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Modern art in America. 1908-68 / William C. Agee.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London : Phaidon Press Limited, 2016Publisher: ©2016Description: 351 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 30 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0714869341
  • 9780714869346
Subject(s): Summary: 'As art in the US gained international attention after 1945, earlier American art was cast off by critics and curators as a kind of demented uncle, in favour of establishing a more elevated pedigree, a celebrated cast of exalted European artists – but more was owed to American art prior to 1945 than anybody understood, or cared to admit. The primary aim in this book is to develop a sense of integration of all facets of American art, and to stress the continuities and connections within it during these years, all but overlooked until now. For the first time, essential aspects of the history of modernism in America, usually treated piecemeal, and seldom if ever connected, will be thoroughly integrated.'
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 709.73 AGE Available T00605414
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A radical re-evaluation of American modernism

The importance of American artists in the history of modern art is well-known and well-documented, from Jackson Pollock to Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol. However, the work of such artists did not spontaneously appear after World War II, nor was it simply transplanted from Europe. There is a longer, subtler history of the development of modernism in relation to American artists, as well as teachers, patrons and collectors, which can be traced through the first half of the twentieth century.

William C. Agee's analysis includes artists working in the first half of the century, such as Arthur Dove, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe, and John Marin, as well as a discussion of the continuity between this period and the artists who went on to become celebrated internationally, such as Arshile Gorky, Edward Hopper, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, Morris Louis, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Donald Judd.

Agee also integrates the work of certain European artists who became central to modern American art. Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian as well as Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann became influential teachers (and eventually American citizens), impacting strongly on the likes of Stuart Davis and many others, who have not necessarily been compared or connected to the European art canon previously.

As a radical re-evaluation of art history from the early twentieth century to the late 1960s, this brilliant new account of American modernism is a must-read for students and scholars of art as well as all those interested in modernism and its wider cultural history.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

'As art in the US gained international attention after 1945, earlier American art was cast off by critics and curators as a kind of demented uncle, in favour of establishing a more elevated pedigree, a celebrated cast of exalted European artists – but more was owed to American art prior to 1945 than anybody understood, or cared to admit. The primary aim in this book is to develop a sense of integration of all facets of American art, and to stress the continuities and connections within it during these years, all but overlooked until now. For the first time, essential aspects of the history of modernism in America, usually treated piecemeal, and seldom if ever connected, will be thoroughly integrated.'

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