University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1967. Hardcover.1st Edition. Large Octavo. 302 pp; A great book overall with sound binding and covers and a clean tight and unmarked text. Includes index, notes, and BW photos. (LL)

Karl Bitter: Architectural Sculptor, 1867-1915

Dennis, James M.

Univ Microfilms Inc

Famous for iconic images of the rural Midwestsuch as American Gothic, Politics in Missouri, and Baptism in KansasGrant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry have long been lumped together under the rubric the Regionalists. James M. Dennis offers a fresh and sophisticated look at the modernist tendencies of this trio of American painters, arguing that the individual styles of Wood, Benton, and Curry were both mislabeled and misunderstood. Revisiting the artistic and political culture of America between the World Wars, he shows that critics and ideologuesfrom Time Magazine to the Partisan Reviewpigeonholed, praised, or pilloried the Regionalists to serve their own critical intentions. Amply illustrating his argument with a thematic assortment of paintings and prints, Dennis explores the social and cultural reasons why critics, from 1930 on, consistently demanded that Wood, Benton, and Curry stop straying in their art toward modernist abstraction, caricature, or fantasy, but stick instead to rural subjects and realist styles. Conservative critics wanted inspiring, all-American imagery, not borrowings from Cubism. Radical critics called for social realism depicting the plight of the workers, even claiming that the Regionalists stylized farmers smacked of fascism. Dennis demonstrates that despite these attempts at rigid categorization, Wood, Benton, and Curry were self-defining artists who freely disregarded promotional dictates of Regionalism. In particular, Dennis discusses the artists diverse portrayals of women, from rural sunbonnet women to cosmopolitan and even erotic figures and, in some of Currys work, women exemplifying themes of social criticism and political protest. In conclusion, Dennis discards the concept of Wood, Benton, and Curry as a homogenous unit, placing them within the school of American modernism more often represented by Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Georgia OKeefe. He also shows that Sheeler, Demuth, and Hartley were themselves more consistent in painting native locales and regional themes than were the Regionalist Triumvirate.

Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Famous for iconic images of the rural Midwest—such as American Gothic, Politics in Missouri, and Baptism in Kansas—Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry have long been lumped together under the rubric the "Regionalists." James M. Dennis offers a fresh and sophisticated look at the modernist tendencies of this trio of American painters, arguing that the individual styles of Wood, Benton, and Curry were both mislabeled and misunderstood. Revisiting the artistic and political culture of America between the World Wars, he shows that critics and ideologues—from Time Magazine to the Partisan Review—pigeonholed, praised, or pilloried the Regionalists to serve their own critical intentions.

University of Wisconsin Press

Every work of art has a story behind it. In 1886 the German American artist Robert Koehler painted a dramatic wide-angle depiction of an imagined confrontation between factory workers and their employer. He called this oil painting The Strike. It has had a long and tumultuous international history as a symbol of class struggle and the cause of workers’ rights. First exhibited just days before the tragic Chicago Haymarket riot, The Strike became an inspiration for the labor movement. In the midst of the campaign for an eight-hour workday, it gained international attention at expositions in Paris, Munich, and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Though the painting fell into obscurity for decades in the early twentieth century, The Strike lived on in wood-engraved reproductions in labor publications. Its purchase, restoration, and exhibition by New Left activist Lee Baxandall in the early 1970s launched it to international fame once more, and collectors and galleries around the world scrambled to acquire it. It is now housed in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, Germany. Art historian James M. Dennis has crafted a compelling “biography” of Koehler’s painting: its exhibitions, acclaim, neglect, and rediscovery. He introduces its German-born creator and politically diverse audiences and traces the painting’s acceptance and rejection through the years, exploring how class and sociopolitical movements affected its reception. Dennis considers the significance of key figures in the painting, such as the woman asserting her presence in the center of action. He compellingly explains why The Strike has earned its identity as the iconic painting of the industrial labor movement.

Robert Koehler’s The Strike: The Improbable Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest (Studies in American Thought and Culture)

A monograph on the life and work of Grant Wood (1891 - 1942), the American Regionalist painter. First published in 1975, this edition features a new foreword by Karal Ann Marling and a new introduction. Text by James M. Dennis. 256 pages; 40 color plates + 190 b&amp;w illustrations; 11.5 x 10.5 inches. Chronology, appendix, notes, index.

Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture

Individual Artists

Univ of Missouri Pr

Studies works treating bucolic and cosmopolitan themes and compares Wood's form of regionalism to those of Thomas Hart Benton and John Stewart Curry

Grant Wood: Still Lifes as Decorative Abstractions

Elvehjem Museum of Art

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dennis, James M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dennis, James M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dennis, James M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Karl Bitter: Architectural Sculptor, 1867-1915

Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry

Renegade Regionalists: The Modern Independence of Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry

Robert Koehler’s The Strike: The Improbable Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest (Studies in American Thought and Culture)

Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture

Grant Wood: A Study in American Art and Culture

Grant Wood: Still Lifes as Decorative Abstractions