Author: JOHN K.G. SHEARMAN

“Only Connect” constructs a history of Renaissance paintings and sculptures that are by design completed outside themselves by the spectator, that draw the spectator into their narrative plot or aesthetic functioning, and that reposition the spectator imaginatively or in time and space. John Shearman’s concern is mostly with anterior relationships with the viewer—that is, relationships conceived and constructed as part of a work’s design, making, and positioning.
He also proposes unconventional ways in which works of art may be distinguished from one another.