Book Description
Novelist and critic Jonathan Wilson clears away the sentimental mists surrounding an artist whose career spanned two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, and the birth of the State of Israel. Marc Chagall’s work addresses these transforming events, but his ambivalence about his role as a Jewish artist adds an intriguing wrinkle to common assumptions about his life. Drawn to sacred subject matter, Chagall remains defiantly secular in outlook; determined to “narrate” the miraculous and tragic events of the Jewish past, he frequently chooses Jesus as a symbol of martyrdom and sacrifice.
Wilson brilliantly demonstrates how Marc Chagall’s life constitutes a grand canvas on which much of twentieth-century Jewish history is vividly portrayed. Chagall left Belorussia for Paris in 1910, at the dawn of modernism, looking back dreamily on the world he abandoned. After his marriage to Bella Rosenfeld in 1915, he moved to Petrograd, but eventually returned to Paris after a stint as a Soviet commissar for art. Fleeing Paris steps ahead of the Nazis, Chagall arrived in New York in 1941. Drawn to Israel, but not enough to live there, Chagall grappled endlessly with both a nostalgic attachment to a vanished past and the magnetic pull of an uninhibited secular present.
Wilson’s portrait of Chagall is altogether more historical, more political, and edgier than conventional wisdom would have us believe–showing us how Chagall is the emblematic Jewish artist of the twentieth century.
Visit nextbook.org/chagall for a virtual museum of Chagall images.
Customer Reviews:
Marc Chagall.......2007-05-13
This has made a fascinating artist even more interesting; and you can understand the impact of his life on his technique!
Icon of Modernism.......2007-04-14
The reader turns the first page of this little book to see the 1929 oil on canvas painting, "Lovers" by Marc Chagall. The painting depicts a man and woman seated and embracing; the woman's head turned inward on the man's breast, while the man, an expression of calm and contentment, peers upward, watching a winged angel flying overhead, across a deep purple sky. The painting has the deep and rich signature colour of all Chagall's work, though lacks the intense emotional suffering and ambivalence that makes up so much of his oeuvre, however this painting evokes a mystical love, a true love which, in my opinion, expresses the relationship between the artist and his beautiful wife, Bella.
As part of the Jewish Encounter project, Marc Chagall by Jonathan Wilson is one contribution devoted to the promotion of Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. (One can find all these contributions here on Amazon.)
It can be observed that most of Chagall's work, according to the author, is an expression of his philosophy, his religious sensibility if you will, in the form of the "literalization of metaphors", deeply grounded in the mystical and symbolic Hasidic world and Yiddish folktales, which include in their writings the "repository of flying animals and miraculous events." (P. 13)
It is impossible to label Chagall's work as "Expressionism", but the representation of an acute imagination, coloured in fantasy, depicting highly charged religious symbols, including in several works, Christs Crucifixion in a variety of contexts. What I love about Chagall is the viewer is drawn into the work by its striking colour and busy subject matter and is compelled to study it, because the meaning of the painting must be discovered as it is not apparent on a superficial viewing.
Wilson does a wonderful job of narrating Chagall's life in terms of the major events that the artist experienced, spanning through the Russian revolution, two world wars, the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Wilson suggests that in viewing Chagall's paintings against the backdrop of these major historical events will see the artist's work as a response to them, and his personal inner conflict between his "Jewishness" and his focus on Christ's Crucifixion, and also his attempt at secularism in many of his paintings.
My favourite paintings by the artist are his various representations of love that display an ethereal, mystical quality, a sublimeness that to me captures love in their most revealing forms, as Wilson comments,
"Chagall's vision of love, so appealing to the human soul, frequently involves a merging of two faces, or bodies, into one. In this regard he is Platonic, as his figures pursue their other halves in an apparent longing to become whole again. Over and again he paints the myth that Aristophanes recounts in The Symposium." (P.174)
Chagall's life Wilson suggests was an attempt through his art at the reconciliation between two worlds, a genuine effort universalizing or merging opposites, he writes,
"In his paintings, past and present, dream and reality, rabbi and clown, secular and observant, revolutionary and Jew, Jesus and Elijah...all commingle and merge in a world where history and geography but also the laws of physics and nature have been suspended." (P. 210)
Wilson's Marc Chagall is an erudite biography and insightful critical work. Although relatively short in length, manages to capture the artist who is considered along with Picasso and Matisse, one of the icons of Modernism.
Average customer rating:
|
Jose Gutierrez Solana: Paintings and Writings
Jose Luis Barrio-Garay
Manufacturer: Olympic Marketing Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
| Arts & Photography
| Audiobooks
| Biography
| Business & Investing
| Calendars
| Children
| Computers & Internet
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Film
| Greeting Cards & Accessories
| Health, Mind & Body
| History
| Home & Garden
| Humor, Comics & Pop Culture
| Literature & Fiction
| Mysteries & Thrillers
| Nonfiction
| Parenting & Families
| Reference
| Religion & Spirituality
| Romance
| Science & Nature
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Sports
| Teens
| Travel
General
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Painting
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0838712282 |
Customer Reviews:
2005 Writers Notes Book Award Notable.......2005-04-20
Herskovic overviews American ab-stract expressionism with this hefty volume of plates. Beyond the names you'll immediately recognize (Pollack, DeKooning, Gorky, etc.) this alphabetically arranged set takes a fair and complete look, including commentary from the artists that helps to illuminate an often moody and pensive style. We like Kline's ideas on size and space and also when DeKooning says, "spiritually I am wherever my spirit allows me to be." American Abstract should be a fixture in libraries and the homes of the lovers of the form.
American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s/.......2003-12-23
American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s:
An Illustrated Survey.
OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE ~CHOICE, 2003
"This excellent publication builds on the earlier publication. It has broadened the scope to include artists from throughout the US, rectified...omission of African American artists...and concentrated on 88 artists...Excellent layout and superb photographs. Highly recommended." ~CHOICE August, 2003.
"Researchers will seek out this well designed selection.
Recommended for American art museum, academic, art school and large public libraries." ~Library Journal August 2003.
Ed. by Marika Herskovic, ISBN: 0967799414 New York School Press, 2003. Hardcover, 9 x 12 inches. 372 pages, index. 176 full-page color illustrations.
Illuminating View Through a Very Special Window.......2003-09-15
The window is the eye of a devoted scholar who rips through the red-tape and pitfalls of dealing with artist's estates, galleries and the art world in general! It takes guts and grit to create a second book of the underknown Abstract Expressionists. This volume centers on the Abstract Expressionists of the 1950's, throughout the USA. It adds 80+ artists to the first tour d'force titled, New York School Abstract Expressionists: Artists Choice by Artists. Fortunately, many of the superb African American painters are represented. Ms. Herskovic mentions in her introduction that there were NO painters of African descent in the 9th Street show or any of the artist's annuals. This shocking revelation shows just how NEW integration really is. Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff, Alma Thomas, Charles Alston, and Edward Clark are a fine quintet whose work shines through the pages of this fantastically researched volume of exceptional quality. As far as I am concerned, they are American Abstract Expressionists who just happen to be of color. Underknown Abstract Expressionist artists in the 1950's had a tough time getting known. After all, there were the meteors with names like Pollock, Rothko, Still, and de Kooning, to easily overshadow you. Not necessarily in quality, but in fame. Painters of African descent naturally had a very difficult time. America might have been avant-garde about this new art but was backward regarding equality of its people.
The West Coast is also represented by some fine painters. Elmer Bischoff, Budd Dixon, Hans Burkhardt, Richard Diebenkorn, Ernest Briggs, Hassel Smith, Richards Ruben, John Saccaro, and Robert McChesney are just a few from the West Coast!
Curators take note: This, the 2nd volume concerning the Abstract Expressionists in America, is a must have. Both volumes have to be included in your museum's library. These volumes are a researcher's dream! Plus, what great exhibitions are possible!
The size and quality of the reproductions are excellent. The book has the same 12 1/2 x 9 1/2" format as the first volume. This time, the dust jacket is gold, in nice contrast to the first volume's silver cover. There are 88 artists represented, and each has an artist's statement which is so important. The statements back-up their precious works. Listed opposite the artist's two large examples, are biographies, where the artist studied or taught, Solo Exhibitions as well as Group shows. A nice touch are the quasi-tributes to two important Fathers of Modern Art and Abstract Expressionism; There are writings by Kandinsky which are very "today", and there is an homage to Arshile Gorky, possibly the most revered American artist before Pollock(according to painters of the NY School).
This scientifically researched 372 page volume will surely be the barometer that all future studies will use.
Book Description
This landmark exhibition catalog surveys the entire career of one of the last great painters of high modernism, Franz Kline. It features over 70 major works, including paintings, drawings, sketches, and documentary material. The works included have been selected from collections from around the world with the intent of showing all of Kline's achievements, from the early figurative oil paintings of the late 1930s and 1940s to his breakthroughs in Abstract Expressionism seen in a selection of his large-scale black-and-white works. This volume traces Kline's art from its beginnings to his last painting in 1961, just a few months before the artist's death.
Kline, along with Pollock and Motherwell, was at the center of Abstract Expressionism and "action painting" in the America. This volume demonstrates in the monumental canvases, as well as in his many small-scale sketches made on paper, newspaper, and even telephone book pages, how Kline embraces gesture, experience, and emotion with direct and raw energy.
Customer Reviews:
The quintessential Ab Ex painter.......2007-04-06
A thoroughly documented catalogue with beautiful reproductions that manage to give a fair idea of the power of Kline's paintings. The size effect is lacking of course, but you do get to see a lot of nuances in the different types of blacks; you even get to distinguish the brushstrokes (rare through mere reproductions). A book worth the investment.
excellent book.......2005-10-17
Franz Kline is a painting master and this book is a definitive and complete representation. Like many abstract painters, Kline's process and spirit is as fascinating as his final works. This book shows many wonderful aspects to Kline's creative approach and (as expected) many images of his fine work. The book is thorough and inspring. I highly recommend it.
Average customer rating:
- Another equisite title to accompany a Fondation Beyeler exhibition!
|
Expressive!
Paul Gauguin ,
Markus Bruderlin ,
Donald Kuspit ,
Francis Bacon ,
Georg Baselitz ,
Max Beckmann ,
Francesco Clemente ,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ,
Edvard Munch ,
Pablo Picasso ,
Egon Schiele , and
Vincent van Gogh
Manufacturer: Hatje Cantz Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
European
| Regional
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Museums & Collections
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 3775713034
Release Date: 2003-07-02 |
Book Description
The quality of expressiveness--an outcry of the human soul against the mechanization of life--runs like a red scar through the entire history of modern art and up to the present day. If expressionism is associated first and foremost with the German contribution to Modernism, evoking the artists associated with Die Brcke (Kirchner, Heckel and Nolde) and Der Blaue Reiter (Marc and Kandinsky), but also the Austrian Schiele and Kokoshka, and the Parisian fauves, it nevertheless goes further. Beginning with the fathers of expressionism, Gauguin, van Gogh and Munch, the most important inspirations for a movement laden with emotions and endowed with the furor of rebellion, the red scar bleeds through the expressive tendencies of the interwar artists (Beckmann, Soutine and Picasso) and the postwar artists (Dubuffet, de Kooning and Bacon), and all the way to neo-expressionism (Baselitz, Lpertz, Lassnig) and 80s neo-fauvism (Clemente, Basquiat and Disler), ending with Louise Bourgeois and Bruce Nauman. In accompanying essays, philosopher and art historian Donald Kuspit sets out to trace the meaning of the term "expressive"; curator Markus Brderlin explores expressionism by looking backwards from neo-expressionism; and numerous short texts round off the exploration by focusing on individual works of art.
Customer Reviews:
Another equisite title to accompany a Fondation Beyeler exhibition!.......2005-08-16
The color reproductions are excellent, detailed text is easily read without flipping back and forth between pages, the scholarship is fine, and the book makes an excellent addition to current thoughts on expressionism. Plus, Amazon.com's discounts on fine art books are truly important in helping one build a great art library!
Average customer rating:
|
New Britain Museum of American Art: Highlights of the Collection (Prestel Art)
Laurene Buckley
Manufacturer: Prestel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Abstract Expressionism
| Schools, Periods & Styles
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Museums
| Museums & Collections
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Connecticut
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 3791320874 |
Average customer rating:
- A real Gem
- True Colors
- Five stars aren't enough.........
|
Hans Hofmann: Revised and Expanded
Sam Hunter
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Abstract Expressionism
| Schools, Periods & Styles
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Expressionism
| Schools, Periods & Styles
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Painting
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Hofmann, Hans
| ( G-I )
| Artists, A-Z
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Artists, A-Z
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Exhibition Catalogs
| Museums
| Museums & Collections
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Richard Diebenkorn
-
Willem De Kooning: Paintings 1960-1980
-
Clyfford Still
-
Hans Hofmann
-
The Paintings of Joan Mitchell (Whitney Museum of American Art)
ASIN: 0847823806
Release Date: 2006-02-14 |
Book Description
Nature's purpose in relation to the visual arts is to provide stimulus-not imitation....From its ceaseless urge to create springs all Life-all movement and rhythm-time and light, color and mood-in short, all reality in Form and Thought." -Hans Hofmann
This book is the only comprehensive treatment of one of Abstract Expressionism's most important forefathers: Hans Hofmann. Hans Hofmann attends to every stage of his prolific career. Nearly 300 gorgeous color plates reveal this modern master's extraordinary sense of color: beautifully vibrant greens, rich blues and brilliant reds organized in strikingly powerful patterns. Sam Hunter, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, writes a substantive essay on every aspect of Hofmann's distinguished body of work. Five important essays by the artist himself are included, revealing his philosophy of art which was so influential to the generations that followed him. Frank Stella, an important painter who deeply admired his work, also contributes an essay.
Customer Reviews:
A real Gem.......2007-01-17
I knew this would be a great book when I ordered it but when I received it I was overwhelmed by its quality, a slip-in hard cover and beautifully bound hard cover book inside.
It containes a large number of high quality colour plates (possibly all his work), and an excellent description of Hans Hofmann's thought processes in the introduction by Sam Hunter and as a bonus, 5 essays written by Hans Hofmann. A real asset for any artist who has an interest in the development and progression of abstract painting from the 1920's to 60's.
True Colors.......2004-11-07
This is the finest Hofmann book I have seen.
The combination of hue clarity, nuance, and sharp focus of the plates acurately recreates the space of the paintings and really lets them sing.
The brush and knifework, even the weave of the canvases are all crystal clear in the reproductions.
This solidly constructed book is a work of art in itself.
Five stars aren't enough................2002-10-03
This book deserves 7 stars. The plates are superlative, and the coloration is excellent. Coloration is a problem that plagues most books about Hofmann (among others). His use of reds and magentas can be difficult to reproduce with proper balance. Frequently, the results are that the plates appear somewhat anemic or the reds take on an exaggerated neon character that is hard on the eyes. Here, then, is a feast for the Hofmann enthusiast with nearly 300 pictures, practically all of them in exquisite color. This is an experience second only to actually viewing a Hofmann exhibit first hand. In my opinion, the plates alone make this book a worthy acquisition. But there's more.
Other particulars making this book a great addition to any bookshelf dedicated to Modern Art are five essays by Hofmann on art: "Plastic Creation", "The Search for the Real in Visual Arts", "The Resurrection of the Plastic Arts", "The Color Problem in Pure Painting" and "Sculpture". This is not to mention an excellent Introduction by Sam Hunter and wonderful essays by Tina Dickey and Frank Stella. Of course, there are the requisite features of a monograph: a brief (perhaps a little too brief, but who can complain at this point) chronology of Hofmann's life, and a selected list of exhibitions. Add to all of the above the attractive binding, a sturdy and handsome slipcase (which is what is pictured above), and what you have is a unique and appealing presentation of Hans Hofmann, his life, his work, his thoughts and his place in Twentieth Century Art.
This book is enthusiastically recommended.
Book Description
This opulently illustrated volume, featuring brilliant reproductions and illuminating commentary, spans Schiele's earliest adolescent studies, through his time at the Vienna Academy, to his early death in 1918. The works are presented in large color plates which allow readers to study closely the extraordinary quality of the artist's portraits, nudes and landscapes. This beautiful volume ffers revelatory insights into the nature of Schiele's genius, while clarifying his vision and artistic impulses.
Customer Reviews:
an amazing book.......2007-01-12
Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates Egon Schiele, especially his drawings. The absolute gem in this volume is an essay "My journey with Egon Schiele" by his friend the collector Heinrich Benesch, which offers many wonderful insights into Schiele's personality.
Amazon.com
When Abstract Expressionism burst on the American scene in the 1940s, it elbowed another kind of American expressionism off the stage. Vivid evocations of the poor and disenfranchised in paintings by Jack Levine, Bernece Berkman and many others were now seen as stodgy and unsophisticated. In American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920-1950, cultural historian Bram Dijkstra argues that a generation of important left-wing artists, many of them Jewish, were the victims of intellectual, political and corporate interests bent on promoting a brighter, shinier United States. Unfortunately, Dijkstra undercuts his thesis with a haranguing tone, unconvincing analyses of individual works, and a dated view of abstraction as inherently "anti-humanist." His sweeping denunciation of "Nordic" (i.e., white, Protestant) artists leads him to view even an heroically scaled painting of a black soldier by John Steuart Curry—a "Nordic" artist collected by the NAACP—as a racist cartoon. At the heart of this contentious volume are 233 illustrations by dozens of little-known artists united by a passion for social justice. These works can be seen in a traveling exhibition at the Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art from May 16 to August 24, 2003.—Cathy Curtis
Book Description
During the 1920s and '30s and until the end of World War II, a distinctly American form of Expressionism evolved. Most of the artists in this movement, children of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, African Americans, and other outsiders to American mainstream culture, grew up in the urban ghettoes of the East Coast or Chicago. Their art was sympathetic to the dispossessed and reflected a deep concern with the lives of working people. Providing a fascinating look at this art--and at the beginning of a new movement, Abstract Impressionism which followed it--cultural historian Bram Dijkstra offers new insights into the roots of painting in America today.
Dijkstra examines the new emphasis these socially conscious artists brought to the pursuit of the American ideals of equality, dignity, and justice for all. Provocatively he suggests that Abstract Expressionism came to be used as part of a backlash, deliberately fostered by conservative political and corporate interests, against the socially conscious Expressionist paintings and the WPA projects supported by the Roosevelt administration. Profusely illustrated throughout with works of art seldom seen today, the book coincides with an important traveling exhibition of the art of this period.
Customer Reviews:
Just excellent.......2007-01-30
An excellent compilation of a mid-century American art style. Despite the promised controversy, Dijkstra's commentaries are brilliant and quite convincing. This is certainly not a pretty or unemotional art. But what a rewarding experience.
A masterpiece!!.......2003-08-16
AMERICAN EXPRESSIONISM is a beautiful book and one could have no better guide that cultural historian Bram Dijkstra. He is passionate, articulate, intelligent and knowledgeable about his subject. I am richer and have a deeper appreciation for the world of expressionism for having experienced this fine book.
Bravo.
Book Description
“Don’t start an art collective until you read this book.” —Guerrilla Girls
“Ever since Web 2.0 with its wikis, blogs and social networks the art of collaboration is back on the agenda. Collectivism after Modernism convincingly proves that art collectives did not stop after the proclaimed death of the historical avant-gardes. Like never before technology reinvents the social and artists claim the steering wheel!” —Geert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam
“This examination of the succession of post-war avant-gardes and collectives is new, important, and engaged.” — Stephen F. Eisenman, author of The Abu Ghraib Effect
“Collectivism after Modernism crucially helps us understand what artists and others can do in mushy, stinky times like ours. What can the seemingly powerless do in the face of mighty forces that seem to have their act really together? Here, Stimson and Sholette put forth many good answers.” —Yes Men
Spanning the globe from Europe, Japan, and the United States to Africa, Cuba, and Mexico, Collectivism after Modernism explores the ways in which collectives function within cultural norms, social conventions, and corporate or state-sanctioned art. Together, these essays demonstrate that collectivism survives as an influential artistic practice despite the art world’s star system of individuality. Collectivism after Modernism provides the historical understanding necessary for thinking through postmodern collective practice, now and into the future.
Contributors: Irina Aristarkhova, Jesse Drew, Okwui Enwezor, Rubén Gallo, Chris Gilbert, Brian Holmes, Alan Moore, Jelena Stojanovi´c, Reiko Tomii, Rachel Weiss.
Blake Stimson is associate professor of art history at the University of California Davis, the author of The Pivot of the World: Photography and Its Nation, and coeditor of Visual Worlds and Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. Gregory Sholette is an artist, writer, and cofounder of collectives Political Art Documentation/Distribution and REPOhistory. He is coeditor of The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life.
“To understand the various forms of postwar collectivism as historically determined phenomena and to articulate the possibilities for contemporary collectivist art production is the aim of Collectivism after Modernism. The essays assembled in this anthology argue that to make truly collective art means to reconsider the relation between art and public; examples from the Situationist International and Group Material to Paper Tiger Television and the Congolese collective Le Groupe Amos make the point. To construct an art of shared experience means to go beyond projecting what Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette call the “imagined community”: a collective has to be more than an ideal, and more than communal craft; it has to be a truly social enterprise. Not only does it use unconventional forms and media to communicate the issues and experiences usually excluded from artistic representation, but it gives voice to a multiplicity of perspectives. At its best it relies on the participation of the audience to actively contribute to the work, carrying forth the dialogue it inspires.” —BOMB
Books:
- Mardi Gras New Orleans
- Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion
- Monet and the Impressionists for Kids: Their Lives and Ideas, 21 Activities
- Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles
- Nonverbal Communication in Human Interaction (with InfoTrac )
- North Shore Boston: Country Houses Of Essex County, 1865-1930
- Oil Pastel: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist
- Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4)
- Painting Four Seasons Of Fabulous Flowers
- Paintings in the Musee d'Orsay
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Good Morning, Gorillas
- Catfantastic 3
- The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton
- To Say Nothing of the Dog
- Young Men and Fire
- Breastfeeding and Human Lactation
- 30s: All-American Ads
- Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity
- The Luminous Brush: Painting With Egg Tempera
- Forest And Shade Trees Of Iowa
Emma Lazarus (Jewish Encounters)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel
The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews (Jewish Encounters)
Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity
A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward
