Book Description
The cultural-historical starting point of Saint Sebastian: Or a Splendid Readiness For Death is found in Gabriele D'Annunzio's Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian: A Mystery in Five Acts, a musical play on which D'Annunzio collaborated with Debussy and in which the role of Saint Sebastian was taken by D'Annunzio's lover, the dancer Ida Rubenstein, whose transvestism in the role brought denunciations from the Church. But that is another story. Nevertheless, our Saint Sebastian is similarly arranged into five thematic focal points: Sebastian as the "exemplary sufferer" (Susan Sontag); as multifarious icon of the history of civilization; as saint, who attracts misfortune upon himself in order to avert it from others; as fetish of erotic subcultures; and as vamp and dandy, whose beauty only blossoms in its full splendor when caught in the throes of excruciating agony. A sixth thematic point sneaks in here, and Saint Sebastian is brought up to date as the great "ecstatician" of art history. Oh, and the art. Contemporary artists whose work is explored through the lens of Saint Sebastian include Ron Athey, Louise Bourgeois, Chris Burden, Francesco Clemente, Bavo Defurne, Kirby Dick & Bob Flanagan, Cerith Wyn Evans, Eikoh Hosoe, Derek Jarman, Adi Nes, Luigi Ontani, Catherine Opie, Ana Maria Pacheco, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paul Schrader, Kishin Shinoyama, Fiona Tan, Wolfgang Tillmans, Joel-Peter Witkin, and David Wojnarowicz. Hardcover, 6.5 x 7.75 in./144 pgs / 700 color and 20 b & w.
Saint Sebastian: Or a Splendid Readiness for Death FROM THE PUBLISHER
The cultural-historical starting point of Saint Sebastian: Or a Splendid Readiness For Death is found in Gabriele D'Annunzio's Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian: A Mystery in Five Acts, a musical play on which D'Annunzio collaborated with Debussy and in which the role of Saint Sebastian was taken by D'Annunzio's lover, the dancer Ida Rubenstein, whose transvestism in the role brought denunciations from the Church. But that is another story. Nevertheless, our Saint Sebastian is similarly arranged into five thematic focal points: Sebastian as the "exemplary sufferer" (Susan Sontag); as multifarious icon of the history of civilization; as saint, who attracts misfortune upon himself in order to avert it from others; as fetish of erotic subcultures; and as vamp and dandy, whose beauty only blossoms in its full splendor when caught in the throes of excruciating agony. A sixth thematic point sneaks in here, and Saint Sebastian is brought up to date as the great "ecstatician" of art history. Oh, and the art. Contemporary artists whose work is explored through the lens of Saint Sebastian include Ron Athey, Louise Bourgeois, Chris Burden, Francesco Clemente, Bavo Defurne, Kirby Dick & Bob Flanagan, Cerith Wyn Evans, Eikoh Hosoe, Derek Jarman, Adi Nes, Luigi Ontani, Catherine Opie, Ana Maria Pacheco, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Paul Schrader, Kishin Shinoyama, Fiona Tan, Wolfgang Tillmans, Joel-Peter Witkin, and David Wojnarowicz.
ACCREDITATION
Born in 1911 in Paris, Louise Bourgeois was raised in a household that famously included her father's mistress, who was also Louise's nanny. She studied philosophy and mathematics before turning to art in 1934, and over the next few years studied at various art academies and in the atelier of Fernand Léger, among others. She moved to New York in 1938 with her new husband, American art historian Robert Goldwater. Her first U.S. showing was in a print exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, and over the next 50 years, she exhibited consistently in solo and group shows. In 1982, Bourgeois was the subject of the first retrospective ever given to a woman artist at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and her work has remained in the spotlight ever since. Bourgeois, who is now in her early 90s, lives and works in New York in the house on 20th street that she and her then young family moved into in 1962.
Art & Photography
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