A Window on the World: From Durer to Mondrian and Beyond

Description

Through more than 200 works, the representation and pictorial meaning of the window in the Western Art Since the Renaissance, the window has been both a metaphor and an essential conceptual tool in Western painting. A Window on the World seeks to thoroughly analyze the gradual changes which have occurred in the representation and pictorial meaning of the window, in particular in the course of the twentieth century. It explores the radical change in perspective whereby artists developed and offered us a "global vision", a formal perception freed from the need to imitate the objective world. The catalogue is structured into four main sections: Historical introduction, Seeing through, Grids, From the Window to the Screen. These sections include specific analysis consecrated to artists who have chosen the window as the privileged means of their artistic research or to recurrent themes such as the fascinating relationship between window and still life.

Marco Franciolli is director of the Museo Cantonale d'Arte and Museo d'Arte, Lugano. Giovanni Iovane is professor of contemporary art history at the Accademia di Brera, Milano. Sylvie Wuhrmann is director of Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne.