Six Feet Under: Autopsy of Our Relationship to the Dead

by Elisabeth Bronfen (Contributor), Bernhard Fibicher (Editor), Ann Marie Bohan (Translator)

Six Feet Under collects an international array of contemporary and historical artworks, some dating back to the sixteenth century, that take on the topic of death and decay. In art, death is a universal subject. In contemporary art, two extremes can be art either reclaims the rituals of death--which have strayed from organized religion to professional service providers and the media--and then re-presents or reconstructs them; or, it repositions the unwelcome corpse back into our field of vision, reminding us in a direct way that our physical existence continues after death. Gathering work across continents and centuries, but focusing mainly on contemporary art, this volume focuses on key themes like the burial of children (from Albert Anker to Teresa Margolles); cadavers (from Félix Vallotton to Andres Serrano); the death of the artist (from Ferdinand to Gianni Motti); and coffins (from Ferdinand Hodler to Joe Scanlan).

Genres: Art

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Elisabeth Bronfen is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Zurich and, since 2007, Global Distinguished Professor at New York University.

She did her PhD at the University of Munich, on literary space in the work of Dorothy M. Richardson’s novel Pilgrimage, as well as her habilitation, five years later, on representations of femininity and death. A specialist in the 19th and 20th century literature, she has also written articles and books in the area of gender studies, psychoanalysis, film, cultural theory and visual culture.

She is a frequent contributor for local and international news publications and broadcasts, serving as an expert on culture as well as American politics.

Reviews

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Lots of color plates and insightful text dealing with mans artistic relationship with death. This book covers a wide range of death related art- from symbolic metaphors to the nuts and bolts of “funerary art” (headstones, coffins, and such). I found the brief section about Hans Holbein’s work very interesting. The real gem of this book is the all too brief section on Ghanaian Figural Coffins.