In January 1939, Pablo Picasso was renowned in Europe but disdained by many in the United States. One year later, Americans across the country were clamoring to see his art. How did the controversial leader of the Paris avant-garde break through to the heart of American culture? The answer begins a generation earlier, when a…
Published on the occasion of the Dutch artist’s 150th birthday, Mondrian Evolution celebrates the multifaceted work and artistic development of Piet Mondrian. The artist cemented his place in the art historical canon with his geometric compositions characterized by black lines cast against white surfaces partially filled by the primary colors blue, red and yellow. Indelible as they…
Published on the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this landmark book gathers information from the forefront of current research in early Soviet art, providing a new understanding of where art was presented, who saw it, and how the images incorporated and conveyed Soviet values. More than 350 works are grouped into areas of critical importance…
Throughout her long and prolific career American artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) developed innovative sculptures in wire, a medium she explored through increasingly complex forms using craft-based techniques she learned while traveling in Mexico in 1947. In 1949, after studying at Black Mountain College, Asawa moved to San Francisco and created dozens of wire works, among…
American artist John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) experienced Spain, including the picturesque island of Majorca, as a source of rejuvenation and inspiration. Sargent and Spain features scores of the artist’s dazzling watercolors, oil paintings, and drawings, from landscapes and seascapes to architectural studies, scenes of everyday life, and sympathetic portraits of the Roma and other local…
Described as “the most significant contribution to Sonia Delaunay studies in a decade,” this catalogue sets a new standard for the study of this pioneering avant-garde artist, designer, and entrepreneur (1885–1979). Eschewing traditional chronological structures to better showcase groundbreaking research unifying the artist’s timeless oeuvre across mediums, this publication demonstrates Delaunay’s innate versatility and willingness…
This book explores the works of one of Sweden’s most esteemed artists, Hilma af Klint, alongside others in her artistic circle – and examines their inspirational influence on contemporary artists working today. Swedish Ecstasy tells the story of renowned Swedish artist Hilma af Klint and her artistic circle as the country sought to reconcile religious beliefs…
Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980), the “Baroness with a Brush,” is often cast as one of Art Deco’s most celebrated artists, though her work transcends categorization, incorporating elements of Cubism and Neoclassicism in a distinctive, sensuous blend of form and function. Lempicka’s paintings, including a self-portrait as the driver of a sleek green Bugatti, often depict…
For years, a battered, brown leather suitcase sat in a loft. It contained a treasure trove: more than 250 children’s books from the Soviet Union, most in Russian, but with some in Ukrainian and even a few in Yiddish, almost all published between 1930 and 1933. The collection reveals aspects of the early USSR after…
Egon Schiele’s contorted and eccentric figures are among the most familiar and iconic images in twentieth-century art. A good many of those figures are self-portraits. Schiele returned to himself as a subject again and again over a period of many years, recording himself in various poses and styles. When he used his own body as…
From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending—a rich, witty, revelatory tour of Belle Époque Paris, via the remarkable life story of the pioneering surgeon, Samuel Pozzi. In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days intellectual shopping: a prince, a count, and a commoner with…
One of the foremost artistic innovators of abstraction in the 20th century, Vasily Kandinsky sought to liberate painting from its ties to the natural world and promote the spiritual in art. This richly illustrated publication looks at Kandinsky anew, through a critical lens, reframing our understanding of this vital figure of European modernism, who was…