Description

Book Synopsis

Marginal to Mainstream traces the near-miraculous progress of modern art in France in the first half of the twentieth century. Before World War One, it was a marginal phenomenon, largely absent from the museums, and bought and sold by a handful of second-string dealers; by the early 1950s it had been canonized as the representative form of the epoch. The triumph of modernism, and the simultaneous establishment of Paris as the crucible of modern art, were not the products of a coherent policy but of a stumbling and spasmodic process. France was the leading democratic nation in Europe, and it wanted its art to reinforce its prestige on the international stage, but no-one could agree how best to achieve this. The author shows how, amidst the policy squabbles and in-fighting of representative government, France fumbled its way towards an art of democracy, and in the process helped canonize modern art as the house style of democratic capitalism.



Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter OneArt and the National Interest in the Early 1920s

Chapter TwoHome and Abroad, 1925-1931

Chapter ThreeModern Art and the Depression in France, 1931-1936

Chapter FourThe Mixed Message of Popular Front Cultural Policy

Chapter FiveThe Triumph of Historical Modernism

Conclusion

Marginal to Mainstream: French Modernism Between

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    A Hardback by Toby Norris

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      Book details

      Publisher Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
      Published 30 October 2023
      ISBN-13 9781683932482
      978-1683932482
      ISBN-10 168393248X
      Also in:
      History of art

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Marginal to Mainstream traces the near-miraculous progress of modern art in France in the first half of the twentieth century. Before World War One, it was a marginal phenomenon, largely absent from the museums, and bought and sold by a handful of second-string dealers; by the early 1950s it had been canonized as the representative form of the epoch. The triumph of modernism, and the simultaneous establishment of Paris as the crucible of modern art, were not the products of a coherent policy but of a stumbling and spasmodic process. France was the leading democratic nation in Europe, and it wanted its art to reinforce its prestige on the international stage, but no-one could agree how best to achieve this. The author shows how, amidst the policy squabbles and in-fighting of representative government, France fumbled its way towards an art of democracy, and in the process helped canonize modern art as the house style of democratic capitalism.



      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter OneArt and the National Interest in the Early 1920s

      Chapter TwoHome and Abroad, 1925-1931

      Chapter ThreeModern Art and the Depression in France, 1931-1936

      Chapter FourThe Mixed Message of Popular Front Cultural Policy

      Chapter FiveThe Triumph of Historical Modernism

      Conclusion

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