A free-spirited wave of creative energy swept through the San Francisco art community after World War II. Challenging accepted modes of painting, Abstract Expressionists produced highly experimental works that jolted the public out of its postwar complacency. Susan Landauer's comprehensive examination of this dynamic movement provides the first clear picture of the artists and influences that came together in San Francisco's invigorating world of Abstract Expressionism. Landauer argues that Abstract Expressionism resulted from a broad collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a small band of New York artists. Documenting the interchanges between the East and West Coasts, she cites areas of mutual influence and shows the impact of San Francisco on the New York School, including artists such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. San Francisco's Beat poets, Dixieland jazz musicians, and the area's stunning vistas were essential parts of Abstract Expressionism, as were artistic and spiritual contacts with Asia. Under Douglas MacAgy and Clyfford Still, the California School of Fine Arts became the undisputed center of vanguard abstraction on the West Coast. Artists such as Edward Corbett, Jay DeFeo, James Budd Dixon, Frank Lobdell, and Hassel Smith produced gritty, provocative images whose impact extended well beyond California. Landauer also notes the importance of Grace L. McCann Morley, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who opened the museum to major Abstract Expressionist figures, and Jermayne MacAgy, who brought local and international artists together. Enlivened by oral histories, Landauer's book is a rewarding exploration of a vital period in modern art. Richly illustrated with 96 color plates, it celebrates the energy and lasting impact of a special time.

The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism

Arts & Photography

Landauer, Susan

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Elmer Bischoff: The Ethics of Paint

Elmer Bischoff (1916–1991) is generally regarded as one of the leaders among the artists in the San Francisco Bay Area who, after contributing to the local emergence of Abstract Expressionism during the 1940s and 50s, shifted the terms of their spectacularly sensuous brushwork to recognizable imagery. Bill Berkson writes that if "David Park was the classicist of the founding triad of the Bay Area Figurative painters, and Richard Diebenkorn the modernist, Bischoff was the romantic." Designed to accompany a major retrospective of Bischoff's work, this superb volume is lavishly illustrated with duotones and color plates that faithfully capture the subtle variations in shade that characterize the painter's oeuvre. Berkson and Susan Landauer, both of whom knew Bischoff, provide the definitive view of the life, art, and teaching career of this important artist. Native to the Bay Area, Bischoff studied at the University of California under the "Berkeley School" modernists Worth Ryder, Erle Loran, and Margaret Peterson. His experience during World War II profoundly affected his view of the world and his place in it. In 1946, Bischoff joined the faculty of the California School of Fine Arts where--with colleagues Edward Corbett, Richard Diebenkorn, Claire Falkenstein, David Park, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Hassel Smith, and Clyfford Still--he found himself at the hub of avant-garde expression in the Bay Area. Throughout his career, Bischoff applied his visual intelligence and unusual personal integrity in creating a uniquely varied body of work that invites our investigation. Having interviewed many of the artist's surviving colleagues and family members, Landauer offers valuable primary documentation on Bischoff, the Bay Area Figurative School, and the cultural history of the Northern California art scene. Her lively text is supported with insightful research into the social and political background of the period. She considers Bischoff's career in relation to the European artists who influenced him, his interactions with his local contemporaries, and his reactions to the New York art scene. A useful chronology of the artist's life, a bibliography, and documentary photographs that Landauer uncovered during her research make this volume an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the artistic vision of Elmer Bischoff.

Elmer Bischoff (1916–1991) is generally regarded as one of the leaders among the artists in the San Francisco Bay Area who, after contributing to the local emergence of Abstract Expressionism during the 1940s and 50s, shifted the terms of their spectacularly sensuous brushwork to recognizable imagery. Bill Berkson writes that if "David Park was the classicist of the founding triad of the Bay Area Figurative painters, and Richard Diebenkorn the modernist, Bischoff was the romantic." Designed to accompany a major retrospective of Bischoff's work, this superb volume is lavishly illustrated with duotones and color plates that faithfully capture the subtle variations in shade that characterize the painter's oeuvre. Berkson and Susan Landauer, both of whom knew Bischoff, provide the definitive view of the life, art, and teaching career of this important artist. Native to the Bay Area, Bischoff studied at the University of California under the "Berkeley School" modernists Worth Ryder, Erle Loran, and Margaret Peterson. His experience during World War II profoundly affected his view of the world and his place in it. In 1946, Bischoff joined the faculty of the California School of Fine Arts where--with colleagues Edward Corbett, Richard Diebenkorn, Claire Falkenstein, David Park, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Hassel Smith, and Clyfford Still--he found himself at the hub of avant-garde expression in the Bay Area. Throughout his career, Bischoff applied his visual intelligence and unusual personal integrity in creating a uniquely varied body of work that invites our investigation. Having interviewed many of the artist's surviving colleagues and family members, Landauer offers valuable primary documentation on Bischoff, the Bay Area Figurative School, and the cultural history of the Northern California art scene. Her lively text is supported with insightful research into the social and political background of the period. She considers Bischoff's career in relation to the European artists who influenced him, his interactions with his local contemporaries, and his reactions to the New York art scene. A useful chronology of the artist's life, a bibliography, and documentary photographs that Landauer uncovered during her research make this volume an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the artistic vision of Elmer Bischoff.

The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture

As E. H. Gombrich once observed, the still life is compelled to challenge and at the same time perpetuate tradition. Without the elements of recognition and comparison, and the discovery of the familiar in the unfamiliar, the genre would lose most of its meaning. This lavishly illustrated volume documents the extraordinary challenges that artists in California have brought to the tradition of the still life as they have transformed and revitalized the genre over the course of the last century. In abundantly illustrated essays, as entertaining as they are informative, The Not-So-Still Life traces the great variety of media and forms these artists have engaged as they have moved the still life not just off the table, but off the wall and into three dimensions. Susan Landauer, William H. Gerdts, and Patricia Trenton investigate a range of forces and influences—whether historical, sociological, economic, psychological, or biographical—that have played into this evolution, from the plein-air Impressionism of the early twentieth century to the Synchromist bouquets of Stanton Macdonald-Wright, the revolving table settings of Charles Ray, and the electronic sculptures of Alan Rath. In doing so they deepen our understanding of American art over the last century. Presenting, interpreting, and celebrating the world-renowned and the lesser-known California artists who have uniquely defined and redefined the still life, this volume offers an exploration of the sensual pleasures, the aesthetic challenges, and the intellectual and perceptual associations of a century of art through the prism of a single genre.

Trenton, Patricia

Gerdts, William H.

As E. H. Gombrich once observed, the still life is compelled to challenge and at the same time perpetuate tradition. Without the elements of recognition and comparison, and the discovery of the familiar in the unfamiliar, the genre would lose most of its meaning. This lavishly illustrated volume documents the extraordinary challenges that artists in California have brought to the tradition of the still life as they have transformed and revitalized the genre over the course of the last century. In abundantly illustrated essays, as entertaining as they are informative, The Not-So-Still Life traces the great variety of media and forms these artists have engaged as they have moved the still life not just off the table, but off the wall and into three dimensions. Susan Landauer, William H. Gerdts, and Patricia Trenton investigate a range of forces and influences―whether historical, sociological, economic, psychological, or biographical―that have played into this evolution, from the plein-air Impressionism of the early twentieth century to the Synchromist bouquets of Stanton Macdonald-Wright, the revolving table settings of Charles Ray, and the electronic sculptures of Alan Rath. In doing so they deepen our understanding of American art over the last century. Presenting, interpreting, and celebrating the world-renowned and the lesser-known California artists who have uniquely defined and redefined the still life, this volume offers an exploration of the sensual pleasures, the aesthetic challenges, and the intellectual and perceptual associations of a century of art through the prism of a single genre.

Roy De Forest’s brightly hued, crazy-quilted paintings and sculptures are dotted with nipples of color and inhabited by a cast of characters uniquely his own, a perennial favorite being his instantly recognizable, wild-eyed and pointy-eared dogs. Published in conjunction with a retrospective exhibition of the American painter’s fifty-year career, Of Dogs and Other People reassesses De Forest’s art-historical position, placing him in a national rather than solely West Coast context. Despite the playfulness of his work, close study of De Forest’s art reveals deep layers of meaning. He was a fan of adventure stories, pulp fiction, and underground commix, but he also commanded a vast knowledge of art history and read widely in a variety of disciplines, including poetry, literature, philosophy, psychology, science, and mathematics. He enjoyed secreting obscure art-historical references into his work: animals assume postures found in Medieval or Renaissance art, and his compositional strategies draw from sources ranging from the romantic landscape painters of the Hudson River School to the austere geometric abstractions of Piet Mondrian. This engaging publication presents gorgeous color reproductions of De Forest’s finest artworks, plus a variety of figure illustrations that illuminate the artist’s diverse sources and freewheeling social and creative milieu in Northern California. Published in association with the Oakland Museum of California. Exhibition dates: Oakland Museum of California: April 29–August 20, 2017

Of Dogs and Other People: The Art of Roy De Forest

The years around the turn of the century were a dynamic time in American art. Different and seemingly contradictory movements were evolving, and the dominant style that emerged during this period was Impressionism. Based in part on the broken brushwork and high-keyed palette of Claude Monet, it was a form especially suited to the dramatic landscape and shimmering light of California. American Impressionism grew in popularity as artists from across the nation migrated to the Golden State. There they created a remarkable style, often referred to as California plein-air painting, combining several aspects of American and European art and capturing the brilliant mix of color and light that defined California. This book celebrates forty Impressionist painters who worked in California from 1900 through the beginning of the Great Depression. A joint effort of The Irvine Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art, it includes widely recognized California artists such as Maurice Braun and Guy Rose, less well known artists such as Mary DeNeale Morgan and Donna Schuster, and eastern painters who worked briefly in the region, such as Childe Hassam and William Merritt Chase. The contributors' essays examine the socioeconomic forces that shaped this art movement, as well as the ways in which the art reflected California's self-cultivated image as a healthful, sun-splashed arcadia. Beautifully illustrated, with 72 full-color plates, California Impressionists recreates the vibrant splendor of a unique period in American art.

California Impressionists

Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz 
Robert Schwartz is best known for his meticulously crafted oil paintings and gouaches, which are often no larger than eight inches square and feature enigmatic, dreamlike narratives. Schwartz painted his miniatures, rendered in jewel-like colors with astonishing detail using what art critic David Bonetti has described as a "lapidary’s skill." 
Although Schwartz began his artistic career in Chicago, graduating from the Art Institute in 1970, his arrival in San Francisco the next year was critical in shaping his artistic output. Influenced by the eccentricity of the sixties and by the emerging gay community, his work became deeply psychological, as he began to examine the contemporary psyche with an unflinching eye for human weakness and vulnerability, and with a dark sense of humor uniquely his own. Schwartz always kept his distance from the contemporary art world, preferring to pursue a solitary vision. Although that choice protected his individuality, it also meant that his art received less recognition than it deserved. Schwartz died unexpectedly of heart failure in 2000. 
Now, for the first time, over eighty of his paintings and gouaches have been gathered into a luxurious, full color monograph published by the San Jose Museum of Art and co-authored by SJMA Chief Curator Dr. Susan Landauer and international art critic Barry Schwabsky.

Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz

San Jose Museum of Art

Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz is best known for his meticulously crafted oil paintings and gouaches, which are often no larger than eight inches square and feature enigmatic, dreamlike narratives. Schwartz painted his miniatures, rendered in jewel-like colors with astonishing detail using what art critic David Bonetti has described as a "lapidary’s skill." Although Schwartz began his artistic career in Chicago, graduating from the Art Institute in 1970, his arrival in San Francisco the next year was critical in shaping his artistic output. Influenced by the eccentricity of the sixties and by the emerging gay community, his work became deeply psychological, as he began to examine the contemporary psyche with an unflinching eye for human weakness and vulnerability, and with a dark sense of humor uniquely his own. Schwartz always kept his distance from the contemporary art world, preferring to pursue a solitary vision. Although that choice protected his individuality, it also meant that his art received less recognition than it deserved. Schwartz died unexpectedly of heart failure in 2000. Now, for the first time, over eighty of his paintings and gouaches have been gathered into a luxurious, full color monograph published by the San Jose Museum of Art and co-authored by SJMA Chief Curator Dr. Susan Landauer and international art critic Barry Schwabsky.

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

Books by Landauer, Susan

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

The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism

The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism

Elmer Bischoff: The Ethics of Paint

Elmer Bischoff: The Ethics of Paint

The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture

The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture

Of Dogs and Other People: The Art of Roy De Forest

California Impressionists

Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz

Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz