Picasso, in retrospect

Arts & Photography

Golding, John

Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry

Penrose, Sir Roland

(from the estate of Chaim Potok)

Individual Artists

Harper&Row

Cubism: A History and an Analysis 1907-1914

History & Criticism

Harper & Row, Publishers, New York

Braque: The Late Works

Yale University Press

Visions of the Modern

Thames&Hudson

From Mondrian's bold geometric forms to Kandinsky's use of symbols to Pollock's "dripped paintings," the richly diverse movement of abstract painting challenges anyone trying to make sense of either individual works or the phenomenon as a whole. Applying his insights as an art historian and a painter, John Golding offers a unique approach to understanding the evolution of abstractionism by looking at the personal artistic development of seven of its greatest practitioners. He re-creates the journey undertaken by each painter in his move from representational art to the abstract--a journey that in most cases began with cubism but led variously to symbolism, futurism, surrealism, theosophy, anthropology, Jungian analysis, and beyond. For each artist, spiritual quest and artistic experimentation became inseparable. And despite their different techniques and philosophies, these artists shared one goal: to break a path to a new, ultimate pictorial truth. The book first explores the works and concerns of three pioneering European abstract painters--Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky--and then those of their American successors--Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still. Golding shows how each painter sought to see the world and communicate his vision in the purest or most expressive form possible. For example, Mondrian found his way into abstraction through a spiritual response to the landscape of his native Holland, Malevich through his apprehension of the human body, Kandinsky through a blend of religious mysticism and symbolism. Line and color became the focus for many of their creative endeavors. In the 1940s and 50s, the Americans raised the level of pictorial innovation, beginning most notably with Pollock and his Jung-inspired concept of action.p>Golding makes a powerful case that at its best and most profound, abstract painting is heavily imbued with meaning and content. Through a blend of biography, art analysis, and cultural history, Paths to the Absolute offers remarkable insights into how a sense of purpose is achieved in painting, and how abstractionism engaged with the intellectual currents of its time.

PATHS TO THE ABSOLUTE (HARDBACK)

Language:Chinese.Paperback. Pub Date: 1995 Pages: 368 in Publisher: Thames &amp; Hudson John Golding is one of the most highly regarded living writers on modern art. Visions of the Modern assembles a many of his most important essays: some long out of print. others first published in journals inaccessible to the average reader. still others which started life as lectures. Together they create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. A distinguished painter in his own right. John Golding taught for many years at the Courtauld Institute and at the Royal College of Art. and has held the Slade Professorship at Camidge. He ings to his scholarship a particular understanding of the way in which the giants of modernism - Picasso. Matisse. Leger. Malevich. ancusi. Duchamp and others - faced and achieved their goals and careers. And a dialogue between Golding and the philosopher Richard...

Visions of The Modern (Paperback) /anglais

In this survey of the origins and development of abstraction in twentieth-century painting, John Golding analyses the ambitions and careers of seven major artists, each of whom 'had been inspired by the fact that he was on the path to some new, ultimate pictorial truth or certainty, to a visual absolute'. The artists under discussion fall into two groups: the three greatest pioneering abstract painters in Europe - Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Severinovich Malevich and Vasily Kandinsky - and the four leading figures in America - Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still - who, in the 1940s and 1950s were able to endow abstraction with a new purpose and meaning. In his discussion of each artist the author has chosen key works to illustrate a visual progress on away from figurative painting; each is described and analysed in terms of colour, medium, content and scale, supplemented by a range of comparative material demonstrating stylistic influences, especially the pivotal role and impact of Cubism in general on the three European painters. This book is based on one of the series of A. W. Mellon Lectures in Fine Arts, delivered by the author at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. With its wealth of illustrations and highly perceptive insights into the historical background and the individual personalities of the painters under discussion, supplemented by quotations from their writings on art, it provides a scholarly yet accessible approach to an understanding of the content and meaning of abstract art at its best and most profound.

Paths to the Absolute : Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Newman, Rothko and Still

Gardners Books

John Golding brings to his writing the sure eye and profound sensitivity of a practicing artist. Perhaps best known for his seminal history of Cubism, Golding has long been regarded as one of the most outstanding art historians and critics of our time. This volume brings together many of his most important essays, and its publication will be celebrated not only by his admirers, but by lovers of art and language everywhere. Visions of The Modern covers a vast range of twentieth-century art, from Matisse and Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, to aspects of postwar American art. Some essays have been out of print, while others have appeared in periodicals not easily accessible to the average reader. Taken together, they establish a sustained, deeply informed account of many of the grandest moments in the art of this century. A much admired painter, Golding's unique balance of eye and mind infuses his exceedingly literate criticism. Combining a meticulousness in matters of fact with a capacity to write in a lucid, jargon-free manner, he addresses equally the sophisticated art historian, the cultural historian, and the general reader. An appendix to the volume is in the form of a dialogue between Golding and the philosopher Richard Wollheim. It provides additional insights into the origins and aims of abstract art, as well as revealing the mind of an invigorating artist at work.

University of California Press

Marcel Duchamp: The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (Art in Context)

VIKING

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Books by Golding, John