In the American Grain: Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Alfred Stieglitz : The Stieglitz Circle at the Phillips Collection [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Hutton Turner (Author), Phillips Collection (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

In the American Grain gathers work from the Stieglitz circle as acquired by Duncan Phillips: paintings by Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Georgia O'Keeffe; Stieglitz's own photographic "Equivalents". These artists defied European tradition, exhibiting a bold, original style that signaled art's coming of age in America.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Alfred Stieglitz exhibited, defended, and promoted the most revolutionary artists he could find, especially the four painters showcased in this volume: Arthur Dove, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Their work, along with Stieglitz's own stunning cloud photographs, is at the core of the famous Phillips Collection housed in Washington, D.C. Duncan Phillips, an intrepid collector, forged a complicated alliance with Stieglitz, one that survived serious conflicts and led to the creation of the first modern art museum in the country. Both Stieglitz and Phillips were avid about art that was genuinely American in its spirit, innovation, and connection to the land. All five artists meet and exceed these criteria as they merge mindscape and landscape. Dove tops the list both in number of works and in the daring of his organic yet mystical compositions. Marin's translucent yet energetic watercolors stand in strong contrast to Hartley's saturated, heavily worked oils; O'Keeffe contributes a distilled sensuality; and Stieglitz captures the abstract beauty of sky and cloud. Curator Turner has chosen well both in terms of colorplates and text, which contains a lively history of Phillips' collecting venture. Donna Seaman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint; 1St Edition edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887178015
• ISBN-13: 978-1887178013
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,105,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darn! Another Book Out of Print!, July 18, 2008

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Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In the American Grain: Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Alfred Stieglitz : The Stieglitz Circle at the Phillips Collection (Hardcover)

No point reviewing it in detail. Hartley, Dove, and O'Keefe are three of my favorite 20th C painters, and I was reminded of this book by seeing some of their works in the new De Young Museum in San Francisco. Hartley's stock seems to be rising these days. The Walker Museum in Minneapolis is the best place to get to know him. I had a chance to buy a Hartley canvas some twenty years ago, but I thought it was overpriced. Terrible mistake! It would sell for six to eight times more now. With critical assessments shifting from the who-influenced-whom approach to a more open-eyed confrontation with the paintings per se, Hartley is bound to rise even higher.

The new De Young didn't thrill me at first. It looks a lot like Darth Vader's garage from the outside, and it was built to house an essentially provincial collection. HOWEVER... It's getting a comfortable feeling inside, with excellent viewing angles and light, and the collection includes three wonders: 1)great stuff from Indonesia, well displayed and intelligently labeled. 2)great stuff from Mesoamerica, also well displayed. 3)about four good gallery rooms of 20th C American paintings, including the three mentioned above, and Diebenkorn, Jess, de Kooning, Hopper, TH Benton, etc. I like to jog through Golden Gate Park, stop at the De Young to view just one gallery or even one painting, and then jog out to the Pacific.