Volume 1. The theoretical & practical writings of the artists, architects, clerics & philosophers of the tenth through the sixteenth centuries, which provide the background to the artistic life of the time.

American Art to 1900 presents an astonishing variety of unknown, little-known, or undervalued documents to convey the story of American art through the many voices of its contemporary practitioners, consumers, and commentators. The volume highlights such critically important themes as women artists, African American representation and expression, regional and itinerant artists, Native Americans and the frontier, and more. With its hundreds of explanatory headnotes, this book reveals the documentary riches of American art and its many intersecting histories. -back cover.

"This is a much needed, important collection-a goldmine of sources for scholars and students. The texts articulate the key Primitivist aesthetic discourses of the period, offering crucial insight into the complex and always changing nexus between culture, politics, and representation. Because of the breadth of the materials covered and the controversies they raise, this anthology is one of the all too rare volumes that not only will provide reference materials for years to come but also will feature centrally in classroom discussions."--Suzanne Preston Blier, author of African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power "For almost a century art historians have fretted about the notion of primitivism in the arts. This comprehensive-in both senses of the word-anthology is a peerless source of the history of responses to works categorized as 'primitive.' In its range, the book touches upon all the troubling questions-formal, anthropological, political, historical-that have bedeviled the study of the arts of Oceania, Africa, and North and South America, and provides the grounds, at last, for intelligent pursuit of keener distinctions. I regard this book as a superb contribution to the study of Modern art; in fact, indispensable."--Dore Ashton, author of Noguchi East and West "An extraordinarily useful and complete collection of primary documents, many translated for the first time into English, and almost all unlikely to be encountered elsewhere without serious effort. Its five sections, each with a lively and scholarly introduction, reveal the diverse views of artists and writers on primitive art from Matisse, Picasso, and Fry to many far less known and sometimes surprising figures. The book also uncovers the politics and aesthetics of the major museum exhibitions that gained acceptance for art that had been both reviled and mythologized. Recent texts included are all germane. This book will be invaluable for any college course on the topic."--Shelly Errington, author of The Death of Authentic Primitive Art and Other Tales of Progress "An exceptionally valuable anthology of seventy documents--most heretofore unavailable in English--on the ongoing controversies surrounding Primitivism and Modern art. Insightfully chosen and annotated, the collection is brilliantly introduced by Jack Flam's essay on the historical progression, contexts, and cultural complexities of more than one hundred years' ideas about Primitivism. Rich, timely, illuminating."--Herbert M. Cole, author of Icons: Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa

Fascinating documentation of one of the most important film societies in American history.

The theory and practice of art underwent a number of fascinating changes between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, changes which are clearly revealed in this unique collection of letters, journals, essays, and other writings by the artists and their contemporaries. In the poems of Michelangelo, the Dialogues of Carducho, or the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds, one discovers the stylistic and philosophical concerns of the artist, while the record of Veronese's trial before the Holy Tribunal, the diary of Bernini's journey in France, the letters of Rubens and Poussin or biographical sketches of Rembrandt and Watteau reveal not only the personalities but also the conditions of the times. These basic and illuminating documents, now again available in paperback, provide an unparalleled opportunity for insight into the art and ideas of the periods the author discusses.