Of air pumps and teapots: Joseph Wright of Derby, John Singleton Copley and the technology of seeing
-
Bryan J. Wolf [1]
-
[1] Stanford University
Stanford University
Estados Unidos
-
- Localización: Art history: journal of the Association of Art Historians, ISSN 0141-6790, Vol. 39, Nº. 2, 2016, págs. 356-375
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
-
Resumen
When Joseph Wright of Derby painted "Experiment on a Bird in Air Pump" in 1768, he created a scene defined by outdated technology and mercantile class amusement. The air pump at the centre of Wright's painting has less to do with vacuums than it does with modern forms of representation. Wright's painting, this essay argues, provides the viewer with a primer in the politics of seeing. His figures learn about "interpretation"; how to frame the world before them, how to manage what they see. In the process, Wright's painting explores the ideological underpinnings to sight in the late eighteenth century. Perception functions for Wright as an acculturative process tied to gender formation and class identity. Wright's presenter figure -part scientist, part showman- is a surrogate for the modern artist, an individual whose authority derives from his command of the machinery of representation.
