Painting the Dream: From the Biblical Dream to Surrealism

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The first-ever survey of the representation of dreams in Western painting, illustrated with works by more than 130 artists.

Organised by period, from the Middle Ages to the present, this intriguing and highly readable book shows how the idea of the dream, and its depictions, have changed throughout history, from the biblical dream - a communication from God - to the deeply personal dream, the lighthearted fantasy, the nightmare.

Sometimes these ideas have existed simultaneously: thus we have, only a few years apart, Raphael's limpid High Renaissance composition of Jacob dreaming his Ladder; Albrecht Dürer's watercolor of a mysterious deluge that he saw in his own slumbers; and Hieronymus Bosch's nightmarish hellscapes.

More recently, movements such as Symbolism and Surrealism have taken the dream as a primary source of inspiration, even conflating dreaming and the creative process itself. This rich vein of visionary art runs from Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, through De Chirico and Dali, down to the present - demonstrating, as Bergez reminds us, that Morpheus was a god of shape and form as well as of dreams.

AUTHOR:
Daniel Bergez is a scholar, curator, and critic whose work focuses on the relationship between painting and literature. His books in French include Literature and Painting; To Paint, To Write: The Dialogue of the Arts; The Salon and Its Artists; and Gao Xingjian: Painter of the Soul, which won the Prix Bernier of the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Bergez is also a painter whose work is regularly exhibited in France, the U.S., China, and Japan.

SELLING POINTS:
• Dreams are a topic of perennial fascination, and the artists who painted dreams and visions are among the world's most beloved, from Bosch and Bruegel to Magritte and Dali.
• This first-ever survey of dream-inspired art illustrates many of their best works alongside a highly readable and thought-provoking text, in an attractive and giftable package.
• This is a book not only for artists and art lovers, but anyone who takes an interest in dreams, whether from a psychoanalytic, mystical, or cultural perspective.

200 colour illustrations

ISBN: 9780789213136
Author: BERGEZ, DANIEL
Format: Hardcover
Publication date: 01/12/2018
RRP: $99.99
Pages: 256
Dimension: 279mm X 222mm
Imprint: Abbeville Press