Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery

by Jeanette Winterson

Paperback, 1997

Status

Checked out

Genres

Nonfiction

All Topics

Publication

Vintage (1997), 208 pages

Description

Jeanette Winterson argues in this collection for the importance of art in all our lives. In ten intertwined essays, the acclaimed author of such recent novels as Written on the Body and Art & Lies proposes art as an active force in the world - neither elitist nor remote, available to those who want it and affecting even those who don't.An act of courage and effrontery, a uniquely human endeavor that defies time and differences, art offers new realities, emotions and worlds to anyone prepared to meet the demands it places on us. Art objects to the lie that life is small, fragmented and mean. Art objects to the myth of inevitable decay. Winterson's eloquent vision of objecting, transforming, exuberant art is presented in pieces on painting, autobiography, style and the future of fiction. She also declares her admiration for Modernism and examines the writing of Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein. More personally, she confronts the current fascination with the writer's life or sexuality instead of the work itself, and describes her relationship to her own fiction.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member woctune

The title essay is outstanding. An excellent argument for the importance of art.

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LibraryThing member DawnFinley

Jeanette Winterson has a lot of nerve. She sees herself and her work as a sort of logical next step in the development of literary modernism. The essays in this collection are a way of explaining this lineage, and reveal her physical, lyrical, visceral attachments to language, books, art. Her way

of writing about Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein is unlike anything one usually finds when looking at "criticism"; it's more personal, more intuitive, than that. If you are a devoted fan of her fiction, this collection is worth reading for the ways it illuminates (and sometimes obscures) the way Winterson approaches her art. If you care about the way we experience the aesthetic, the ways we think about and engage with art of all kinds, you won't be disappointed by this read. You may disagree with her, and may find her, well, effrontery rather incredible, but the richness of her prose and the strength of her insight are worth the effort.

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LibraryThing member viviennestrauss

For the most part, I really loved. this book and it makes me want to be a less lazy reader and challenge myself more with my choices. Much to think about here though at times I found her to be rather pretentious and annoying.

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