Enduring creation

About this book

"Nigel Spivey takes on one of the greatest taboos in Western culture in this original work of cultural history: why is so much pain depicted in the art of the West? Beginning with a mediation on Auschwitz, the prize-winning author then takes us on a journey that encompasses the stone-bound screams of Classical sculpture, the many depictions of the Crucifixion, the Massacre of the Innocents and St. Sebastians pierced with arrows, self-portraits of the aging Rembrandt, and the tortured art of Vincent van Gogh. Exploring the tender, complex rapport between art and pain, Spivey guides us through the twentieth-century photographs of casualties of war, Edvard Munch's The Scream, and back to the recorded horrors of the Holocaust.". "Enduring Creation reveals the amazing power of art to console, to warn, to prepare the viewer for the harsher experiences of life, raising intriguing questions: Can pain be beautiful? Do we always pity suffering? Are sainthood and sado-masochism linked? This compelling study concludes with a positive message of hope for the enduring human spirit."--BOOK JACKET.