Joseph Stella's Symbolism


Book Description

Born in 1877 in a small village in southern Italy, Stella came to New York at the age of eighteen, bringing the influences of the ancient classical tradition from a world deep-rooted in Christian imagery to a dramatic modern city transformed by industrial development. Irma Jaffe explores how Stella skillfully integrated these influences with a variety of contemporary ideas and invested his work with a personal significance that was both sensual and spiritual. The complex iconography of many of his works is examined in detail, including the well-known Battle of Lights, Coney Island and the majestically executed The Voice of the City of New York Interpreted, the five-panel masterpiece that powerfully conveys the grandeur and inspiration of New York City.




Visual Poetry


Book Description




Joseph Stella


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Modern Life


Book Description

This exhibition sets the art of Edward Hopper in the context of the diverse and controversial movements dominating American art during the first half of the twentieth century.




Stella's Barn


Book Description

Trouble woke me up early. Only two years old, my first memory: startled from sleep, I follow my mother to the road where she covers with old burlap a dead dog, just run over. My world was frightening and tough, from the beginning. Polish Catholic, my harsh paternal grandmother ruled our house. The men were there to eat and sleep. Alcohol, incest the norm in our neighborhood. With just the clothes on our back, one night Ma spirited us all away to her mother's small subsistence farm in the country where I woke up to imagine I had died and found myself in the Garden of Eden. Plants, animals, fishing in the old muddy river across the railroad tracks: here I could dream! All short-lived when we moved again into our barn-like house of stark poverty and deprivation. I learned from my mother how to ride the rapids, how to grab onto the sides of life's often flimsy, careening boat. Catastrophe visited us, but you will see how our story, my hope, survived.







Masterpieces of American Modernism


Book Description

Modernism, referring to the period dating roughly from the late 19th century through 1970, is regarded as a crucial moment in the history of American art. Although Modernist artists adopted a wide range of styles, they were tied by a desire to interpret the rapidly changing nature of society, and to cast aside the conventions of representational art. Some, such as Stuart Davis and Joseph Stella, responded to consumerism, urbanism, and industrial technology, while others, such as Arthur Dove and Georgia O’Keeffe, found inspiration in nature and the traditional Native American culture of the Southwest. This magnificent new book presents the works of the Vilcek Collection, an unparalleled private collection of American Modernist art. Jan and Marica Vilcek acquired their first American Modernist work in 2001, and have since assembled an amazing collection of masterworks representative of a crucial moment in the history of American art. Art historian Lewis Kachur explores almost 100 rarely seen paintings, works on paper, and sculptures by more than 20 leading artists active during the first half of the last century, while William C. Agee contributes an authoritative introduction. Lavishly illustrated throughout, Masterpieces of American Modernism offers an outstanding overview of the radical shift in art that this movement represents.







American Dreams


Book Description

Williams College, in Williamstown, MA, has collected art since the mid-19th century. In this chronological journey through American art in all media, each of 56 highlighted objects from the museum receives a mini-essay of several hundred words, signed by contributors who frequently are the acknowledged experts on particular artists or works. A full factual entry on each work appears at the back of the book, preceded by extremely brief summaries of the acquisitions histories of the overall collection's painting, drawing, sculpture, Williams portraits, prints, photographs, posters, and decorative arts. College alumni donated many items, including collections on Rube Goldberg, Thomas Nast, and the Prendergasts. This is not the definitive book on American art, but it is an excellent survey with many interesting objects not commonly reproduced. For art history collections. 64 colour & 65 b/w illustrations




An American Collection


Book Description

"Amon G. Carter (1879-1955) is one of the legendary men of Texas history. Born in a log cabin, he was self-made, becoming Fort Worth's leading citizen and champion. He developed an interest in the art of Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell through his friendship with Will Rogers. Carter's will provided for the establishment of a museum in Fort Worth devoted to the art of the American West. While the museum holds the most significant collection anywhere of works by Remington and Russell and is a pioneer in the field of western studies, it has evolved into one of the great museums of American art as a whole, focusing on artists working on successive frontiers, aesthetic as well as geographic. Its photography collection alone has grown to nearly one-quarter of a million objects." "The museum, designed by noted architect Philip Johnson, opened to the public in 1961. On the occasion of its fortieth anniversary, a substantially expanded building, also designed by Mr. Johnson, was inaugurated. This volume relates the museum's history and presents color and duotone illustrations of 125 of its masterworks dating from 1822 to 1998 (paintings, sculpture, prints, watercolors, pastels, drawings, and photographs), with an essay about each and a biography of each artist. It includes a number of landmark works recently added to the collection and unveiled here for the first time: paintings by John Singer Sargent, Stuart Davis, and Marsden Hartley; sculpture by Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson; a daguerreotype by Southworth and Hawes; and photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, David Smith, Robert Adams, and Linda Connor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved