Double-edged comforts : domestic life in modern Italian art and visual culture / Silvia Bottinelli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bottinelli, Silvia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Home in art.

Families in art.

Art, Italian--20th century.

Art, Italian.

Physical Description:

x, 322 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Peeking into the home through the eyes of artists and image-makers, this book unveils the untold story of Italian domestic experiences from the 1940s to the 1970s. Torn between the trauma of World War II and the frenzied optimism of the postwar decades, and haunted by the echoes of fascism, the domestic realm embodied contrasting and often contradictory meanings: care and violence, oppression and emotional fulfillment, nourishment and privation. Silvia Bottinelli casts a fresh light on domestic experiences that are easily overlooked and taken for granted, finding new expressions of home - as an idea, an emotion, a space, and a set of habits - in a variety of cultural and artistic movements, including new realism, visual poetry, pop art, arte povera, and radical architecture, among others. Double-Edged Comforts finds nuance by viewing artistic interpretations of domestic life in dialogue with contemporaneous visual culture: the advertisements, commercials, illustrations, and popular magazines that influenced and informed art, even materially, and often triggered the critical reactions of artists. Bottinelli pays particular attention to women's perspectives, discussing artworks that have fallen through the cracks of established art historical narratives and giving specific consideration to women artists: Carla Accardi, Marisa Merz, Maria Lai, Ketty La Rocca, Lucia Marcucci, and others who were often marginalized by the Italian art system in this period. From sleeping and bathing, chores, and making and eating food to the arrival of television, Double-Edged Comforts provides a fresh account of modern domesticity relevant to anyone interested in understanding how we make sense of the places we live and what we do there, showing how art complicates the familiar comforts and meanings of home."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Depicting the Italian Home: History of an Idea and an Experience from the 1940s to the 1970s

ch. 2 Bed Stories: Sleep, Eros, and Violence in the Domestic Space

ch. 3 Purifying, Beautifying, and Intimidating: Visual Interpretations of Domestic Bathing and Body Care

ch. 4 The Home as a Site of Labour: Housekeeping in Italian Art and Visual Culture

ch. 5 Cooking, Feeding, and Dining: Weaving Relationships around the Table

ch. 6 Representations of the Television at Home: Voices from the Outside.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0228004101

9780228004103

OCLC:

1143621289