Mieke Bal est une théoricienne littéraire et une historienne culturelle et artistique néerlandaise dont le travail s'étend de l'Antiquité biblique et classique à l'art et à la littérature contemporains. Elle prône une approche interdisciplinaire qu'elle nomme « analyse culturelle », reliant les sciences humaines et sociales. Au-delà de ses nombreuses publications théoriques, Bal est également une vidéaste créant des documentaires sur la migration et des fictions théoriques exposés internationalement. Son travail intègre systématiquement la recherche académique à la pratique artistique, s'étendant à son rôle de commissaire d'exposition indépendante.
In Exhibition-ism, theorist and artist Mieke Bal develops the idea that exhibiting is a significant form of the contemporary.In an exhibition, visitors are in the actual company of artworks that can perform. This essay considers recent shows of Bal's own video work, and is framed by observations on contemporary sculpture's response to classics of the form. Looking at art as process, Bal makes the case that the being-together-in-time of an exhibition visit encourages and, if the curation is well thought-out, can heighten the sense of the contemporaneity—art being more capable of this than anything else.
A major survey of Dame Laura Knight, first female Royal Academician and popular British artist of the 20th century.Laura Knight (1877–1970) was one of the most famous and popular English artists of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, in 1965. In the following decades her realist style of painting fell out of fashion and her work become largely overlooked. A new generation has rediscovered her work, finding a contemporary resonance in her depictions of women at work, of people from marginalized communities and her contributions as a war artist.This beautifully illustrated book, which accompanies a major exhibition at MK Gallery, provides an overview of Knight's illustrious from her training at Nottingham Art School at the age of 13 and her time in North Yorkshire and Cornwall, to her visits to traveller communities and a segregated American hospital. It also features her circus, ballet and theatre scenes, paintings of women during the war and her late paintings of nature.The selection of over 160 works combines celebrated paintings with less known graphic and design works, including ceramics, jewellery and costumes that reflect the artist's enduring interest in the everyday activities of people from all walks of life.
"This is the third and final part of the project 'We all laughed at Christopher Columbus', is published by Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam and Platform Garanti CAC, Istanbul." --back
Acts of exposure are crucial in cultural studies, as Mieke Bal explores the processes of presenting and revealing the 'truth' behind various cultural objects, from art to literature. The book examines how the rhetoric of persuasion in the humanities claims truth through distinct display conventions. Bal highlights the often concealed structures of power and authority that influence our perception of cultural narratives, urging readers to critically engage with the underlying dynamics of representation and interpretation.
This book emphasizes the importance of production politics, or struggles in the workplace between workers and their employers, for understanding migrant labour regimes in Asia and the Gulf. Drawing from a study of Bangladeshi construction workers in Singapore, as well as on comparative material in the region, Bal shows that migrant labour politics are significantly influenced by the specific form of production politics as well as their variable outcomes. In contrast to contentious politics approaches, this book sheds light on the extent to which migrant labour regimes can be contested by workers and civil society groups and explains the recent rise in migrant labour unrest in the region.
Reading Rembrandt: Beyond the Word Image Opposition explores the potential for interdisciplinary methodology between literature and visual art. In a series of close analyses of works by Rembrandt works whose attribution is still challenged, but can still be considered within the context of this study-and texts related to those works, Mieke Bal questions the traditional boundaries between literary and visual analysis. Bal also studies Rembrandt's complex handling of gender and the representation of women in Rembrandt's painting. Although Reading Rembrandt's methods originate outside the history of art, it demonstrates nonetheless the author's sensitivity to the visual aspect of Rembrandt's work. The works by Rembrandt gain in depth and interest, but an original perspective of the role of visuality in our culture emerges, which ultimately has consequences for our views of gender, the artist, and the act of reading.
The book emphasizes the importance of grounding interdisciplinarity in the humanities in conceptual frameworks rather than strictly in methodologies. Bal argues that this approach is not only necessary but also invigorating and significant for the field. By prioritizing concepts, the work seeks to redefine how interdisciplinary studies can be effectively pursued and understood in the humanities.
An early icon of feminist art history, the work of Artemisia Gentileschi has been largely obscured by the sensational details of her life. In this volume the contributors attempt to give a more balanced view & to approach a genuine appreciation of Artemisia's considerable artistic talents.
A readable and absorbing volume of annotated essays illustrating the approach of Mieke Bal to story-telling. Essays include reflections and background on methodology, theory of narrative, and examples of how narratology unmasks the meaning behind texts from the world's great story-tellers
Since its first publication in English in 1985, Mieke Bal's Narratology has become a classic introduction to the major elements comprising a comprehensive theory of narrative texts. In this second edition, Professor Bal broadens the spectrum of her theoretical model, updating the chapters on literary narrative and adding new examples from outside the field of literary studies. Some specific additions include discussions on dialogue in narrative, translation as transformation (including intermedia translation), intertextuality, interdiscursivity, and the place of the subject in narratology. Two new chapters, one on visualization and visual narrative with examples from art and film and the other an examination of anthropological views of narrative, lead Bal to conclude with a re-evaluation of narratology in light of its applications outside the realm of the literary.
