1900: Art at the Crossroads [Hardcover]

Robert Rosenblum (Author), Maryanne Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2000

Exactly 100 years ago, art was at a crossroads. Painters such as Sargent, Whistler, Homer, and Rouault were widely acclaimed. Czanne, Degas, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin, Munch, Klimt, and other modern masters were in their prime. And the revolutionaries who would go on to change the course of Western art-Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Kandinsky, and Nolde, among others-were just getting started.

This book, the companion volume to a major international exhibition, provides an eye-opening look at what these and other artists were creating in this watershed year. Organized by subject-from bathers, femmes fatales, and self-portraits to rural scenes, religion, and social comment-and featuring more than 300 colorplates, the book presents both famous and less well-known works. By including a wide range of paintings and sculptures executed at roughly the same time, Robert Rosenblum and MaryAnne Stevens illuminate the cultural crosscurrents that were reshaping Western art-including nationalism, psychology, and technology-and help us see familiar masterworks with a fresh eye. More than 500 illustrations, more than 300 in full color, 9 5/8 x 12"

ROBERT ROSENBLUM is professor of fine arts at New York University, a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and a contributing editor at ArtForum. His 14 previous books include such classics as Abrams' Cubism and 20th-Century Art and, with H. W. Janson, 19th-Century Art.

MARYANNE STEVENS is senior curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. She has edited and contributed to many books and catalogues, including Monet in the 20th Century and The Impressionist and the City.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

At the turn of the last century, academic painters were producing formal works, often with strongly moral overtones, at the same time that a generation of younger artists like Picasso, Matisse, and Kandinsky were exploring revolutionary new methods and ideas. By presenting the range of styles vying for attention at a single point in time, the authors of 1900: Art at the Crossroads challenge the idea of art as a linear progression. The book is the lavish catalog of an exhibition organized by the Royal Academy of London and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Its schizophrenic theme is suggested in the title of the first essay, "Art in 1900: Twilight or Dawn?" The material is organized into concepts established by the French Academy two centuries earlier--still life, the nude, landscapes, and history paintings--plus sections with more modern relevance such as cityscapes and bathers. Arranging works by theme rather than by artist or movement allows for some brilliant juxtapositions: a classical naked Danae by Carolus-Duran is paired with an abstracted Degas nude; a sentimental study of crippled boys by Bastida with a vicious Munch mother-and-child (both paintings titled Inheritance). The preoccupations of fin-de-siècle society emerge; several different treatments of Salome with the severed head of John the Baptist, for example, embody male fears of the femme fatale and her threat to bourgeois values. The book ends with a useful 70-page section of artist biographies. 1900 is a beautifully produced and stimulating study of a pivotal point in European art history. --John Stevenson

From Library Journal

An exhibition organized by The Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1900: Art at the Crossroads examines the diverse range of artworks produced during this period. While artists such as C?zanne, Degas, Rodin, and Klimt were well known by the turn of the century, lesser-known artists were making art that equally reflected the stylistic and social concerns of this epoch. In his essay, the Guggenheim's Rosenblum explores various related themes that are woven within the paintings and sculpture. These include subjects such as fantasy vs. reality, the representation of women, and the new psychological probity. The Royal Academy's Stevens shows how the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris and the issue of nationalism as well as the genesis of international styles in the art of this period foreshadowed developments and the rest of the 20th century. The catalog portion of this book is illustrated with color plates of all the works in the exhibition and divided by theme, such as the city, landscape, portraits, bathers and nudes, and religion. This handsome volume is recommended for general art collections as well as academic and art libraries.
-Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll., MA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1St Edition edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810943034
• ISBN-13: 978-0810943032
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Neoclassical

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Book!, May 13, 2000

By 

Erik Tiemens - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1900: Art at the Crossroads (Hardcover)

This book balances the often overpraised work of the impressionists with the reality of the Salon artists (academics) at that time and the rumblings of modernism to come. As a painter, this title is a real treat... it's always been so hard to find examples from this era, that have not been washed away from post 1920's revisionist art history. Accurately reconstructing the exhibits of that era and showing what was on the fringes speaks for itself.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a Rosenblum fan, May 22, 2000

By 

Caldermobile (Huntsville, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1900: Art at the Crossroads (Hardcover)

Robert Rosenblum is a true scholar in the world of art history. Throughout my undergraduate years, I had looked to his writings for guidance and to gain an understanding of the subject matter. While 1900, Art At The Crossroads is enjoyable and the color plates are stunning, it should be noted that it is companion piece to an exhibition and not a book for academic research. Overall, it is a fine book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1900 - A Pivotal Point In Art History - Superb Color Plates, August 7, 2004

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1900: Art at the Crossroads (Hardcover)

Robert Rosenblum's "1900: Art At The Crossroads" is a gem of a book. This exhibition catalogue contains more than 300 color plates and approximately 200 additional illustrations of paintings and sculpture from a benchmark period in art history. The year nineteen hundred, the beginning of the 20th century, ushered in a period when art was truly at a crossroads. It was, at once, the beginning and the end of an era - the culmination of 19th century art and the beginning of a revolution. Salon artists, the academic realists, Rouault, Sargent, Whistler, and Homer, etc., were at their peak and their work was widely acclaimed. And painters, newly arrived on the scene, from Impressionists, Post-Impressionists to those who had yet to find a label for their work, like Cezanne, Matisse, Mondrian, Picasso, Kandinsky, Klimt and Gaugin, were beginning to discover new methods, new ideas, to express what they saw and felt. They learned from tradition and sought to escape it. These artists would go on to change the way the Western world looked at art

This compilation, the companion volume to a major international exhibit, provides an extraordinary visual history of that period. The quality of the reproductions, especially the color plates, is superb. Work by lesser known artists are displayed here, as well as paintings and sculptures by those whose names we recognize immediately. The book is organized into categories according to subject, i.e., bathers, nudes, self-portraits, still life and landscapes. This method of organization, similar to the concepts established by the French Academy in the 17th century, makes for some fascinating comparisons, i.e., an abstracted Degas nude alongside a classical nude by Carolus-Duran. Robert Rosenblum and Mary Anne Stevens purposely included a wide range of work completed at approximately the same time to reflect change - the wide variety of styles and techniques employed at this period by different artists.

This is a beautiful book and a brilliant study of a pivotal point in European art history. There is a 70 page section of artists' biographies at the catalogue's conclusion.
JANA