The Figure in American Sculpture

The Figure in American Sculpture PDF

Author: Ilene Susan Fort

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13:

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Although most modern art historians viewed the figure as regressive, early-20th-century American sculptors embraced the human form. Curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fort presents a wide selection of works from this period, not as a movement from the naturalistic to the abstract but as a reflection of a rapidly changing American society. While she sees much modern American sculpture as rooted in the works of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), she shows how the figure?whether represented in genre, primitive, folk, archaic, or classical styles?allowed artists to criticize or praise modern society. Fort's selection of minority and female artists for the work is especially refreshing, and the biographies at the end of the book are useful because several are not well known. Unfortunately, the mostly black-and-white plates are small and cannot properly represent the lines and textures of the pieces. Regardless of the quality of the photographs, this highly original work complements Donald Martin Reynold's Masters of American Sculpture (LJ 4/1/94) and is recommended for fine arts collections and academic libraries. ǂb --Review by Julie C. Boehning from Library Journal.

Manuel Neri and the Assertion of Modern Figurative Sculpture

Manuel Neri and the Assertion of Modern Figurative Sculpture PDF

Author: Bruce Nixon

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 9781503605480

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The exploration of the human figure has been the pursuit of artists for millennia. Manuel Neri (b. 1930), a California native and former student of Richard Diebenkorn and Nathan Oliveira, has spent a lifetime accentuating the gesture, surface, and materiality of the figure. He renders his work in several different mediums that include plaster, marble, bronze, and paper. This exhibition, drawn from and celebrating gifts donated to the museum by The Manuel Neri Trust, provides a glimpse into the artist's creative process and his quest to define the figure on his own terms. Manuel Neri is known for his prolonged artistic engagement with the figure in a variety of materials, starting with plaster in the late 1950s and moving into bronze and marble. The seven sculptures in the outdoor installation reference Neri's origins with plaster and his expressionistic manipulation of the medium. By casting plaster in bronze, tactile surfaces are preserved and enhanced.

Perspectives on American Sculpture Before 1925

Perspectives on American Sculpture Before 1925 PDF

Author: Thayer Tolles

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1588391051

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has long been renowned for its collection of American sculpture, in particular its world-famous American Neoclassical marbles. This volume contains eight papers presented at a symposium held at the Museum on October 26, 2001, upon the publication of American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The contributors, who include art historians, museum professionals, and independent scholars, offer a fascinating cross section of current thematic interests and scholarly approaches to American sculpture. Each contributor takes as their starting point a sculpture or group of sculptures in the Metropolitan's collection, presenting a wide variety of approaches to the study and understanding of these works.

Landscape with Figures

Landscape with Figures PDF

Author: Malcolm Goldstein

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2000-11-30

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13: 0190285869

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How did the United States become not only the leading contemporary art scene in the world, but also the leading market for art? The answer has to do not only with the talents of American artists or even the size of the American economy, but also--and especially--the skills and entrepreneurship of American art dealers. Their story has not been told...until now. Landscape with Figures is the first history of art dealing in the United States, following the profession from eighteenth-century portrait and picture salesmen in the colonies to the high-profile, jet-set gallery owners of today. Providing anecdotal and carefully researched biographies of the prominent dealers from more than two centuries of trade, author Malcolm Goldstein shows how magnanimous personalities and social networking helped to shape the way Americans have bought and valued art. These dealers range from Michael Paff, whose enthusiasm often overshadowed his expertise but nonetheless helped him sell faux Old Master paintings to major collectors in the early nineteenth century; to the imperious Joseph Duveen, dealer to magnates like Henry Clay Frick; to visionary Leo Castelli, who helped to usher in a revolution in modern art during the 1960s by showing such avant-garde artists as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Goldstein also shows that the American art trade, while male-dominated, has been galvanized by female dealers, including the inimitable Edith Gregor Halpert, Peggy Guggenheim, and Mary Boone. Their fascinating stories unfold in the context of world art history, the rise of major art institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum, and the growing zeal of art collectors who would eventually pay millions for individual works of art. Unprecedented and critical to understanding today's art world, Landscape with Figures is a must for artists, art history students, and art lovers.