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OverviewSpiritualism emerged in western New York in 1848 and soon achieved a wide following due to its claim that the living could commune with the dead. In Haunted Visions: Spiritualism and American Art, Charles Colbert focuses on the ways Spiritualism imbued the making and viewing of art with religious meaning and, in doing so, draws fascinating connections between art and faith in the Victorian age. Examining the work of such well-known American artists as James Abbott McNeill Whistler, William Sydney Mount, and Robert Henri, Colbert demonstrates that Spiritualism played a critical role in the evolution of modern attitudes toward creativity. He argues that Spiritualism made a singular contribution to the sanctification of art that occurred in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The faith maintained that spiritual energies could reside in objects, and thus works of art could be appreciated not only for what they illustrated but also as vessels of the psychic vibrations their creators impressed into them. Such beliefs sanctified both the making and collecting of art in an era when Darwinism and Positivism were increasingly disenchanting the world and the efforts to represent it. In this context, Spiritualism endowed the artist's profession with the prestige of a religious calling; in doing so, it sought not to replace religion with art, but to make art a site where religion happened. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Charles ColbertPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.680kg ISBN: 9780812243253ISBN 10: 0812243250 Pages: 336 Publication Date: 07 June 2011 Audience: College/higher education , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction: The History and Teachings of Spiritualism Chapter 1. Who Speaks for the Dead? Chapter 2. Reenchanting America Chapter 3. Revelations by Daylight Chapter 4. Ghostly Gloamings Chapter 5. Land of Promise Chapter 6. Romantic Conjurations Chapter 7. The Critic as Psychic Chapter 8. Lessons in Clairvoyance Postscript Notes Selected Bibliography Index AcknowledgmentsReviewsCharles Colbert offers a welcome examination of the nineteenth-century intersections of American art and Spiritualism. An original and substantial contribution in an area that has long been ripe for this kind of focused scholarly attention. -Leigh Eric Schmidt, Harvard University Author InformationCharles Colbert teaches American art history at Portland State University. He is the author of A Measure of Perfection: Phrenology and the Fine Arts in America. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |