters of their own, including some published prior to 2014. These are in-depth studies of Cragg (2009), Landy (2012), Parker (2013), and Chadwick (2020). This material amounts to 10 pages of the monograph and serves only to locate them in the thematic survey that underpins the original research undertaken for this output, e.g. on Bourgeois, Hatoum, Schneider and Matta-Clark.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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