Chinoiserie - (Studies in Design and Material Culture) by Stacey Sloboda (Hardcover)

About the Book

A critical reassessment of chinoiserie, a style both praised and derided for its triviality, prettiness, and ornamental excesses

Book Synopsis

In a critical reassessment of chinoiserie, a style both praised and derided for its triviality, prettiness and ornamental excesses, Stacey Sloboda argues that chinoiserie was no mute participant in eighteenth-century global consumer culture, but was instead a critical commentator on that culture. Analysing ceramics, wallpaper, furniture, garden architecture and other significant examples of British and Chinese design, this book takes an object-focused approach to studying the cultural phenomenon of the 'Chinese taste' in eighteenth-century Britain. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the critical history of design and the decorative arts in the period, and students and scholars of art history, material culture, eighteenth-century studies and British history will find a novel approach to studying the decorative arts and a forceful argument for their critical capacities.

From the Back Cover

In a critical reassessment of chinoiserie, a style both praised and derided for its triviality, prettiness, and ornamental excesses, Stacey Sloboda shows that it was no mute participant in eighteenth-century global consumer culture, but was instead a critical commentator on that culture. Analysing ceramics, wallpaper, furniture, garden architecture and other significant examples of British and Chinese design, this book takes an object-focused approach to studying the cultural phenomenon of the 'Chinese taste' in eighteenth-century Britain.

Demonstrating that the ornamental language of chinoiserie was mutually developed by Chinese and European artists, designers, craftspeople and merchants, this book argues against the notion that it was the product of European fantasy and ignorance about Chinese culture. Rather, chinoiserie was a product of cross-cultural exchange of European and Chinese responses to expanding commercial markets and changing ideas about design.

As a popular, commercial style whose subject was commerce, chinoiserie offered new groups of consumers opportunities for aesthetic agency. Women, long associated with the style, were one such group, and this book also pays attention to the role of men such as merchants and craftsmen in its development.

Taking an innovative look at art and cultural history, the book is essential reading for anyone interested in analysis of design and the decorative arts in eighteenth-century Britain. Students and scholars of art history, material culture, eighteenth-century studies and British history will find a novel approach to studying the decorative arts and a forceful argument for their critical capacities.

Review Quotes

'Sloboda's articulation of chinoiserie as "critical ornament," a versatile visual and material language used to express and reveal various commercial attitudes in Britain, from trading to manufacturing to buying and consuming, needs to be commended. It is an important contribution to a wider understanding of the complex nature and multi-layered meaning of chinoiserie.'
Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding, Senior lecturer in British history, Université Lille 3, The Art bulletin, CAA March 2016

'Sloboda's articulation of chinoiserie as "critical ornament," a versatile visual and material language used to express and reveal various commercial attitudes in Britain, from trading to manufacturing to buying and consuming, needs to be commended. It is an important contribution to a wider understanding of the complex nature and multi-layered meaning of chinoiserie.'
Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding, Senior lecturer in British history, Université Lille 3, The Art bulletin, CAA March 2016

About the Author

Stacey Sloboda is Associate Professor of Art History at Southern Illinois University