Art of the forties / edited by Riva Castleman, with an essay by Guy Davenport.
Record details
- ISBN: 0810960893 (Abrams/trade edition)
- ISBN: 0870701886 (clothbound)
- ISBN: 0870701894 (paperbound)
- Physical Description: 160 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.
- Publisher: New York : Museum of Modern Art : c1991.
Content descriptions
General Note: | "Published on the occasion of the exhibition Art of the forties ... [held at] the Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 24-April 30, 1991"--T.p. verso. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Art, Modern > 20th century > Exhibitions. |
Available copies
- 2 of 2 copies available at Bibliomation. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Bentley Memorial Library - Bolton.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bentley Memorial Library - Bolton | 709.044 Art (Text) | 33160150506577 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
CHOICE_Magazine Review
Art of the Forties
CHOICE
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
A somewhat misleading title; this book is about art objects made during the 1940s that are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City). The '40s were years of retrenchment and rejection. The deprivation caused by the Depression and the uncertainty of mechanized world war brought new visions of contemporary reality. Yet this book, reflecting the biases and strengths of MOMA's collection, deals mainly with surrealism and abstraction, the accepted New York City avant-garde of the '40s. Nowhere in this volume does one experience the witty, procapitalist modernism of Stuart Davis, the political satire of William Gropper, the sometimes sentimental, sometimes anguished patriotism of Thomas Hart Benton, George Biddle, or John Stuart Curry, or the lonely, persecuted anger of Yasuo Kuniyoshi in the mid-1940s. So too, strict interpretation of the decade required the dismissal of Peter Blume's Eternal City in the MOMA collection (1937), one of the most important antifascist aesthetic statements. Indeed, it can be argued that the '40s began in the last four years of the previous decade, with the demise of the Popular Front, and with the rejection of political activity by many artists who reached maturity in the '40s. Guy Davenport's essay does not help to explicate the decade or the specific works, or to tie them to each other with any degree of cohesion. Neither does the curatorial essay help to explain MOMA's collecting philosophy during this crucial period. A neatly packaged and convenient way to expose a slice of the museum collection, that does not add to our knowledge of "art of the forties." -J. Barter, Amherst College