WHAT IS MODERN PAINTING?
Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
Alfred H. Barr, Jr.: WHAT IS MODERN PAINTING? New York: Museum of Modern Art, September 1943. First edition [Introductory Series to the Modern Arts 2]. Slim quarto. Printed thick and sewn wrappers. 44 pp. 51 black and white photo plates. Faint spot to upper edge of a few leaves, otherwise a nearly fine copy.
7.5 x 10 softcover book with 44 pages and 51 black and white illustrations. The famed director of MoMA introduced Modern Art to a readership with little previous experience of the subject. Barr discusses the major movments of the 20th century without delivering a fully historical account, yet delivers a very personal, almost polemical manifesto of Modernism for an uninitiated audience. [Lucas p 71. ]
Part of Introductory Series to the Modern Arts 2; chapters and illustrations include the Constructors, Realism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Contrasts, Motion and Commotion, Mystery and Magic, Allegory and Prophecy.
Includes woud by Matisse, Stuart Davis, Clemente Orozco, Winslow Homer, Ben Shahn, Edward Hopper, Charles Sheeler, Grant Wood, William Gropper, John Kane, Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard, Vincent Van Gogh, John Marin, Max Beckmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Leger, Georges Braque, Charles Burchfeld, Henri Rousseau, Georgio De Chirico, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Paul Klee, Peter Blume, and others.