Journal | Venezia Arti
Monographic journal issue | 32 | 2023
Research Article | The Visual Afterlife of les gueules cassées: Artistic Reception from the Interbellum to documenta 13
The Visual Afterlife of les gueules cassées: Artistic Reception from the Interbellum to documenta 13
Abstract
The article discusses the representation of facial and bodily deformation as both a subject and an expressive means in diverse artistic media throughout the twentieth century until today. First, it wishes to provide a bibliographical overview of the recent research that delves into the problem from diverse methodologies. Second, it aims at tracing a timeline of how the imagery of ‘broken faces’, sometimes not directly related to the gueules cassées, yet persistent and recognisable, changed its use as a trope in the hands of modern and contemporary artists. Their works bear similarities in the dramatic accent on the deformation and decomposition of the body used to narrate collective trauma and a sense of confusion. Finally, the essay wishes to illustrate the complexity of this type of representation by contextualising some artworks within social and ethical contexts.
Submitted: Aug. 31, 2023 | Published Dec. 20, 2023 | Language: en
Keywords Body • Facial Mutilations • Modernism • Trauma
Copyright © 2023 Alexandra Timonina. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2023/01/006
