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Touching the Art

Name: Touching the Art
Price: 27.00 USD
Availability: InStock

$27.00

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Description

Book Synopsis: A daringly observant memoir about intergenerational trauma, fine art, and compartmentalization from a returning Soft Skull author and Lambda Literary Award winner. A mixture of memoir, biography, criticism, and social history, Touching the Art is queer icon and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s interrogation of the possibilities of artistic striving, the limits of the middle-class mindset, the legacy of familial abandonment, and what art can and cannot do.

Taking the form of a self-directed research project, Sycamore recounts the legacy of her fraught relationship with her late grandmother, an abstract artist from Baltimore who encouraged Mattilda as a young artist, then disparaged Mattilda’s work as “vulgar” and a “waste of talent” once it became unapologetically queer.

As she sorts through her grandmother Gladys’s paintings and handmade paperworks, Sycamore examines the creative impulse itself. In fragments evoking the movements of memory, she searches for Gladys’s place within the trajectories of midcentury modernism and Abstract Expressionism, Jewish assimilation and white flight, intergenerational trauma and class striving.

Sycamore writes, “Art is never just art, it is a history of feeling, a gap between sensations, a safety valve, an escape hatch, a sudden shift in the body, a clipboard full of flowers, a welcome mat flipped over and back, over and back, welcome.”

Refusing easy answers in search of an embodied truth, Sycamore upends propriety to touch the art and feel everything that comes through.

Details

Discover the daring and observant world of intergenerational trauma, fine art, and compartmentalization with Touching the Art. As a returning Soft Skull author and Lambda Literary Award winner, queer icon and activist Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore delivers a memoir that defies boundaries. This unique blend of memoir, biography, criticism, and social history will captivate your senses while provoking deep reflection.

Delve into Sycamore's exploration of artistic striving and the confines of the middle-class mindset. Touching the Art is an intimate account of a fraught relationship with a grandmother who, after initially encouraging Mattilda as an artist, dismisses her work as "vulgar" once it embraces unapologetic queerness. With each page, you'll be drawn into the complex legacy of family abandonment and the complex interplay between art and life.

In this self-directed research project, Sycamore unravels the mystery of her grandmother Gladys's abstract artistry. Through fragments of memory and evocative storytelling, she unravels the threads of midcentury modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Jewish assimilation, white flight, intergenerational trauma, and class striving. Touching the Art invites you to witness the creative impulse in its purest form.

Prepare to embark on an unprecedented journey as Sycamore dares to challenge conventions. Art is more than just art — it encompasses a vivid history of emotions, a bridge between sensations, a sanctuary for the soul. Touching the Art offers a gateway to the unexpected, a canvas that reveals hidden truths and unexpected discoveries. It's time to embrace the provocations, to flip over the welcome mat and explore the boundless power of self-expression.

Are you ready to immerse yourself in Touching the Art? Don't miss out on this profound experience. Order your copy now and discover the transformative world where art and life intertwine.

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