Hypnosis. Art and Hypnotism from Mesmer to the Present Day.
Catalogue of the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Nantes from October 16, 2020 to March 14, 2021.

Hypnosis. Art and Hypnotism from Mesmer to the Present Day.

Regular price €39,00 €0,00 Unit price per
N° d'inventaire 23290
Format 24 x 30.5
Détails 368 p., publisher's hardcover.
Publication Paris, 2020
Etat Nine
ISBN 9782840567929

It lulls, it frightens, it amuses. Hypnosis is not often mentioned in art histories, probably for these three reasons combined. Even though it is currently experiencing a marked revival of interest in scientific culture and popular imagination, little attention seems to be paid to the role that hypnosis has played in the field of creation, where it is nevertheless omnipresent, deliberately or unconsciously, from Gustave Courbet to Auguste Rodin, from Salvador Dalí to Andy Warhol, and even Tony Oursler. This book aims to reread, for the first time, the close links that artistic practices have maintained with a cultural history of hypnotism since Mesmer. This is another way of chronicling the devices of control and attraction exercised over the spectator in the modern age, in order to further explore the interest of artists in the modes of transmission of emotion in an altered state of consciousness. At the crossroads of several fields - art history, history of science and popular culture - this richly illustrated work shows how the search for the effectiveness of art has asserted itself throughout modernity, giving a major role to the imagination in the invention and reception of the works that fascinate us.

It lulls, it frightens, it amuses. Hypnosis is not often mentioned in art histories, probably for these three reasons combined. Even though it is currently experiencing a marked revival of interest in scientific culture and popular imagination, little attention seems to be paid to the role that hypnosis has played in the field of creation, where it is nevertheless omnipresent, deliberately or unconsciously, from Gustave Courbet to Auguste Rodin, from Salvador Dalí to Andy Warhol, and even Tony Oursler. This book aims to reread, for the first time, the close links that artistic practices have maintained with a cultural history of hypnotism since Mesmer. This is another way of chronicling the devices of control and attraction exercised over the spectator in the modern age, in order to further explore the interest of artists in the modes of transmission of emotion in an altered state of consciousness. At the crossroads of several fields - art history, history of science and popular culture - this richly illustrated work shows how the search for the effectiveness of art has asserted itself throughout modernity, giving a major role to the imagination in the invention and reception of the works that fascinate us.