Abstract Expressionism
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The definitive study of the most important movement in postwar American art, now in paperback
Now available in paperback, this is the definitive book on abstract expressionism, with superb color plates of major works by the protagonists of the movement as well as lesser-known figures, and essays by key scholars. Working primarily in New York and San Francisco from the 1940s on, a generation of American artists injected a new sense of confidence in painting, experimenting with improvisation, spontaneity and color. This bold publication reevaluates the movement, making the case that, far from being unified, abstract expressionism was in fact complex and ever-changing. Included here are full-color plates of works by Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Richard Pousette-Dart, Mark Rothko, David Smith, Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Tobey, Bradley Walker Tomlin and Jack Tworkov, among others. Among the abundant archival materials are images of Hans Hofmann's famous classes; artists such as Krasner, Frankenthaler, Pollock and de Kooning in their studios; installation shots of some of the key international exhibitions of the era, both internationally and at the galleries of Betty Parsons and others; and photos of famous locations where these artists thrashed out their aesthetic concerns, such as the Cedar Street Tavern. Also featuring a superb chronology of the period, this landmark publication is a thrilling survey of an incredibly energetic moment in American art.
Carter Ratcliff
Carter Ratcliff is a poet who writes about art. He first published his poetry in The World and other magazines in the orbit of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, in downtown Manhattan. In recent years poems of his have appeared in The Sienese Shredder, The Mississippi Review, Cimarron Review, Hudson River Art, Vanitas, Cover Magazine, among other journals; and in INFILTRATION: AN ANTHOLOGY OF INNOVATIVE POETRY FROM THE HUDSON VALLEY (Station Hill, 2015); The KGB Bar Book of Poems (Harper Perennial, 2000); and Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets (Melville House, 2001). His books include Fever Coast (Kulchur Press, 1973); Give Me Tomorrow (Vehicle Press, 1983); ARRIVEDERCI, MODERNISMO (Libellum Press, 2004); and TEQUILA MOCKINGBIRD (Station Hill Press, 2015). A Contributing Editor of Art in America, Ratcliff has published art criticism in leading journals in the United States and Europe, as well as catalogs published by the Museum of Modern Art; El Museo del Barrio; the Guggenheim Museum; the Royal Academy, London; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and other institutions. Among his books on art are The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Postwar American Art (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996); Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art 1965-1975 (Allworth Press, 2000); and Andy Warhol: Portraits (Phaidon Press, 2006). Since 2003, Ratcliff has lived with his wife, Phyllis Derfner, in the Hudson River Valley.
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