Drawing from The Modern, Volume 2: 1945-1975 [Hardcover]

Carl Andre (Author), Willem de Kooning (Author), Eva Hesse (Author), Jasper Johns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2005

Visual art in the period following World War II witnessed landmark transformations. Today, drawing provides a powerful and vigorous device for reexamining the art of that period, and for renewing appreciation of the extraordinary achievements of well-known artists--and for discovering others. Even though the art of these years saw radical departures and shifts, drawing, which is among the most traditional of media, played a crucial and consistent role in the work of a great majority of the most significant artists. Drawing from the Modern, 1945-1975, surveys the drawing of the period through the unparalleled holdings of the drawings collection of The Museum of Modern Art. The postwar period saw the development of Abstract Expressionism in New York, followed by Pop art, Minimal art, and Conceptual art, and the Museum's collection has exceptional strength in these areas. Abstract drawings by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Barnett Newman open this volume, followed by works by such key figures as Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly and Cy Twombly. Next, drawings by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol signal the arrival of a new figurative art at the forefront of creativity. But reductive and abstract art kept pace, and the Museum's collection offers a breathtaking array of drawings by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Richard Serra and numerous others. What constitutes "progress" in art is questioned today, and it is no longer possible to see the development of art as a straight line, with synchronicity among places and geographies. But drawing, by its very nature, encourages established understandings to be examined and accepted values to be reappraised. Many of the artists represented here defy easy categorization, including Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Ray Johnson, Jim Nutt and Myron Stout. The resurgence of European art is represented by drawings by Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers, Piero Manzoni, Henri Michaux, Mario Merz and Sigmar Polke, among others. A number the most important artists working in Latin America in the postwar period are also represented, including Jorge de la Vega, Gego, Leon Ferrari, Helio Oiticica and Mira Schendel. While neither the collection nor this volume is encyclopedic, the spirit and achievements of postwar art are distilled and amply celebrated here.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gary Garrels is the Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

"Jodi Hauptman is Asistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of Delaware." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (March 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870706640
• ISBN-13: 978-0870706646
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars should have been better, September 13, 2007

By 

timothy manly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drawing from the Modern (3 Volumes) (Hardcover)

I purchased book 1 & 2 from Amazon. The illustrations are far too small to be a professionally represented art book from MOMA I've decided to save my money rather than pay out for the 3rd edition. It sounds a good buy from its description but I don't consider this trilogy to be very satisfactory.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money!, August 8, 2007

By 

Christian Karl (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Drawing from The Modern, Volume 3: 1975-2005 (Hardcover)

This is not a good artbook. The images are way too small to be satisfying. This book could have been great, but falls way short of its potential. Don't buy it, you will be disappointed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DRAWING from the MODERN, December 27, 2006

By 

Nancy Gutrich (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Drawing from The Modern, Volume I: 1880-1940 (Paperback)

DRAWING from the MODERN is the first of a three part series published by MOMA as catalogue to accompany the chronologically arranged exhibitions of their drawing collection; in part, celebration of the seventy fifth anniversary of the founding of the Museum.

This first book looks at the late nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. Care and preservation of these drawings dictate that they are displayed infrequently, paper being a delicate medium, subject to fading, discoloration and brittleness. The publication of this series then allows us to have at hand a history of drawings seldom seen, and a visual education demonstrating how problems of that era both evolved and worked themselves out.

The introduction by Jodi Hauptman is broad and well worth reading. Aside from her entertaining "end of art" stories, she addresses artists and process leading to the dissolution of prevalent notions: relationship of "mark" to "ground", took new form; spatial notions of an orderly page, questioned; the element of chance, explored as process; the ego relationship of an artist to work, dissolving. New imagery happened: collage, abstraction, grids, enhanced emotions, metaphors of feeling, the sublime re-imaged. New subjects explored brutalities of war, notions of "city", identity, the spiritual, and the abstract.

As perhaps with all process of art, the uncertainty of change brought forth much that is new. The 139 plates of drawings both demonstrate and give testimony by leading artists of the time to new era in process. Drawing as subject matter is fascinating. To be expected, the book is well printed. Of course, what is book one without book two and three?

Nancy Gutrich