The Age of the Avant-garde, 1956-1972

646 Pages·2009·35.742 MB·English

by  Hilton Kramer, Roger Kimball

TE AGE OF TE
/ANFORDE

AGE
IRE OF 1FE
/ANFORDE
1956-1972
HILTON KR4MER
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY
ROGER KIMBALL
¡3 Routledge
Taylor & Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Originally published in 1973 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Published 2009 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2008028501
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kramer, Hilton.
The age of the avant-garde, 1956-1972 / Hilton Kramer.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Farrar Straus Giroux,1973.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-0834-7 (alk. paper)
1. Art, Modern--19th century. 2. Art, Modern--20th century. I.
Title.
N6447.K72 2008
709.04--dc22
2008028501
ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-0834-7 (pbk)
For Esta, with love
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors of the following
publications, where many of the articles and reviews collected in
this volume first appeared: Artforum, Arts Magazine, Boston Mu
seum Bulletin, Commentary, Encounter, The Lugano Review, Mod
ern Occasions, The Nation, The New Leader, The New York Review
of Books, and The Reporter. I also wish to thank The Foundation for
Modern Art, Inc. (now the New York Cultural Center in association
with Fairleigh Dickinson University) and Terry Dintenfass, Inc., in
whose catalogs two of the articles originally appeared.
I owe a special debt of gratitude for the generous support and
encouragement I have received from my editors and colleagues at
The New York Times, and I also wish to thank the editors of the
publications mentioned above for their cordial hospitality and
advice.
Special thanks to my wife Esta for her help and forbearance
in preparing the manuscript of this book.
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSACTION EDITION xvii
PREFACE XXV
I. The Age of the Avant-Garde 3
II. The Nineteenth Century 23
1 The Turner Revival 23
2 The Radicalism of Courbet 30
3 Late Monet 33
4 The Conscience of Impressionism 36
5 Degas as Expressionist 39
6 I\eo-Impressionism I 42
Neo-Impressionism II 45
7 Odilon Redon: "The Medium of Mind" 48
8 Medardo Rosso 51
9 Simeon Solomon: Preview of a Revival 55
10 The Pre-Raphaelite Revival 58
11 Rediscovering Puvis de Chavannes 60
12 Aubrey Beardsley: The Erotic and the Exquisite 63
13 The Erotic Style 66
14 Whistler: Choosing London over Paris 70
15 Whistler in the Seminar Room 73
16 Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris 76
17 The Stratagems of Realism 79
III. The Twentieth Century 85
Germans and Other Northerners
1 Lovis Corinth 85
2 Edvard Munch 99
3 The Rebellion of Oskar Kokoschka 106
4 Egon Schiele 109
5 Nolde: An Aggrieved Solitary 111
6 Kirchner and Expressionism 114
7 Feininger: A Visionary Cubist 117
8 George Grosz: A Moral Recoil 121
9 Poet and Pedagogue: Paul Klee 125
10 Max Beckmann: "The Quality of Pulsating Life" 130
11 Kandinsky: Theosophy and Abstraction 133
12 Kandinsky: The Last Decade 138
13 Mondrian s Freedom 141
14 Moholy-Nagy 144
15 Rodchenko: Art in the Service of Revolution 147
16 Thinking about Tatlin 150
17 "The World of Art" in Exile 153
18 Oskar Schlemmer s Abstract Universe 156
19 Walter Sickert and the Malaise of English Painting 158
20 Epstein in London 162
21 Barbara Hepworth: From the Avant-Garde to the
Establishment 166
22 Henry Moore: A Very English Romantic 168
The School of Paris
1 Matisse: The Paintings 175
2 Matisse: The Sculpture 184
3 Bourdelle: The Age of Innocence 192
4 Vuillard 194
5 Bonnard's Drawings 197
6 Picasso's Radical Inventions 200
7 Picasso's "Guitar" 203
8 Were These Braque's "Great Years"? 206
9 Juan Gris 210
10 The Conversion of Julio Gonzalez 215
11 Laurens: "The Ripening of Forms" 218
12 Lipchitzs Eloquence 220
13 Chagall 223
14 Soutine and the Problem of Expressionism 229
15 Modigliani: Reconsidering a "Little Master" 233
16 Mirô: Enchanted Objects 236
17 Arp: Purity of Heart, Purity of Form 239
18 The Two Archipenkos 241
19 Late Léger 244
20 Duchamp: Resplendent Triviality 247
21 Dali 249
22 Picabias Dada Holiday 252
23 Torres-Garcia: Scenario of Exile 255
24 Giacometti 258
Americans
1 Reflections on Lachaise 269
2 Prendergast 272
3 Marsden Hartley: The Return of the Native 275
4 The Loneliness of Arthur Dove 278
5 The Ordeal of Alfred Maurer 281
6 Introducing H. Lyman Sayen 284
7 Man Ray s Self ^Portrait 286
8 Arnold Friedman: "He Is Not a Pleasant Painter" 290
9 Charles Sheeler: American Pastoral 292
10 The Return of John Storrs 296
11 The Legendary John Graham 299
12 Walkowitz 301
13 Edward Hopper: An American Vision 303
14 The Sculpture of Saul Baizerman 307
15 Romaine Brooks 309
16 Arshile Gorky: Between Two Worlds 313
17 The Confidence of Milton Avery 316
IV. Contemporaries 321
7 The Sculpture of David Smith 321
2 The Jackson Pollock Myth I 335
The Jackson Pollock Myth II 339
3 Robert Motherwell I 342
Robert Motherwell II 344
4 Willem de Kooning I 347
Willem de Kooning II 350
5 Ad Reinhardt 353
6 Jean Dubuffet: Playing the Primitive 356
7 Hofmann in Perspective 360
8 Albers 362
9 Louise Nevelson 365
10 Joseph CornelVs Baudelairean "Voyage" 368
11 Balthus 372