Lives of the artists / by Dennis Vannatta.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vannatta, Dennis P.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Short stories, American--20th century.

Short stories, American.

Genre:

Short stories, American.

Physical Description:

134 pages : portrait ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

[Livingston] : Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama, [2003]

Summary:

Throughout this collection, Dennis Vannatta distills art and storytelling into their core matter -- the human comedy. Vannatta also peppers in his own authorial persona, with anachronistic forays into the Vietnam War, pushing the envelope of storytelling to encompass the entire collection. The stories themselves run from the first cave artist and cave storyteller, who must tell a captivating tale or be assassinated, through a modern aluminum siding salesman obsessing over a lovely art historian and winding up trapped on an academic panel discussing Mona Lisa after the historian slyly hands him her name tag, promising to meet him at the panel. This salesman, too, must weave a story or lose -- not his life certainly, but all self-respect. Both caveman and salesman contrast the illusory stillness of visual art with the illusory movement of storytelling by injecting emotion into their stories, to eventually find redemption. Just so, Vannatta's persona injects Vietnam throughout this collection as if to say that storytelling can move to heal even the grossest of wounds: war.

Contents:

Lasqaux 1

The Bronze Charioteer 11

The Flagellation of Christ 16

The Real Mona Lisa 21

The David of Michelangelo 31

Amsterdam 35

Solo Goya 43

A Bar at The Folies-Bergere 50

In Renoir's La Balancoire 56

Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair 65

Still 71

The All-Night Cafe 79

Our Sentimental Education 85

I and the Village of Rockaway Park 95

Monet in the Orangerie 111

Pablo and Andre Go Night Fishing at Antibes 117

A Brief Reading of Pollock's Lavender Mist 123.

ISBN:

1931982104

1931982112

OCLC:

52143003