Established as the most comprehensive presentation of modern art when first published in 1969. A History of Modern Art has been completely revised and expanded to include the exciting developments of the 1970’s. In this work, through word and image, the story of art history in the making is told. It is a magnificent story, reaffirming the past century as one of the great ages of art and architecture.
A History of Modern art reaches back to the first stirrings of a new approach to art. It begins with a thorough account of the influential nineteenth century academies, romanticism and realism, then, with impressionists and post-impressionists it provides a detailed analysis of what was accomplished and how this breakthrough prepared the way for subsequent innovations. After this initial revolutionary phase, the inventiveness of great talents was unleashed. They developed artistic modes, fauvism, cubism, expressionism, futurism, that demanded new ways of seeing and fresh concepts of the nature, materials and functions of art.
World War I brought this phase to an end, but two new trends had already begun to jolt the public and infuriate the art establishment, dada, which was anti-art and anti-culture and surrealism, whose bizarre flights of fantasy mined the world of the subconscious. While Picasso, Matisse, Klee, and others followed their established courses, Mondrian and other De Stijl artists, as well as the Bauhaus group, offered a new outlook on art and building and on the interrelation of the arts. The fruitful activity of these artists continued until the approach of World War II.
The developments from 1950 up to the moment of publication constitute the final sections of the book, abstract expressionism, pop and op art, minimal art, colour-field painting, and motion and light art. Provocative trends of the late 1960’s , sculpture in place, earth works, performance, environmental art, have been fully realized in the 1970s, and new trends, photo realism, conceptualism, have taken root. In architecture, projected or recently built enterprises include industrial buildings and skyscrapers, airports, houses, museums, college campuses, cultural centers, public buildings, and experiments involving utopian concepts of urban planning with new solutions to age old problems of space, ecology and energy.
With 1549 illustrations, 291 in colour.
Now full color throughout, this Fifth Edition has been completely redesigned to make it even more elegant and easy-to-use. New headings, subheadings, and. a glossary have been added to help the reader navigate the material and quickly identify areas of interest. The entire text has been carefully edited for greater clarity, narrative coherence, and scholarly currency. Of particular interest is Chapter 27, now entitled “Resistance and Resolution” (known as the “Epilogue” in the previous edition), which has been completely rewritten by art historian Peter Kalb to consider the latest’ scholarship and emerging trends in contemporary art.
The late H.H. Arnason was a distinguished art historian, educator, and museum administrator who for many years was Vice President for Art Administration of the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York. He . began his professional life in academe, teaching at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and University of Hawaii. From 1947 to 1961, Arnason was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota.
