American art : 1908-1947, from Winslow Homer to Jackson Pollock / edited by Éric de Chassey.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Chassey, Éric de.

Ellis D. Williams, College 1865, Endowment Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art, American--Exhibitions.

Art, American.

Art, American--20th century--Exhibitions.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

254 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 28 cm

Place of Publication:

Paris : Reunion des Musees Nationaux ; New York : distributed by Harry N. Abrams, [2002]

Summary:

Offering a fresh perspective on American art from the first half of the twentieth century, this elegant book presents approximately two hundred paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and photographs by artists such as Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ben Shahn, Paul Strand, and Grant Wood. Works by other well-known and less-familiar artists are also included, each with an individual commentary. All the works are reproduced in stunning full-color and duotone plates. The history of American art has been told almost exclusively by American writers. This new book, written mainly by French scholars, brings a new point of view to the painting, sculpture, graphic arts, and photography of the period, which begins with the scandals of the Eight and the Armory Show and ends with the advent of Abstract Expressionism. How did artists as diverse as Arthur Dove, Jacob Lawrence, and finally Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman struggle with the opposing notions of what it was to be an American artist and what it was to be part of the international history of modern art? The artists who succeeded were those who found ways to reconcile these issues, and who understood that the twentieth century was the century of Americanism. Beginning with the realist tradition, this lavish book looks at the different manifestations of the period's various movements and schools in the United States, ultimately offering a unique look at American art -- from outside America.

Contents:

Why has there been no great American art (before the triumph of abstract expressionism)? / by Éric de Chassey

The great traditions of early modern American art / by Henry Adams

The 1913 Armory Show : stakes, strategies, and reception of a media event / by Charlotte Laubard

The art of light : colors, sounds, and technologies of light in the art of the synchromists / by Pascal Rousseau

The machine between cult object and merchandise : photography and the industrial aesthetic in the United States during the interwar years / by Olivier Lugon

Harlem Renaissance : the making of a black identity / by Elvan Zabunyan

Jean Hélion and Albert E. Gallatin : one aspect of the exchanges between Europe and the United States / by Arnauld Pierre

Transferal and synthesis : American biomorphism of the 1930s / by Guitemie Maldonado.

Notes:

Catalogue of an exhibition held at Musee des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, from October 10 - December 31, 2001 and two other museums through June 23, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Ellis D. Williams, College 1865, Endowment Fund.

ISBN:

0810963639

OCLC:

49910338