Overview

In Burning Issues Alan Krell reflects on fire's paradox through fascinating myths and biblical tales of fire, newspaper reports, diaries, children's fables, paintings, photography and film. Krell specifically examines representations of fire in the work of painters including El Greco, Millais, Magritte and Kokoschka, as well as that by modern and contemporary artists, such as Jean Tinguely, Yves Klein and Susan Hiller, who use fire as a theme in their work and performance. Questions surrounding the private and the public, the intimate and the invasive, the destructive and the redemptive, weave through this generously illustrated book.

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9781861898562

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Reviews

Moving along its varied approaches, [the book] rewards with a generous gallery of paintings and photographs, most of which are likely to be new to the reader. . . . Krell's treatment of the domesticized flame ranges widely, considering paintings of reading by candlelight and an analysis of the sexualized fires of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, for example. --The Chronicle Review What makes this brilliant book so important is not so much its subject matter as its methodology. Single subject books have been written on all kinds of topics, from tears to oysters to earwax. Many profess to be global and exhaustively encyclopedic. What sets Burning Issues apart is its author's determination to deliver on that promise. . . . There are other reasons to be excited about this book, which constantly shows us Phoenix rising with both hope and purpose from all sorts of charred ashes. --Australian Book Review

What makes this brilliant book so important is not so much its subject matter as its methodology. Single subject books have been written on all kinds of topics, from tears to oysters to earwax. Many profess to be global and exhaustively encyclopedic. What sets Burning Issues apart is its author's determination to deliver on that promise. . . . There are other reasons to be excited about this book, which constantly shows us Phoenix rising with both hope and purpose from all sorts of charred ashes. -- Australian Book Review Moving along its varied approaches, [the book] rewards with a generous gallery of paintings and photographs, most of which are likely to be new to the reader. . . . Krell's treatment of the domesticized flame ranges widely, considering paintings of reading by candlelight and an analysis of the sexualized fires of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, for example. -- The Chronicle Review

Author Information

Alan Krell was recently Associate Professor in Art History at UNSW Art and Design, Sydney, where he worked for over two decades. He now lives in London. His books include Manet and the Painters of Contemporary Life (1996), The Devil’s Rope: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire (Reaktion, 2002) and Burning Issues: Fire in Art and the Social Imagination (Reaktion, 2011).

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