Naturbilder / Images of Nature – serie

Das Buch zeigt erstmals auf, wie die unsichtbare Pflanzenseele in Kunst, Film, Tanz und Wissenschaft Frankreichs dargestellt und mit religiösen und biologischen Konzepten vermischt wurde. Die Bandbreite der Visualisierungen reicht von romantischen Personifikationen im frühen Film über fleischfressende zoomorphe Monster bis zu Ornamenten bei František Kupka und Loïe Fuller, die Pflanzenbewegungen zu einem abstrakten Dynamismus stilisierten. Auch der neu erfundene Zeitrafferfilm zeigt das langsame Leben der Pflanzen beschleunigt und schreibt ihnen so Willen und Ausdruck zu. Die Kunst- und Bildgeschichte der postevolutionären anima vegetativa verdeutlicht, dass der vegetabile Animismus Konzeptionen von Natur, Wahrnehmung und Wirkmacht hinterfragt und damit auch den Sonderstatus des Menschen.

The natural genesis of stone is particularly suitable as a production paradigm of mimicking art; examples are rock and coral formations, or the veins in marble, that are an expression of the forces of natural creation. Art materials bridge the chasm between idea and execution and impact on the working process; shaping the material reveals levels of meaning in the piece and, likewise, the specific form of the material offers opportunities for generating meaning. Imitating natural materials is much more than a replacement of the material or a demonstration of one’s own artistic skills. The contributions in this book take a close look at the imitation of natural stone as artistic potential to express the interplay between natural and artificial material qualities.

As is well known, the term naturalism has carried a multitude of meanings. It generally designates the qualities of an artwork that are considered characteristic of a specific time period or movement, or even defines a stylistic epoch. However, even if considered systematically, meanings of naturalism diverge quite profoundly depending on the context of usage. What is true of all the various tendencies, methods and works is that they strive toward the imitation of nature or a heightened level of reality. This raises the question as to how techniques of pictorial description and varieties of illusionism produce knowledge. To what extent do instances of objectivity and claims to truth derive from the apparent withdrawal of artistic intervention?