COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
The Mirroring of Meaning in Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Quadri Specchianti
Creator:
Angeletti, Giordano
Subject:
Thesis (M.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
Italian painter Michelangelo Pistoletto has been creating his series, the Quadri Specchianti, from the early 1960s to the present time. These works are polished stainless steel 'canvases' with an image applied onto their surfaces. Current critical approaches to understanding the work are rooted in phenomenology; most art historians deemphasize the importance of the Quadri Specchianti’s visual component, focusing primarily on the unifying element of the mirrored surface and its interaction with the viewer. While the relationship of the
viewer with the mirror is a key aspect of the work, the status of the work as icon, or "sign," is overlooked by scholars due to the images’ heterogeneous nature. My approach employs cinema studies’ concept of ‘genres’ constructing a theoretical approach that groups the images into meaningful subsets and interprets the paintings as linguistic signs or metaphors so that they can be interpreted. The four proposed ‘genres’ include: the mundane, the ordinary people, the political, and the art historical. The mundane works, which are the closest to pure phenomenological events, represent objects of little emotional valence that interact with the viewers’ perception of realistic images. The ordinary people genre situates the viewer in the
same frame the viewer with everyday individuals. The poignancy of this group is rooted in a lack of intimacy and connection between the ordinary figures and the viewers. The political genre brings the viewers into proximity with socially and politically charged scenes questioning the opinions held by the viewers. The art historical genre is intimately concerned with the Western visual vocabulary and its traditions. Understanding Pistoletto’s Quadri as icons reveals that these artworks go beyond the phenomenological aspect of the mirror and engage the linguistic realm.
viewer with the mirror is a key aspect of the work, the status of the work as icon, or "sign," is overlooked by scholars due to the images’ heterogeneous nature. My approach employs cinema studies’ concept of ‘genres’ constructing a theoretical approach that groups the images into meaningful subsets and interprets the paintings as linguistic signs or metaphors so that they can be interpreted. The four proposed ‘genres’ include: the mundane, the ordinary people, the political, and the art historical. The mundane works, which are the closest to pure phenomenological events, represent objects of little emotional valence that interact with the viewers’ perception of realistic images. The ordinary people genre situates the viewer in the
same frame the viewer with everyday individuals. The poignancy of this group is rooted in a lack of intimacy and connection between the ordinary figures and the viewers. The political genre brings the viewers into proximity with socially and politically charged scenes questioning the opinions held by the viewers. The art historical genre is intimately concerned with the Western visual vocabulary and its traditions. Understanding Pistoletto’s Quadri as icons reveals that these artworks go beyond the phenomenological aspect of the mirror and engage the linguistic realm.
Abstract:
Key words: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Quadri Specchianti, Italian, Phenomenology,
Mirrors, Film Genres, and Iconography
Mirrors, Film Genres, and Iconography
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2015-03
Format:
PDF (83 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color)