The art of Bill Viola / edited by Chris Townsend.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Townsend, Chris.

Viola, Bill, 1951-2024.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Viola, Bill, 1951-2024--Criticism and interpretation.

Viola, Bill.

Viola, Bill, 1951-2024.

Video art.

Installations (Art).

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

223 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Thames & Hudson, [2004]

Summary:

Video and installation artist Bill Viola is one of the most popular artists in the world today. Significantly, at a time when an artist's importance is often conferred by small groups of experts and cognoscenti, Viola's rich imagery touches a nerve with large international audiences. His is an art of everyman; work that is profoundly spiritual and never afraid to make the big statement. That statement is often about human life and its relation to the universe, to the soul and human spirit, to nature and to death. Viola is one of those rare artists whose work makes us aware of our nature as human beings. He returns art to what were once its fundamental concerns; he gives it a relevance to the emotional and spiritual lives of ordinary people. But Viola's art is also an art of our own time: despite his interest in "old-fashioned" values, this work is produced with the most innovative, most modern of media. The technological apotheoses of modern image making -- high speed film, high-definition video, the LCD screen, sophisticated recording -- are put to use in ways that challenge the prevailing intellectual and artistic traditions of the last one hundred and fifty years. In this volume eminent critics examine the scope of the artist's creations in an extensive appraisal of his work since the 1970s. Their themes include the relationship of Viola's art to the religious traditions of both Asia and Europe, the use of space as metaphor within his installations, the use of sound in his work, and the impact of his exhibitions upon other artists. These essays demonstrate Viola's uniqueness and importance as an artist of enduring, international reputation, and for the first time allow us to properly assess his place within art history.

Contents:

Introduction: Call Me Old-Fashioned, But...: Meaning, Singularity and Transcendence in the Work of Bill Viola / Chris Townsend 6

Chapter 1 Piercing to Our Inaccessible, Inmost Parts: The Sublime in the Work of Bill Viola / Cynthia Freeland 24

Chapter 2 Space, Time, Video, Viola / Otto Neumaier 46

Chapter 3 On The Anticipation of Responsibility / Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield 72

Chapter 4 Spirit and Medium: The Video Art of Bill Viola / David Morgan 88

Chapter 5 Telling Times: Revisiting The Greeting / Jean Wainwright 110

Chapter 6 In My Secret Life: Self, Space and World in Room for St. John of the Cross, 1983 / Chris Townsend 124

Chapter 7 The Frequency of Existence: Bill Viola's Archetypal Sound / Rhys Davies 142

Chapter 8 Something Rich and Strange: Bill Viola's Uses of Asian Spirituality / Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis 160

Chapter 9 Screening Angels: The Messenger, Durham Cathedral, 1996 / David Jasper 180

Chapter 10 Knocking At A Foreigner's House: When the Russian Art Community Met Bill Viola / Antonio Geusa 196.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0500284725

OCLC:

55917902