Traces the origins and growth of modern art, assessing the intrinsic qualities of individual works and describing the social forces in play. The result is a guide through the forest of artistic labels - Impressionism and Expressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Constructivism, Surrealism and others. This book also traces the achievements of Degas and Cezanne, Ensor and Munch, Matisse and Kandinsky, Picasso, Braque and Epstein, Mondrian, Dali, Modigliani, Utrillo and Chagall, Klee, Henry Moore and many other artists in a revolutionary age.
Survey of modernist art. 1. Nonrepresentational forms as they appear in consciousness rather than perception. 2. Abstract explorations of form, color, and space.
kind of a crazy book to read but filled in the gaps just the same. the author was the head of the clark museum for a bit, crazy coincidence seeing as i picked this book up from a secondhand shop for $1
This book is fairly dull, and not worth ploughing through the whole thing - best read as a reference book... on particular artists and/or movements. It covers a wide range of them, each getting a brief section, so its treatment is generally a bit superficial -- and the author's comments are oftentimes fairly subjective, and yet still quite academic -- a bad combination.