The Mediatization of the Artist

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Rachel Esner, Sandra Kisters

   Pages 1-12

3. The Artist in the (Illustrated) Press

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

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   2. “At Home”: Visiting the Artist’s Studio in the Nineteenth-Century French Illustrated Press

      • Rachel Esner

      Pages 15-30

   3. Success Stories and Martyrologies: Images of Artists in Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift

      • Lieske Tibbe

      Pages 31-46

   4. “Les épisodes de la vie d’un artiste intéressent beaucoup.” The Power of the Media and How to Use It: An Exploration of Ensor’s Self-Mediatization

      • Herwig Todts

      Pages 47-59

   5. Artists’ Confessions to Tériade in L’Intransigeant, 1928–1929: The Construction of a Public Image

      • Poppy Sfakianaki

      Pages 61-78

   6. Life’s Pioneer Painters: Dorothy Seiberling and American Art in Life Magazine, 1949–1968

      • Melissa Renn

      Pages 79-95

4. The Artist in Documentary and Art-House Film

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 97-97

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   2. Creative Process and Magic: Artists on Screen in the 1940s

      • Pierre Saurisse

      Pages 99-113

   3. COBRA, Canvas, and Camera: Luc de Heusch Filming Alechinsky and Dotremont at Work

      • Steven Jacobs

      Pages 115-129

   4. In Bed with Marina Abramović: Mediatizing Women’s Art as Personal Drama

      • Marcel Bleuler

      Pages 131-145

   5. Art and Aisthesis in Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio

      • Marco de Waard

      Pages 147-163

   6. Interviewing the Artist: Richter Versus Bacon

      • Sandra Kisters

      Pages 165-180

5. The Artist in the Popular Imagination

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181

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   2. The Myth of the Artist in Children’s Illustrated Literature

      • Laura Bravo

      Pages 183-196

   3. A Physiology of the Inglorious Artist in Early Nineteenth-Century Paris

      • Kathryn Desplanque

      Pages 197-214

   4. Mythologies of the Artist in Modern India: Cinema, Melodrama, and Ravi Varma

      • Niharika Dinkar

      Pages 215-232

   5. Mediated Art History in Biopics: The Interplay of Myths and Media in Pollock

      • Doris Berger

      Pages 233-249

   6. The Glory of the Artist

      • Alain Bonnet

      Pages 251-262

This book offers trans-historical and trans-national perspectives on the image of “the artist” as a public figure in the popular discourse and imagination. Since the rise of notions of artistic autonomy and the simultaneous demise of old systems of patronage from the late eighteenth century onwards, artists have increasingly found themselves confronted with the necessity of developing a public persona. In the same period, new audiences for art discovered their fascination for the life and work of the artist. The rise of new media such as the illustrated press, photography and film meant that the needs of both parties could easily be satisfied in both words and images. Thanks to these “new” media, the artist was transformed from a simple producer of works of art into a public figure. The aim of this volume is to reflect on this transformative process, and to study the specific role of the media themselves. Which visual media were deployed, to what effect, and with what kind of audiences in mind? How did the artist, critic, photographer and filmmaker interact in the creation of these representations of the artist’s image?

• Visual Media
• Illustrated Press
• New Media
• Artist Image
• Artists and Popular Media

“Esner and Kisters do an excellent job of presenting different artists battling different issues throughout their media careers. A lot like detectives, they piece together all the clues from history to show what happened, and why many of these major events led to the next mediation of the artist. Readers might find themselves asking similar questions throughout each case. … Overall, anyone’s objections to life and media might change after reading this book.” (Courtney Patterson, CBQ Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 51 (1-2), January-June, 2019)

• University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Rachel Esner

• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

  Sandra Kisters

Rachel Esner is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is a specialist in nineteenth-century French art and photography. Her research focuses on the artist’s studio and the emergence of the artist as a public figure. Among others, she is co-editor of Hiding Making – Showing Creation: The Studio from Turner to Tacita Dean (2013).

Sandra Kisters is Head of Collection and Research at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her research focuses on the (self-)representation of the modern artist. Her publications include the edited volume Hiding Making – Showing Creation: The Studio from Turner to Tacita Dean (2013), and The Lure of the Biographical: On the (Self)-Representation of Modern Artists (2017).

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