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Virtu Art Books

Abstract Expressionism: Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell

Jackson Pollock: Energy Made Visible
Newly illustrated with seminal Pollock paintings, this book takes the reader inside the art world of New York during the '40s and '50s, when Action Painting first emerged. Friedman reveals what it meant to Pollock to experience the invasion of his studio and of the very act of painting by the external pressures of shows, reviews, films, dealers, critics, hostile publicity; and how, despite it all, Pollock created many of the most graceful and powerful paintings ever made in America

Jackson Pollock
This book accompanies the first retrospective exhibition in over 30 years of the most influential American painter of the 20th century. By the late 1940s, Jackson Pollock's "drip technique" had made him one of the central figures of the New York based Abstract Expressionists. Eliminating all recognizable imagery and painterly techniques, Pollock dripped paint from a stick or can, resulting in a web of interlacing lines that created all-over images of richness and complexity. The myth suggests that he worked in a drunken, haphazard fashion; this mythology has now been reassessed. The essay by Varnedoe examines how the legend of Pollock the "action painter" has been constructed. He charts the development of Pollock's aesthetic and situates it within its art and historical context. A second essay, by Pepe Karmel, provides insight into the "drip technique", revealed through an intensive, computer-assisted study of photographs amd films of Pollock at work. Sixty documentary photographs illustrate this essay

On Abstract Art
An exploration of ways to think about abstract art and the problems of interpretation it raises. The author speculates on the language required to describe the effects of key abstract paintings and sculptures and on ways to discuss critical issues when a work of art is without "subject matter".

Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s
A study of abstract expressionism as seen in the works of Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning and other New York School artists in the wake of World War II. The author argues that the work of these artists reflects an attempt to reformulate individual identity through psychology and philosophy.

Robert Motherwell: With Pen and Brush (Essays in Art & Culture.)
This book highlights his deep attraction to France and French literature and art, and his conern with the idea of elegy and the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. His singularly American genius provided him with a manner of painting and thinking unique among the Abstract Expressionists, as well as with a distinctive and highly personal filter through which to interpret his fascination with European literature and history. Caws considers Motherwell's work and interests in relation to those of other Abstract Expressionists as well as to the work of the Surrealists. She analyzes such key works as "Lament for Lorca", the "nrf" collages, the "Elegies", "The Voyage" and "The Voyage Ten Years After", and "A Throw of the Dice"

Robert Motherwell: What Art Holds (Interpretations in Art S.)
A personal exploration of Robert Motherwell and his work by a close friend, this study includes discussion on his paintings, drawings and collages in relation to the wide range of literature with which he was involved. It includes rare photographs and interviews

Reading Abstract Expressionism: Context and Critique
Ellen Landau's masterful introduction presents and analyses the major arguments and crucial points of view that have surrounded the movement decade by decade. She then offers a selection of readings, also organized by decade, including influential statements by such artists as Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, and Barnett Newman as well as the commentary of diverse critics. Offering new insights into the development of Abstract Expressionism, this rich anthology also demonstrates the ongoing impact of this revolutionary and controversial movement. Reading Abstract Expressionism is essential for the library of any curator, scholar, or student of twentieth-century art. "I know of no equivalent record of this movement, no gathering of such wonderfully instructive documentation of the most important collective creation of American visual culture." David Carrier, author of Principles of Art History Writing

The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism
Landauer argues that Abstract Expressionism resulted from a broad collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a small band of New York artists. Documenting the interchanges between the East and West Coasts, she cites areas of mutual influence and shows the impact of San Francisco on the New York School, including artists such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. San Francisco's Beat poets, Dixieland jazz musicians, and the area's stunning vistas were essential parts of Abstract Expressionism, as were artistic and spiritual contacts with Asia. Under Douglas MacAgy and Clyfford Still, the California School of Fine Arts became the undisputed centre of vanguard abstraction on the West Coast. Artists such as Edward Co

Charles Seliger: Redefining Abstract Expressionism
Since his first solo exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim's "Art of This Century" gallery in 1945, American artist Charles Seliger (b.1926) has passionately pursued an inner-world of organic abstraction, celebrating the structural complexities of natural forms. This illustrated volume presents a visual history of Seliger's commitment to biomorphic abstraction and documents his extraordinary career from his auspicious beginnings as the youngest artist exhibiting with the original artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement, through the development of his signature style of complex and intimate abstractions

The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning
Working from archival material, from contemporary newspapers and books, and from extensive conversations with the men and women who participated in the rise of the New York School, Ashton provides a cultural and intellectual history of this period. In examining the sources of this important movement - from the WPA program of the 1930s and the influx of European ideas to the recognition in the 1950s of American painting on an international scale - she conveys the concerns of an extraordinary group of artists including Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Philip Guston, Barnett Newman and Arshile Gorky. Documentary photographs illustrate Ashton's appraisal of the New York School scene.

American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920-1950
Cultural historian Bram Dijkstra argues that a generation of important left-wing artists, many of them Jewish, were the victims of intellectual, political and corporate interests bent on promoting a brighter, shinier United States. Unfortunately, Dijkstra undercuts his thesis with a haranguing tone, unconvincing analyses of individual works and a dated view of abstraction as inherently "anti-humanist". His sweeping denunciation of "Nordic" (i.e., white, Protestant) artists leads him to view even an heroically scaled painting of a black soldier by John Steuart Curry--a "Nordic" artist collected by the NAACP--as a racist cartoon. At the heart of this contentious volume are 233 illustrations by dozens of little-known artists united by a passion for social justice.

Abstract Expressionism: A Critical Record
Abstract Expressionism was the dominant movement in experimental American painting from the 1940s through the early 1960s. This book is a collection of articles, reviews and essays that chronicle the history of the movement. Drawing upon a range of sources, including newspapers, magazines and exhibition catalogues, the original debates about the validity of 'action painting' are dramatically illustrated, and can be compared with later, retrospective views. The articles selected for the volume include classic statements from the most influential and prolific critics, including Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, and Hilton Kramer. However the Shapiros have also striven to include iconoclasts from the 1950s and 1960s such as Leon Golub and John Canaday to suggest the full range of critical discussion. Six representative artists are the subject of extended sections that include biographical chronologies, reviews, and the artists' own comments: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko