"The most familiar strain of this debate to us today is formalism, which emphasized "purity" in art and culminated in the writing of the influential late modern critic, Clement Greenberg. The other critical position, he contends, is not as familiar to us today, partly because it was so overshadowed by formalist thought in the postwar period. This position emphasized the importance of "experience" over formal purity and is evident in the writing of Greenberg's rival, Harold Rosenberg, as well as in a number of American writers and critics from the first half of the century. Struggle Over the Modern reconstitutes this neglected yet important dimension of the avant-garde debate in American art criticism decade by decade."--Jacket.

Catalog of an exhibition held at Musee d'Art Americain Giverny, France, Aug. 31-Nov. 30, 2003; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Wash., Dec. 18, 2003-Mar. 28, 2004; and Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, April 17-June 27, 2004.

Located in Exh. Cat. Filing Cabinet.

This catalogue represents the first works of Suzy Frelinghuysen (1911-1988) and George L.K. Morris (1905-1975), two members of the American Abstract Artists group. Both artists produced a remarkable body of work prior to the ascendancy of abstract expressionism.

"By 1966, the composer Virgil Thomson would write, "Truth is, there is no avant-garde today." How did the avant garde dissolve, and why? In this thought-provoking work, Stuart D. Hobbs traces the avant garde from its origins to its eventual appropriation by a conservative political agenda, consumer culture, and the institutional world of art.

A mural renaissance swept the United States in the 1930s, propelled by the New Deal Federal Art Project and the popularity of Mexican muralism. Perhaps nowhere more than in New York City, murals became a crucial site for the development of abstract painting Artists such as Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, and Lee Krasner created ambitious works for the Williamsburg Housing Project, Floyd Bennett Field Airport, and the 1939 World’s Fair. Modernism for the Masses examines the public murals (realized and unrealized) of these and other abstract painters and the aesthetic controversy, political influence, and ideological warfare that surrounded them. Jody Patterson transforms standard narratives of modernism by reasserting the significance of the 1930s and explores the reasons for the omission of the mural’s history from chronicles of American art. Beautifully illustrated with the artists’ murals and little-known archival photographs, this book recovers the radical idea that modernist art was a vital part of everyday life.

The remarkable story of the famous painting by Picasso and its diverse meanings from its conception to the present day 'Enthralling ... This is high-action drama, told like the rest within a huge frame of reference, theme interlocked with theme ... A painting which began its life within a particular political context has emerged as a universal statement on the ever-present horror and suffering of war. Van Hensbergen has treated an extraordinary subject admirably' Evening Standard Of all the great paintings in the world, Picasso's Guernica has had a more direct impact on our consciousness than perhaps any other. In this absorbing and revealing book, Gijs van Hensbergen tells the story of this masterpiece. Starting with its origin in the destruction of the Basque town of Gernika in the Spanish Civil War, the painting is then used as a weapon in the propaganda battle against Fascism. Later it becomes the nucleus of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the detonator for the Big Bang of Abstract Expressionism in the late 1940s. This tale of passion and politics shows the transformation of this work of art into an icon of many meanings, up to its long contested but eventually triumphant return to Spain in 1981.

This beautifully illustrated catalogue highlights 101 works of art from the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. Combining full-color reproductions with explanatory text, the catalogue presents significant examples of Asian, European, American, American Indian, and contemporary art from the museum’s permanent collection. For visitors to the museum and art aficionados, these pages offer a tour of the museum’s exceptional paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and photographs. Arranged in chronological and thematic sequence, the catalogue entries focus on single works, each by a different artist. Authors Eric McCauley Lee and Rima Canaan discuss the artists’ backgrounds and analyze the featured works. Where appropriate, related objects in the collection appear as accompanying illustrations. The celebrated artists represented in the catalogue include Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Allan Houser, and members of the Taos Society of Artists. Published to coincide with the opening of the museum’s new wing, designed by renowned architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen and named in honor of Mary and Howard Lester, this catalogue celebrates the extraordinary development of the museum’s collections over nearly three-quarters of a century.