Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience

Polcari, Stephen

ISBN 10: 0521448263 / ISBN 13: 9780521448260

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1993

Pages intact with possible writing/highlighting. Binding strong with minor wear. Dust jackets/supplements may not be included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 12812366-6

Synopsis:

A major revisionist study of the art and artists who participated in what is now regarded as the first American style of international consequence. Based on examinations of new archival material and many unknown paintings, this study relates Abstract Expressionism to the actual historical circumstances, as well as intellectual and cultural milieu, of America from the 1930s to the 1950s. Stephen Polcari reverses the traditional perspective of Abstract Expressionism as an abstract art inspired by issues of the postwar period. Examining its roots in the art of the 1930s and 1940s, he contends that Abstract Expressionism emerges as a public art that actively engaged in the social, economic, and political crises of the 1930s, and, more significantly, the experience of World War II. Polcari provides an account of the contemporary artistic, intellectual and cultural history to establish a macro-history of human beings under the pressures of war, fear, torment, and hope. Within this context, he convincingly presents Abstract Expressionism as a mode of modern, metaphysical 'history' painting that uses the forms and devices of modern art to come to terms with the brutality of contemporary history.

Review: "This work has the feel and power of a life's worth of Polcari's own grappling. All who subsequently and earnestly approach abstract expressionism will gain by following his lead." Jack Curtis, Art New England

Bibliographic Details

Title: Abstract Expressionism and the Modern ...
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good