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Postures: Body Language in Art

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( 94 ratings, 12 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Postures: Body Language in Art by Desmond Morris offers a fresh perspective on viewing art by analysing the body language portrayed in historical artworks. The book explores how gestures reflect the customs, social attitudes, and artistic styles of different periods and cultures. Morris examines key gestures such as the handshake, pointed foot, and glove-slap, grouping them by their intended meanings like Greetings, Status, and Threats. This insightful exploration reveals the hidden symbolism behind familiar poses and questions meanings attributed to gestures across time, unraveling new understandings of paintings by masters such as Botticelli and figures like Napoleon.
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Format: Hardback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in art history, anthropology, and cultural studies, especially those keen to explore non-verbal communication and symbolism within visual culture.

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This copiously illustrated work by the ever-provocative Morris is a pioneering and lively exploration of the importance of body language in how people understand art.

Desmond Morris, bestselling author of The Naked Ape, explores how understanding posture and body language can change the way we look at art.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Examining the body language displayed in works of art is a whole new way of looking at art. The gestures portrayed can reflect the mores of a particular period in history, the customs of a certain culture, or a fashion in artistic styles. Exploring these with masterful subtlety, celebrated artist and anthropologist Desmond Morris uncovers fascinating insights about changing social attitudes and conventions through history and around the world, finding surprising similarities as well as now rarely used gestures.

Morris selects a number of key gestures, such as the handshake, the pointed foot, or the glove-slap, and groups them by the message they are intended to convey, such as Greetings, Status and Threats. He discusses the previously unconsidered symbolism behind these. What is understood as a gang sign today may have borne a more enigmatic meaning for Botticelli. And what did Napoleon's hidden hand really mean? Postures: Body Language in Art uniquely combines the author's expertise in both art and social science, so that even the most familiar paintings are suddenly seen in a new light.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Irish Times praises Morris’s writing, highlighting that his text "sparkles with wit" and carries readers away with enthusiasm, presenting art in a completely new light.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780500022610

Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 03 October 2019

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Thames & Hudson Ltd

Illustration: 300 Illustrations, color

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 165.0mm

Height: 240.0mm

Weight: 1060g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Desmond Morris is a zoologist, ethnologist and painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is the bestselling author of The Naked Ape (1967), The Human Zoo (1969), Manwatching (1977), Body Talk: A World Guide to Gestures (1994), The Artistic Ape: Three Million Years of Art (2013) and The Lives of the Surrealists (Thames & Hudson, 2018), as well as many other titles.

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