Rhetoric of Purity

Mark Cheetham examines the resurgence of Neo-Platonist philosophy in France during the late nineteenth century and its critical role in the formation of the first wave of abstract painting at that time. Through analysis of the writings and art of Gauguin, Serusier, Mondrian, and Kandinsky, among others, he concludes that for these artists, purity was nothing less than the quality that painting must possess. The author also tests the desire for purity within the context of theoretical, art historical, social and political arguments that have traditionally regarded Abstraction as a methodological instrument, a means to essentialist ends, rather than as an end to itself. The influences of the philosophical tradition established by Hegel and Schopenhauer are examined in light of the development of modernism as well.Cheetham, Mark A. is the author of 'Rhetoric of Purity' with ISBN 9780521385466 and ISBN 0521385466.