Harnett, Haberle, and Peto: Visuality and Artifice among the Proto-Modern Americans

Abstract

The exquisite trompe-l'oeil canvases of these late nineteenth century Americans are typically read as documents of Americana in the still-life tradition. However, their works raise issues about the limits of visual representability, shared by the later modernist practices of Cubist collage and conceptual art, and lend themselves to a semiotic reading because of their investigation of the relations between signification and reference.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Johanna Drucker

Johanna Drucker, a specialist in modern art and critical theory, has recently completed The Visible Appearance of the Word, a book dealing with experimental typography, structural linguistics, and modern art practices between 1909 and 1923 [Columbia University, New York, N.Y. 10027].