Arthur Dove: A Retrospective

In collaboration with William C. Agee and Elizabeth Hutton Turner The American artist Arthur Dove (1880-1946), purportedly the first artist to have produced an abstract painting, has always occupied a central place in writings on early American modernism. This book accompanies the first major exhibition on Dove since 1974. The exhibition, organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Phillips Collection, covers the period from 1908, the year after Dove took up painting, through 1946, the year of his death. It is comprised of approximately eighty paintings, collages, pastels, and charcoal drawings. Along with Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin, Dove was touted for more than three decades by photographer and dealer Alfred Stieglitz as an American original, one whose work was prescient in its opposition to the materialism of a newly industrialized America. Essays by Balken, Agee, and Turner discuss Dove's interactions with Stieglitz and others in his circle, including O'Keeffe, Marin, Marsden Hartley, and Paul Strand, and re-examine Dove in the context of early twentieth-century intellectual and cultural history. The book contains color plates of all the works in the exhibition; the essays are profusely illustrated with black-and-white images not included in the exhibition. Apart from an out-of-print catalogue raisonné, this book is the largest and most comprehensive publication to date on Dove's work. Copublished with the Addison Gallery of American Art in association with the Phillips Collection

Arts & Photography

Phillips Collection

Agee, William C.

Balken, Debra Bricker

Addison Gallery of American Art

Turner, Elizabeth Hutton

Phillips Academy

Dove, Arthur Garfield

Individual Artists

Mit Pr

A sumptuous catalogue that traces the evolution of a uniquely American aesthetic identity From the 1850s to the 1950s, American art and culture progressed from provincial status to international prominence, and American art transitioned from figurative depictions of the particular to abstract interpretations of universal ideals. This beautiful book chronicles this complex century of maturation through a selection of paintings from the extraordinary collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art. Coming of Age begins with Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, and the Hudson River School landscapes that embody the new nationalism of mid-nineteenth-century America. Their successors, Luminists like Jasper Cropsey and Fitz H. Lane, infused their immediate surroundings with glowing light and crystalline clarity, while contemporary Barbizon-influenced tonalists, such as George Inness, sought to capture the American ethos through an emotional, atmospheric landscape language. In the later 19th century, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and Eastman Johnson depicted native subjects through the lens of realism. Childe Hassam and Maurice Prendergast brought Impressionist aesthetics to America, while expatriates including John Singer Sargent and James McNeil Whistler established themselves in European art capitals. In New York, turn-of-the-century Ashcan school painters captured the gritty cityscape that would later host champions of modernism Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, and Marsden Hartley. In the 1930s, European-trained artist Josef Albers introduced a generation of American painters to new theories of color and space from which emerged the breakthrough Abstract Expressionists. By the 1950s, American art had come of age, as Americans securely held the vanguard position in the international art world.

Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s

Faxon, Susan C.

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

A new examination of the art and influence of artist John Graham and his circle, whose works and ideas contributed to the advancement of American modernism in the interwar period The enigmatic and charismatic John Graham (1886–1961) was an important influence on his fellow New York artists in the 1920s through 1940s. Graham and his circle, which included Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, and Willem de Kooning, helped redefine ideas of what painting and sculpture could be. They, along with others in Graham's orbit, such as Jackson Pollock and David Smith, played a critical role in developing and defining American modernism. American Vanguards showcases about eighty-seven works of art from this vital period that demonstrate the interconnections, common sources, and shared stimuli among the members of Graham's circle.
Three essays by notable scholars investigate the complex relationships among Graham and his New York artist-colleagues during this formative period. William C. Agee positions Graham and his circle within the movement of New Classicism, which drew upon classical and Renaissance examples in an attempt to overcome the devastation of World War I. Irving Sandler focuses on the social, political, and intellectual dynamics among Davis, Gorky, Graham, and de Kooning in the mid-1930s. Karen Wilkin discusses the circumstances that brought these artists together, their common commitment to modernism, and the fascinating artistic cross-fertilization evident in their work. This critical reconsideration sheds new light on the New York School, Abstract Expressionism, and the vitality of American modernism between the two world wars.

American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, and Their Circle, 1927-1942 (Addison Gallery of American Art)

Wilkin, Karen

SANDLER, Irving

Jacob Kainen

Thames&Hudson

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.

Modern Art in America 1908-68

Phaidon Press

A radical re-evaluation of American modernism through four generations of artists and their work – now in paperback.
"That rarity of rarities, an opinionated but not eccentric scholarly history by a veteran museum curator whose every page crackles with original thinking and bears the stamp of a preternaturally sharp eye? Excellent reproductions and crisp typography complement the lucid prose." —Wall Street Journal
Twentieth-century art in America has long been understood in two very separate distinct halves: pre-World War II, often considered as inferior and provincial; and the triumphant, international post-war work that made a complete break with everything that went before. Agee discovers exciting new connections between artists and artworks, which strongly suggest that 1945 was not such a dividing line in art history after all. His fresh research offers an innovative approach and a brilliant take on art history.

The American Collections: Columbus Museum of Art

Columbus Museum of Art

The SBC Collection, formed by SBC Communications, Inc (formerly Southwestern Bell), reflects the intellectual and cultural trends that have influenced artists working in the United States during the 20th century. Works by many of the leading names in American art are illustrated in this book, which also contains 13 essays by scholars, critics and curators to offer an understanding of American art for both the general reader and the student of art history. Beginning at the turn of the century and closing with a look at Postmodernism and the visual culture of today, the essays investigate various aspects of American Modernism. Along the way they focus on major American movements, schools and artists of the century. The book also contains a complete catalogue of the SBC Collection.

American Images: The Sbc Collection of Twentieth-Century American Art

Clarke, John R.

FAHLMAN, BETSY

Beardsley, John

Ashton, Dore

BAIGELL, MATTHEW

Larsen, Susan C.

Plagens, Peter

King-Hammond, Leslie

Quirarte, Jacinto

Sbc Communications

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

<div>The most definitive and up-to-date book on the vibrant paintings and pastels by this popular modern master, which now serves as a memorable tribute to his artistic legacy. A celebration of the work of the beloved American artist Wolf Kahn (1927-2020), this volume focuses on the vivid colors of his luscious landscapes made in oil and in pastel during the last decade of his life. The last study of Kahn's art to be produced during his lifetime, and prepared in close collaboration with the artist, this publication now serves as a memorable tribute to his remarkable talents and legacy. A refugee from Nazi Germany, Wolf Kahn immigrated to the U.S. in 1940, and after settling in New York City he studied with the influential artist and teacher Hans Hofmann. Kahn's radiant hues, tangy color contrasts, and pervasive sense of light combine realism with the discipline of color field painting and place him at the forefront of American representational artists. This richly illustrated book features a generous selection of paintings and pastels that showcase his bold, freewheeling style and feature a unique blend of realism and abstraction. During the last decade of his long and accomplished career, Kahn traded in the often-lyrical palette of his earlier landscapes for an increasingly brash and assertive chromatic vision--evidenced in electric hues ranging from acid yellow and hazard orange to saturated thalo blue. His late large-scale oils, depicting his favored subjects of barns and tree-lined fields and rivers, abound with visual energy. Art historian Sasha Nicholas puts Kahn in context with other artists and situates his late work within his broader career. William Agee, who met with Kahn for several interviews, discusses his process and most recent paintings. An illustrated chronology, with little-seen personal images, offers additional insights into the life and career of this renowned modern master.</div>

Wolf Kahn: Paintings and Pastels, 2010-2020

Nicholas, Sasha

Rizzoli Electa

Few American artists have captured painters' imaginations with the gripping force of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917). The brooding spirituality of his works, coupled with formal innovation decades ahead of its time, have long made Ryder a favourite of innovators like Jackson Pollock, Marsden Hartley, and Robert Rauschenberg. And yet, the artist's biography and practices remain elusive. A Wild Note of Longing&nbsp;- whose title is taken from a Ryder poem - takes up the challenge, bringing a new generation of scholarship to the most comprehensive collection of Ryder masterworks assembled to date. Ryder is considered a seminal artist for both the late-nineteenth-century Gilded Age and for the emerging modernism of the early twentieth century. This publication presents research from the last ten years including William Agee's recent work on Ryder's influence and context within modernism. New evidence has also debunked some of the historical myths around Ryder, such as the degree of his elusiveness and social eccentricities and the lack of deliberateness with which he experimented with colour and luminosity. New perspectives include a deep focus on Ryder from the perspective of his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. This monumental project will represent multiple voices from leaders in the field on the continuing and ever evolving relevance of Albert Pinkham Ryder on modern art.

A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art

Broun, Elizabeth

Connett Brophy, Christina

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