Showing papers on "Exhibition published in 1971"

The Arts and Crafts Movement: A Study of Its Sources, Ideals, and Influence on Design Theory

Abstract: The Arts and Crafts Movement was concerned with the ethics as much as with the aesthetics of design. Its supporters were inspired by the idealism of Ruskin and Morris to campaign for a world that was fit to live in; in such a world men would enjoy the freedom to be creative, and this freedom would be expressed, in the words of William Morris, in the development of "a decorative, noble, popular art"--design by the people for the people.This then was the ideal, and in their attempts to achieve it, British designers so revitalized the arts of architecture and design that their efforts were admired and emulated throughout Europe and in America. A program that implied social and moral as well as aesthetic reform, however, had its ambiguities. This book, which is concerned with Arts and Crafts design and theory, discusses these ambiguities. The author shows how Arts and Crafts attitudes were conditioned, on the one hand by efforts of such reformers as Sir Henry Cole to create better standards for manufactured goods and on the other by Ruskinian loathing for machinery. The development of the idea that a corrupt society can never achieve anything of value in art, architecture, and design is traced through the work and theory of Pugin, Ruskin, and Morris. The significance and influence of such organizations as the Century Guild, the Art-Workers' Guild, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, and the Guild of Handicraft is also discussed, as is the work of individual designers, including Gimson, De Morgan, the Martin Brothers, Benson, and Crane.The Arts and Crafts theory, as well as contributing to the development of Art Nouveau, also helped to form the dogma of the Modern Movement; and the conviction that ethics and aesthetics were in some way inseparable was to influence design theory at least until the 1950s.The book is profusely illustrated with photographs, many of them in full color.

Piet Mondrian: Catalogue Raisonné

Abstract: The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) profoundly influenced the development of abstract painting and sculpture. This slipcased, two-volume catalogue raisonne provides a detailed record of his work, from the early figurative paintings to the distinctive Neo-Plastic abstractions for which he is famous. Accompanying the text are more than 1300 illustrations of all the artist's known paintings, drawings and sketchbooks. The book also includes sources for the Mondrian correspondence quoted, indexes of collections, subjects and names, a concordance index, lists of exhibitions and auctions of Mondrian's art, interviews with and reminiscences of the artist, and an illustrated history of the evolution of his signature.

The Present State of Rembrandt Studies

Abstract: Because they came into this world or because they left it exactly one or more centuries ago, Erasmus, Pieter Bruegel, Rembrandt and Matisse were commemorated in 1969. Special exhibitions were devoted to all four, and the pace of publications quickened. The first volume of Erasmus's Opera Omnia was prepared in time to appear in the Erasmus Year, and the exhibition in Rotterdam devoted to him probably included more works of art of great significance than any other exhibition that was primarily of a historical rather than an art-historical nature. Pieter Bruegel's art and thought as it was reproduced and made accessible in the numerous prints issued by Jerome Cock and other publishers was shown in Brussels, and both Bruegel and Matisse received special attention at the International Congress of the History of Art in Budapest. The number of exhibitions and the volume of publications devoted to them, however, are in no way comparable to the staggering amount of articles, catalogues and books devoted to Rembrandt (see appended list referred to by number). It is doubtful whether the reasons for this imbalance should be sought in a greater need for clarification of questions concerning Rembrandt than the other artists. Commercial motivation on the part of book publishers, the availability of drawings and etchings for exhibitions (Bruegel does not travel well), and the sense of duty of Dutch art historians to pay homage to the nation's greatest artist may all have contributed to this flood of publications. The results are surprisingly refreshing. Although the changes in the interpretation of the past do not follow the cycle of commemorative events, the latter apparently encouraged those who had something to say to formulate their thoughts. The year 1969 has contributed some fundamental and numerous minor changes to our concept of Rembrandt. I will discuss the changes effected by publications that appeared in 1969 in the following categories: (I) Exhibitions; (2) The artist's life; (3) The definition of his oeuvre (in the sense of the extent of paintings, etchings, and drawings, as well as of formal derivations and dating of individual works); (4) Iconography; (5) Rembrandt and the art of his contemporaries; (6) Monographs; (7) Finally, I should like to formulate some desiderata.

Contemporary Black Artists in America

Abstract: "This exhibition is devoted to commitment - to pictures and objects which affirm hard work, faith, patience, imagination, and aesthetic, integrity; to creation, bringing forth life or causing life to be realized anew; to human values, both intellectual and emotional. It is devoted to American artists who are Black - creative individuals, with widely, disparate intentions, ideas and goals; artists whose works are categorized as 'Black Art,' or 'Afro-American Art,' despite the fact that diversity is their universal trait." -- page 7.

The Synge manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin : a catalogue prepared on the occasion of the Synge centenary exhibition, 1971

Abstract: Eleven homages to Synge's art and contributions to scholarship, ranging from an analytical study of his language to a consideration of the style of acting demanded from his plays.

New York University's Art Collection

Abstract: The bringing together of more than 120 works for the exhibition, “20th Century Painting and Sculpture from the New York University Art Collection” at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers (Oct. 1-Nov. 15), marked the first showing in the New York area to be held outside of the University community where it is dispersed in various offices and corridors. Thus the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to see a major cross-section of the Collection in one place at one time.

An Anglo-American Friendship: Allston and Coleridge

Abstract: One of the most interesting and intense of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's various friendships, and one which especially affected the poet, sprang from his association with the American cosmopolite, Washington Allston. Though largely forgotten now, or ignored if remembered, Allston was an artist of great prominence in the first half of the nineteenth century, acclaimed in the United States as the foremost American painter. His writings—consisting mainly of a slender volume of verse, The Sylphs of the Seasons, and an Italian revenge tale, Monaldi—were also highly praised in journals and among the literati. But when the ‘historical style’, a term applied to romantic idealism in painting, went out of fashion, Allston's high standing as painter went with it; nor were his writings of the volume or quality to sustain a literary reputation. There exists no doubt, though, that Allston was the first skilled all-round American painter, for the simple reason that no American before him had painted competently such a broad range of subjects in the different genres. Neither is there any doubt as to Allston's influence upon contemporary artists and writers. He was a catalyst who seemed to stir others to expression wherever he went. His 1839 exhibition of paintings in Boston caused a mild sensation and was written about by Margaret Fuller, James Freeman Clarke, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Elizabeth Peabody. Washington Irving's story ‘The Wife’ in The Sketch-Book was based on Allston's married life.