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Movements in Modern Art
Modernismo
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
- GenresArtArt History
Paperback
First published July 13, 1997
About the author
Charles Harrison
112 books22 followersCharles Townsend Harrison, BA Hons (Cantab), MA (Cantab), PhD (London) was a prominent UK art historian who taught Art History for many years and was Emeritus Professor of History and Theory of Art at the Open University.
He was tutor in Art History, Open University, 1977-2005, Reader in Art History 1985-1994, Professor of the History & Theory of Art, 1994-2008, Professor Emeritus, 2008-2009; Visiting Professor, University of Chicago 1991 and 1996, Visiting Professor, University of Texas, 1997.
He was tutor in Art History, Open University, 1977-2005, Reader in Art History 1985-1994, Professor of the History & Theory of Art, 1994-2008, Professor Emeritus, 2008-2009; Visiting Professor, University of Chicago 1991 and 1996, Visiting Professor, University of Texas, 1997.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 22, 2013
In my quest to educate myself on the subject of art history, this seemed like the book to read. Alas, its exceptionally dense academese narration maybe it a very difficult read. I enjoyed the art inserts, but they were barely talked off. Instead it was pure and somewhat mind numbing theory, although on the positive note I did learn about modernism. I do wish there were more accessible ways of doing so, something between art for dummies and this type of book.
February 24, 2021
purrr. This whole series is amazing.
August 8, 2026
At first glance, the idea of writing a short introduction to modernism in art can be something of a fool’s errand. This is because “modernism” is simultaneously many things and yet nothing: not a name that refers to a single movement but an umbrella term under which everything from impressionism to abstract expressionism and pop art has been clustered, all of which are themselves subjects of individual volumes of similar length in Tate’s “Movements in Modern Art” series. To try to summarize all of that in less than a hundred generously-illustrated pages would thus promise to result in only the most superficial of overviews.
Charles Harrison’s solution to this problem is to focus on describing the history of the concept of modernism as applied to nineteenth and twentieth-century art. This leads him to engage not just with the artists who developed what came to be regarded as modernist art, but the criticism of it as well. The twentieth-century art critic Clement Greenberg becomes as central a figure in Harrison’s narrative as more famous figures as Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, as he presents the concept as one developed as a dialogue between artist and audience. Modernism becomes something defined not just by the artist’s rebellion against the Western tradition that had emerged from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the contemporary response to the modernists’ work as well.
This approach allows Harrison to define a commonality in modernist art shared by the various movements grouped underneath the terms. This he frames as a skepticism that unframed the previous relation between subject and spectator in art, and a confidence in the validity of the sensory experience. He demonstrates this with a deft knowledge of the full range of modernist art, which he provides a highly useful sampling of in his selection of illustrations. While his narrative assumes a certain preexisting knowledge of modern art movements on the part of his reader that limits the book’s effectiveness as an introductory text, it is nonetheless a quick read that provides a stimulating introduction to the idea of modernism as applied to art over the past two centuries.
Charles Harrison’s solution to this problem is to focus on describing the history of the concept of modernism as applied to nineteenth and twentieth-century art. This leads him to engage not just with the artists who developed what came to be regarded as modernist art, but the criticism of it as well. The twentieth-century art critic Clement Greenberg becomes as central a figure in Harrison’s narrative as more famous figures as Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, as he presents the concept as one developed as a dialogue between artist and audience. Modernism becomes something defined not just by the artist’s rebellion against the Western tradition that had emerged from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the contemporary response to the modernists’ work as well.
This approach allows Harrison to define a commonality in modernist art shared by the various movements grouped underneath the terms. This he frames as a skepticism that unframed the previous relation between subject and spectator in art, and a confidence in the validity of the sensory experience. He demonstrates this with a deft knowledge of the full range of modernist art, which he provides a highly useful sampling of in his selection of illustrations. While his narrative assumes a certain preexisting knowledge of modern art movements on the part of his reader that limits the book’s effectiveness as an introductory text, it is nonetheless a quick read that provides a stimulating introduction to the idea of modernism as applied to art over the past two centuries.
September 3, 2012
It's about Greenberg modernism, not radical-manifesto modernism. An important distinction to those of us who are giant nerds.
January 8, 2015
Nothing special:(
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews