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Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 25, No. 5, 1-19 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276408095213

Iconic Experience in Art and Life

Surface/Depth Beginning with Giacometti's Standing Woman

Jeffrey C. Alexander

Yale University

This article examines a key question emerging from the strong program in cultural sociology — can art provide a window into social life? An examination of Giacometti's Standing Woman shows that art attempts to express cultural structures via immersion into and through the material surfaces of aesthetic form. Through an analysis of the iconic significance of family photos, furniture and celebrities, the article goes on to suggest that such iconic experience remains at the basis of contemporary social life. It explains how we feel part of our surroundings, how we experience the ties that bind us to the people we know and how we develop a feeling for cultural hierarchy.

Key Words: art • culture • icons • sociology


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