Back Art in America 1945–1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism

Art in America 1945–1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism

Includes 32 pages of paintings and sculptures in full color More

Edited by Jed Perl

“Jed Perl has compiled an invigorating panorama of art writing from a crucial quarter century, adding vital context with his incisive commentaries. As today’s art writers suffer diminishing visibility, the pleasure to be had exploring this collection comes as a salutary shock. An unexpectedly compulsive read.”—Elizabeth C. Baker, editor-at-large, Art in America magazine

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

Interviews Remembering John Ashbery: LOA’s 2008 interview
June 8, 2022

News Remembering John Ashbery: Writers pay tribute
June 7, 2022

Interviews “A project of self-transformation”—Benjamin Moser on the life and work of Susan Sontag
September 25, 2019

The quarter century after the end of World War II was a period of startling transformation in American art, signaled first by the triumph of abstraction and the ascendancy of painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline, and then by the advent of Pop and Minimalism. The vitality of this creative explosion shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York and generated a body of writing of singular significance and style. In the words of editor Jed Perl, “there has never been a period when the visual arts have been written about with more mongrel energy—with more unexpected mixtures of reportage, rhapsody, analysis, advocacy, editorializing, and philosophy.”

In this Library of America volume, Perl, an acclaimed art critic and historian, gathers for the first time the most vibrant contemporary accounts of this momentous period—by artists, critics, poets, gallery owners, and other observers—conveying the sweep and energy of a cultural scene dominated (in the poet James Schuyler’s words) by “the floods of paint in whose crashing surf we all scramble.”

This was a time when art mattered, and there was no lack of passionate, articulate voices to argue why and how. It was an age of contention and enthusiasm, when questions of style and representation, of commercialism and artistic rigor, were fundamental. Here are statements by the most significant painters, sculptors, and photographers—the diaries of Joseph Cornell and Charles Burchfield, the meditative essays of Jack Tworkov, the deadpan aphorisms of Andy Warhol, the manifestos of Marcel Duchamp and Ad Reinhardt—and major critical essays by Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, Meyer Schapiro, Hilton Kramer, and other influential figures. Here too is an electrifying array of responses by poets and novelists, reflecting the interplay between different art forms: Susan Sontag on happenings, John Ashbery on Joan Mitchell, Frank O’Hara on David Smith, James Agee on Helen Levitt, James Baldwin on Beauford Delaney, Truman Capote on Richard Avedon, Tennessee Williams on Hans Hofmann, Ralph Ellison on Romare Bearden, Jack Kerouac on Robert Frank. The atmosphere of the time—from the Cedar Tavern to the Museum of Modern Art—comes to vivid life in memoirs, diaries, and journalistic reports by Peggy Guggenheim, Edwin Denby, Morton Feldman, Grace Hartigan, Larry Rivers, Dwight Macdonald, Calvin Tomkins, and others.

Jed Perl weaves all this writing together with engaging headnotes that establish the historical background, sketch the outsized personalities of the artists and critics, and chart the battle lines of the aesthetic contests that defined the era. The result is an unprecedented cultural history told by those who made it, what Perl describes as “a magnificent, cacophonous sort of oratorio, with soloists and choir members agreeing about little except that the time has come for American art to take its place on the world stage.” It is a book that every art lover will treasure.

Jed Perl, editor, is the art critic for The New Republic. He is the author of New Art City: Manhattan at Mid-Century (2005), Antoine’s Alphabet: Watteau and His World (2008), Magicians and Charlatans: Essays on Art and Culture (2012), and other books. He teaches art history at The New School.

This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.

Art in America 1945–1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism is kept in print by a gift from the Towles family to the Guardians of American Letters Fund, made in memory of Stokely P. Towles.
News & Views

Interviews Remembering John Ashbery: LOA’s 2008 interview
June 8, 2022

News Remembering John Ashbery: Writers pay tribute
June 7, 2022

Interviews “A project of self-transformation”—Benjamin Moser on the life and work of Susan Sontag
September 25, 2019

Interviews David Rieff on how his mother, Susan Sontag, lived as “a citizen of the Republic of Letters”
September 17, 2019

Interviews Jed Perl: how the lives of visual artists were “woven together with the lives of novelists, poets, and intellectuals”
June 16, 2016
Table of Contents

Introduction by Jed Perl

Jackson Pollock
My Painting
Mark Rothko
The Romantics Were Prompted
Two Statements from The Tiger’s Eye
Barnett Newman
The First Man Was an Artist
The Sublime Is Now
Ohio, 1949
Peggy Guggenheim
Art of This Century
Henry Miller
(from) The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney
James Agee
Introduction to Helen Levitt’s A Way of Seeing
Charles Burchfield
Journals, 1948–50
Robert M. Coates
Mondrian, Kleenex, and You
Willem de Kooning
The Renaissance and Order
What Abstract Art Means to Me
Edwin Denby
The Thirties
Willem de Kooning
Katz: Collage, Cutout, Cut-up
The Silence at Night
“At first sight, not Pollock, Kline scared”
“Alex Katz paints his north window”
Parker Tyler
Jackson Pollock: The Infinite Labyrinth
Lincoln Kirstein
Elie Nadelman: Sculptor of the Dance
Tennessee Williams
An Appreciation
Anton Myrer
(from) Evil Under the Sun
Hans Hofmann
(from) The Search for the Real in the Visual Arts
Clement Greenberg
Review of an Exhibition of Willem de Kooning
The Role of Nature in Modern Painting
“American-Type” Painting
Modernist Painting
Clyfford Still
Statement
An Open Letter to an Art Critic
Dwight Ripley
An Alphabetical Guide to Modern Art Alphabetical Guide No. 2 Acrostic for Jackson Pollock
Robert Motherwell
Black or White What Abstract Art Means to Me
Weldon Kees
Robert Motherwell
Adolph Gottlieb
Mark Tobey
Reminiscence and Reverie
Kenneth Rexroth
The Visionary Painting of Morris Graves
William Carlos Williams
Painting in the American Grain
Marianne Moore
Robert Andrew Parker
Dwight Macdonald
(from) Action on West Fifty-Third Street
Harold Rosenberg
The American Action Painters Parable of American Painting Evidences Mobile, Theatrical, Active
Mary McCarthy
An Academy of Risk
Jack Tworkov
A Cahier Leaf Statement Four Excerpts from a Journal
Irving Sandler
Joan Mitchell
Fielding Dawson
(from) An Emotional Memoir of Franz Kline
William Gaddis
(from) The Recognitions
Jack Kerouac
Introduction to Robert Frank’s The Americans
Truman Capote
On Richard Avedon
Aaron Siskind
Statement
Randall Jarrell
Against Abstract Expressionism
John Graham
Excerpts from an Unfinished Manuscript Titled “Art”
Alfred Russell
Toward Meta-Form
Joseph Cornell
From the Diaries
Alexander Calder
What Abstract Art Means to Me
Ben Shahn
(from) The Shape of Content
Isamu Noguchi
(from) A Sculptor’s World
Anni Albers
Tapestry
David Smith
The Landscape
The Question—what is your hope
The Question—what are your influences
“there is something rather noble about junk”
Dream
Howard Nemerov
Four Soldiers: A Sculpture in Iron by David Smith
Louise Bourgeois
An Artist’s Words
On the Creative Process
Form
Philip Guston
Piero della Francesca: The Impossibility of Painting
Faith, Hope and Impossibility
Morton Feldman
Philip Guston: The Last Painter
Give My Regards to Eighth Street
Ad Reinhardt
Abstract Art Refuses
Art-As-Art
Robert Creeley
Harry Callahan: A Note
John Chamberlain
On the Road: Notes on Artists and Poets 1950–1965
Elaine de Kooning
Pure Paints a Picture
Painting a Portrait of the President
Meyer Schapiro
The Liberating Quality of Avant-Garde Art
On the Humanity of Abstract Painting
Marcel Duchamp
The Creative Act
Apropos of “Readymades”
Grace Hartigan
Statement
From the Journals, 1952
Frank O’Hara
Why I Am Not a Painter
David Smith: The Color of Steel
Art Chronicle I
Larry Rivers: A Memoir
Larry Rivers
Life Among the Stones
James Schuyler
Statement on Poetics
The Painting of Jane Freilicher
Short Reviews from Art News
Calvin Tomkins
(from) Beyond the Machine
May Swenson
At the Museum of Modern Art
Allan Kaprow
The Legacy of Jackson Pollock
Susan Sontag
Happenings: An Art of Radical Juxtaposition
James Baldwin
On the Painter Beauford Delaney
Philip Leider
Bruce Conner: A New Sensibility
Joan Brown
Kate Steinitz
A Visit With Sam Rodia
Jess
Letter to Jerry Reilly
Robert Duncan
(from) Iconographical Extensions
H. C. Westermann
Three Letters
Robert Rosenblum
The Abstract Sublime
Sidney Tillim
Month in Review, January 1962
Franz Kline (1910–1962)
Philip Pearlstein and the New Philistinism
John Cage
Jasper Johns: Stories and Ideas
Jasper Johns
Statement
Sketchbook Notes
Robert Rauschenberg
Statement
Leo Steinberg
Contemporary Art and the Plight of its Public
Andy Warhol
What Is Pop Art?
(from) The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Claes Oldenburg
(from) Store Days
Gene R. Swenson
The New American “Sign Painters”
John Bernard Myers
Junkdump Fair Surveyed
Fairfield Porter
The Paintings of E. E. Cummings
Richard Stankiewicz
John Graham
Against Idealism
Joseph Cornell
A Painter Obsessed By Blue
Hilton Kramer
Edward Hopper: An American Vision
Ralph Ellison
The Art of Romare Bearden
Louis Finkelstein
Painting as Painting
Thomas B. Hess
The Battle of Paris, Strip-tease and Trotsky: Some Non-Scenic Travel Notes
Barbara Rose
ABC Art
Donald Judd
Local History
Specific Objects
Rosalind Krauss
Allusion and Illusion in Donald Judd
Robert Smithson
The Crystal Land
Michael Fried
New York Letter: Warhol
Art and Objecthood
John Ashbery
Andy Warhol in Paris
Joan Mitchell
Leland Bell
The Invisible Avant-Garde
Contributors
James Agee Anni Albers John Ashbery James Baldwin Louise Bourgeois Charles Burchfield John Cage Alexander Calder Truman Capote Robert M. Coates Joseph Cornell Robert Creeley Fielding Dawson Elaine de Kooning Willem de Kooning Edwin Denby Marcel Duchamp Robert Duncan Ralph Ellison Morton Feldman Louis Finkelstein Michael Fried William Gaddis John Graham Clement Greenberg Peggy Guggenheim Philip Guston Grace Hartigan Thomas B. Hess Hans Hoffman Randall Jarrell Jess Jasper Johns Donald Judd Allan Kaprow Weldon Kees Jack Kerouac Lincoln Kerstein Hilton Kramer Rosalind Krauss Philip Leider Dwight Macdonald Mary McCarthy Henry Miller Marianne Moore Robert Motherwell John Bernard Myers Anton Myrer Howard Nemerov Barnett Newman Isamu Noguchi Frank O’Hara Claes Oldenburg Jackson Pollock Fairfield Porter Robert Rauchenberg Ad Reinhardt Kenneth Rexroth Dwight Ripley Larry Rivers Barbara Rose Harold Rosenberg Robert Rosenblum Mark Rothko Alfred Russell Irving Sandler Meyer Schapiro James Schuyler Ben Shahn Aaron Siskind David Smith Robert Smithson Susan Sontag Leo Steinberg Kate Steinitz Wallace Stevens Clyfford Still Gene R. Swenson May Swenson Sidney Tillin Mark Tobey Calvin Tomkins Jack Tworkov Parker Tyler Andy Warhol H. C. Westemann Tennessee Williams William Carlos Williams

COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
Anni Albers Romare Bearden Joan Brown Charles Burchfield Joseph Cornell Willem de Kooning Helen Frankenthaler Jane Freilicher John Graham Morris Graves Philip Guston Grace Hartigan Hans Hofmann Jess Jasper Johns Donald Judd Alfred Leslie Roy Lichtenstein Joan Mitchell Robert Morris Robert Motherwell Barnett Newman Philip Pearlstein Jackson Pollock Fairfield Porter Robert Rauschenberg Larry Rivers James Rosenquist Mark Rothko Clyfford Still Jack Tworkov Andy Warhol

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ISBN: 978-1-59853-310-1 867 pages

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N° 259 Library of America Series

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