[The Western World's] thinking about itself was formative for modern notions of the divisons of the world. Most European surveys of other civilizations, ...translated the cultures and artifacts of other continents into examples of past European civilizations and created metaphoric correspondences to make the strange familiar in terms of the known. Scholarly thinking now increasingly questions the binaries associated with East and West to recognize the way that these heuristic oppositions required the inevitable contrast between the Americas and Europe on the one hand, and the Levant, India, China, Japan, and Formosa on the other.
Bewußtes Distanzschaffen zwischen sich und der Außenwelt darf man wohl als Grundakt menschlicher Zivilisation bezeichnen; wird dieser Zwischenraum das Substrat künstlicher Gestaltung, so sind die Vorbedingungen erfüllt, daß dieses Distanzbewußtsein zu einer sozialen Dauerfunktion werden kann, deren Zulänglichkeit oder Versagen als orientierendes geistiges Instrument eben das Schicksal der menschlichen Kultur bedeutet.
Hogarth's complex approach was at once topical and journalistic and also one that made frequent reference to elevated artistic subject matter. One indication of this is Hogarth’s use of pictures within his pictures, in particular history paintings. These not only drive the narrative forward but establish a visual correlation between the sophisticated programme of symbols, allusions and gestures employed in Hogarth’s modern moral subjects and that found in history painting itself, then appreciated as the most intellectually and artistically rigorous of all pictorial genres.
London’s unique mixture of districts, communities and activities generated an exceptionally vibrant and diverse urban culture – one that Hogarth depicted and drew upon constantly in his art. Select a location on the map below to view works set in that area:
Witty, satirical, subversive and hugely talented, William Hogarth remains one of the most fascinating and innovative artists from the eighteenth century. This superb exhibition is the most comprehensive showing of the artist’s work in a generation and incorporates the full range of Hogarth’s work.
William Hogarth war ein englischer Maler und Grafiker der mit schneidender Satire die Gesellschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts kommentierte. Die Biographie von Hogarth ist genauso ungewöhnlich wie seine Grafiken.