This chronologically organized and comprehensive anthology of readings tells the whole story of art in America from 1900 to the present. It focuses on the themes, issues, and controversies that occurred throughout the century--using selections that are contemporary with the art--by artists, critics, exhibition organizers, poets, politicians, and other writers on culture. Some recurring themes and issues include issues of identity; the changing nature of modernism and modernity; nationalism; art as individual or community expression; the nature of public art; and the role of criticism, censorship, and government intervention. Texts by well-known writers include Meyer Schapiro, Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried, Donald Kuspit, and Kate Linker. A guide for those interested in both the standard interpretations of American art and in alternative readings.

Shedding fresh light on modern art beyond the West, this text introduces readers to artists, art movements, debates and theoretical positions of the modern era that continue to shape contemporary art worldwide. Area histories of modern art are repositioned and interconnected towards a global art historiography. Provides a much-needed corrective to the Eurocentric historiography of modern art, offering a more worldly and expanded view than any existing modern art survey Brings together a selection of major essays and historical documents from a wide range of sources Section introductions, critical essays, and documents provide the relevant contextual and historiographical material, link the selections together, and guide the reader through the key theoretical positions and debates Offers a useful tool for students and scholars with little or no prior knowledge of non-Western modernisms Includes many contrasting voices in its documents and essays, encouraging reader response and lively classroom discussion Includes a selection of major essays and historical documents addressing not only painting and sculpture but photography, film and architecture as well.

Between the 1890s and the 1930s, movie going became an established feature of everyday life across America. Movies constituted an enormous visual data bank and changed the way artist and public alike interpreted images. This book explores modern painting as a response to, and an appropriation of, the aesthetic possibilities pried open by cinema from its invention until the outbreak of World War II, when both the art world and the film industry changed substantially. Artists were watching movies, filmmakers studied fine arts; the membrane between media was porous, allowing for fluid exchange. Each chapter focuses on a suite of films and paintings, broken down into facets and then reassembled to elucidate the distinctive art–film nexus at successive historic moments.

"A provocative interpretation of the political and cultural history of the early cold war years. . . . By insisting that art, even art of the avant-garde, is part of the general culture, not autonomous or above it, he forces us to think differently not only about art and art history but about society itself."—New York Times Book Review

Large-format and illustrated with original photography: a fresh look at the current scene for art lovers and a unique introduction to the art world for the novice For centuries, America's permutations of climate and landscape and its tantalizing suggestion of unlimited possibilities have inspired some of history's greatest minds to embark on both literal and imaginary journeys of exploration, none more so than its visual artists. Contrasting intimate visits to artists' studios with explorations of the country's sweeping landscapes of light and form that have inspired artists since the Luminists and the Hudson River School, here is a privileged look at the dreams, ideas, and thoughts of more than one hundred American artists who are active today. From established figures such as Marina Abramovic, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Francesco Clemente Chuck Close, John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Richard Prince, Robert Irwin, Kiki Smith, Bill Viola, and Lawrence Weiner to members of the new guard, including Diana Al-Hadid, Tauba Auerbach, Mark Bradford, Theaster Gates, Rashid Johnson, and Sterling Ruby, this profusely and beautifully illustrated journey through artists' studios provides an unprecedented look into the workings of one of the world's largest artistic communities. From New York's skyline to Southern California's sunny boardwalks, Art Studio America will embolden readers the chance to embark on transformative journeys of their own. The book includes essays by Robert Storr, Mark Godfrey, and Ben Genocchio.

Since ’45 details the collision of American history and modern art. Since World War II, New York has been the indisputable center of the art world, and as Katy Siegel shows, it has had a profound influence on the preoccupations that contemporary art would come to have. Tracing art history over the past decades, she shows how anxieties over race, mass culture, the individual, suburbia, apocalypse, and nuclear destruction have supplanted the legacy of European artistic traditions. Siegel’s study encompasses a variety of works, including Rothko’s planes of color, Warhol’s serial silkscreens, Richard Prince’s cowboys, Robert Longo’s Men in Cities, Faith Ringgold’s Black Light, and Laurie Simmons’s dollhouses, and moves fluidly from discussions of artists’ works, art museums, and galleries to cultural influences and significant historical events. Rather than arguing on nationalist grounds or viewing American culture as representative of a now-devalued nation, Siegel explores how American culture dominated not only American artists but created conditions that now, after the full globalization of the art world, affect artists around the world. Since ’45 will interest all readers engaged in post-war and contemporary art in the United States and beyond.