Archaism, an international artistic phenomenon from early in the twentieth century through the 1930s, receives its first sustained analysis in this book. The distinctive formal and technical conventions of archaic art, especially Greek art, particularly affected sculptors—some frankly modernist, others staunchly conservative, and a few who, like American Paul Manship, negotiated the distance between tradition and modernity. Susan Rather considers the theory, practice, and criticism of early twentieth-century sculpture in order to reveal the changing meaning and significance of the archaic in the modern world. To this end—and against the background of Manship’s career—she explores such topics as the archaeological resources for archaism, the classification of the non-Western art of India as archaic, the interest of sculptors in modem dance (Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis), and the changing critical perception of archaism. Rather rejects the prevailing conception of archaism as a sterile and superficial academic style to argue its initial importance as a modernist mode of expression. The early practitioners of archaism—including Aristide Maillol, André Derain, and Constantin Brancusi—renounced the rhetorical excess, overrefined naturalism, and indirect techniques of late nineteenth-century sculpture in favor of nonnarrative, stylized and directly carved works, for which archaic Greek art offered an important example. Their position found implicit support in the contemporaneous theoretical writings of Emmanuel Löwy, Wilhelm Worringer, and Adolf von Hildebrand. The perceived relationship between archaic art and tradition ultimately compromised the modernist authority of archaism and made possible its absorption by academic and reactionary forces during the 1910s. By the 1920s, Paul Manship was identified with archaism, which had become an important element in the aesthetic of public sculpture of both democratic and totalitarian societies. Sculptors often employed archaizing stylizations as ends in themselves and with the intent of evoking the foundations of a classical art diminished in potency by its ubiquity and obsolescence. Such stylistic archaism was not an empty formal exercise but an urgent affirmation of traditional values under siege. Concurrently, archaism entered the mainstream of fashionable modernity as an ingredient in the popular and commercial style known as Art Deco. Both developments fueled the condemnation of archaism—and of Manship, its most visible exemplar—by the avant-garde. Rather’s exploration of the critical debate over archaism, finally, illuminates the uncertain relationship to modernism on the part of many critics and highlights the problematic positions of sculpture in the modernist discourse.

For more than a century, a Gilded Age mansion on the south side of New York City's Gramercy Park has been home to the National Arts Club (NAC), its magnificent interior a refuge from hectic city life. In this special catalog, Lowrey, curator of the club's permanent collection, documents selected works by Artist Life Members, artists who were given lifetime memberships in the club in exchange for one of their works (the program ended in 1950 with the advent of the abstract expressionists). The father of well-known American sculptor Alexander Calder, Alexander Stirling Calder, was an Artist Life Member, and his sculpture of the painter George Bellows is among the many artworks included here. Also featured are an A-to-Z listing of Artist Life Members and a brief history of the NAC. The catalog section includes full-color reproductions and descriptions of the artworks as well as brief biographies of the artist. Many members' works show European influences, particularly impressionism and the Barbizon school, while others are distinctly American, as in the Ash Can school. A fine and fitting tribute to the NAC legacy that will be of interest to club, academic, and large public libraries. 75 colour & 175 b/w illustrations

New definition to the little-known work Wright produced during this period, which he describes as Wright's primitivist phase. He traces this influence in his art through Wright's explorations of primitivist sources, innovations in sculpture, and an intensification of the architect's use of ornament. Less tangible, but as important, was Wright's view of himself, his art, and society, and Alofsin uncovers the European impact on the architect's image of himself as a.

Fragmentary Modernism begins from a simple observation: what has been called the 'apotheosis of the fragment' in the art and writing of modernism emerged hand in hand with a series of paradigm-shifting developments in classical scholarship, which brought an unprecedented number of fragmentary texts and objects from classical antiquity to light in modernity. Focusing primarily on the writers who came to define the Anglophone modernist canon -- Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), and Richard Aldington, and the artists like Jacob Epstein and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska with whom they were associated -- the book plots the multiple networks of interaction between modernist practices of the fragment and the disciplines of classical scholarship. Some of the most radical writers and artists of the period can be shown to have engaged intensively with the fragments of Greek and Roman antiquity and their mediations by classical scholars. But the direction of influence also worked the other way: the modernist aesthetic of gaps, absence, and fracture came to shape how classical scholars and museum curators themselves interpreted and presented the fragments of the past to audiences in the present. From papyrology to philology, from epigraphy to archaeology, the 'classical fragment', as we still often see it today, emerged as the joint cultural production of classical scholarship and the literary and visual cultures of modernism.

Smith College art professors Davis and Leshko showcase 100 paintings and sculptures from their institution's vaunted collection, encompassing Americans from Gilbert Stuart to Louise Nevelson and Europeans from Corot to Henry Moore. In the introduction, how and why Smith became steward of such a fine body of work is ascribed to the school's high-minded mission and its generous alumni donors. The rest of the book is divided into two sections, one American and the other European. Each individual full-color reproduction is accompanied by an informative one-page essay and a brief reading list. During several years of renovations at Smith, the items featured in this book are traveling to diverse sites, which should increase the book's appeal. 118 colour & 1 b/w illustrations

A fabulous showcase of individuals, events, and inventions that have made Minnesota.

Postmodernism, multiculturalism, the alleged decline of the United States, deconstruction, leadership, and values—these topics have been at the forefront of contemporary intellectual and cultural debate and are likely to remain so for the near future. Participants in the debate can usefully enlarge the perspective to a comparison between the Greco-Roman world and contemporary society. In this thought-provoking work, a noted classics scholar tests the ancient-modern comparison, showing what it can add to the contemporary debates and what its limitations are. Writing for intellectually adventurous readers, Galinsky explores Greece and Rome as multicultural societies, debates the merits of classicism in postmodern architecture, discusses the reign of Augustus in terms of modern leadership theories, and investigates the modern obsession with finding parallels between the supposed "decline and fall" of Rome and the "decay" of U.S. society. Within these discussions, Galinsky shows the continuing vitality of the classical tradition in the contemporary world. The Greek and Roman civilizations have provided us not only with models for conscious adaptation but also points for radical departures. This ability to change and innovate from classical models is crucial, Galinsky maintains. It creates a reciprocal process whereby contemporary issues are projected into the past while aspects of the ancient world are redefined in terms of current approaches. These essays result in a balanced assessment and stimulating restatement of some major issues in both contemporary U.S. society and the Greco-Roman world. The book, which speaks to a wide interdisciplinary audience, is based on a series of lectures that Galinsky gave as a national visiting scholar for Phi Beta Kappa. It concludes with a discussion of the role of classical studies in the United States today.