Customer Reviews

Painting and Sculpture in Europe: 1880-1940 (Hist of Art)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Initially written in 1966, this survey of 19th and 20th century modern art is defintely showing its age. Despite five revisions between 1971 and 1993, most of the references to critical scholarship date from the 1950s and 1960s. I do not imagine this book will be revised again. The author maintains a rather tradition and connoisseur-bound view of the periods under consideration that sometimes lacks engagement and vibrancy. It is as if the revolution in art criticism during the 60s/70s/80s never happened.

I don't know the reason for why the period 1880 to 1940 was chosen as the years bracketing this survey, but the result of choosing the 1880 date is that two of the major figures in French Modernism (Courbet and Manet) are conspicuously absent. The author has also chosen to focus on individual artists, sometimes at the expense of more fully covering art movements and social context within which they emerged.

Images are decently chosen, though small and primarily black and white. Focus of the text is on established European artists with barely a mention of artists in North America.

Readers might consider the following Open University texts covering similar ground to Hamilton but in a more engaging manner:

Modernity and Modernism : French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, by Francis Frascina, et al.
Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction : The Early Twentieth Century, by Gill Perry, et al.
Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism : Art Between the Wars, by David Batchelor, et al.

If one reads this book in hopes of getting a fairly complete overview of art of the early Twentieth Century, they will not be disappointed. However, if one is looking for something more in depth, with various examples of an artists oevure, then perhaps they should keep looking. One of this book's greatest virtues as an overview is that it does not assume a great deal of knowledge of art on the part of the reader and is relatively engaging. However, images are few and far between and not always of the best quality, which I find to be an integral part of an art historical publication.

arrived fast, and in the "like new" condition that was stated in the description. Thank you for the speedy service!