Search results for ""Author David Rosand""

Struggling to create an identity distinct from the European tradition but lacking an established system of support, early painting in America received little cultural acceptance in its own country or abroad. Yet despite the initial indifference with which it was first met, American art flourished against the odds and founded the aesthetic consciousness that we equate with American art today. In this exhilarating study David Rosand shows how early American painters transformed themselves from provincial followers of the established traditions of Europe into some of the most innovative and influential artists in the world. Moving beyond simple descriptions of what distinguishes American art from other movements and forms, The Invention of Painting in America explores not only the status of artists and their personal relationship to their work but also the larger dialogue between the artist and society. Rosand looks to the intensely studied portraits of America's early painters-especially Copley and Eakins and the landscapes of Homer and Inness, among others-each of whom grappled with conflicting cultural attitudes and different expressive styles in order to reinvent the art of painting. He discusses the work of Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, and Motherwell and the subjects and themes that engaged them. While our current understanding of America's place in art is largely based on the astonishing success of a handful of mid-twentieth-century painters, Rosand unearths the historical and artistic conditions that both shaped and inspired the phenomenon of Abstract Expressionism.

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Struggling to create an identity distinct from the European tradition but lacking an established system of support, early painting in America received little cultural acceptance in its own country or abroad. Yet despite the initial indifference with which it was first met, American art flourished against the odds and founded the aesthetic consciousness that we equate with American art today. In this exhilarating study David Rosand shows how early American painters transformed themselves from provincial followers of the established traditions of Europe into some of the most innovative and influential artists in the world. Moving beyond simple descriptions of what distinguishes American art from other movements and forms, The Invention of Painting in America explores not only the status of artists and their personal relationship to their work but also the larger dialogue between the artist and society. Rosand looks to the intensely studied portraits of America's early painters-especially Copley and Eakins and the landscapes of Homer and Inness, among others-each of whom grappled with conflicting cultural attitudes and different expressive styles in order to reinvent the art of painting. He discusses the work of Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, and Motherwell and the subjects and themes that engaged them. While our current understanding of America's place in art is largely based on the astonishing success of a handful of mid-twentieth-century painters, Rosand unearths the historical and artistic conditions that both shaped and inspired the phenomenon of Abstract Expressionism.

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Recognized in Japan as a connoisseur, collector, and proprietor of a famous folk art shop in Tokyo, Tawara Yusaku returned to painting late in life and had a single show in London before his death in 2004. Universe Is Flux is the first examination of his accomplishments within the context of Asian and contemporary painting. Tawara's artistic vision was highly influenced by Buddhist concepts of cosmology and space. His philosophy revolved around the idea that the universe is in a constant state of flux - that flux itself is the stuff of the universe. The impermanent bunching together of vibrating energy - wavelike forms that he called hado (wave movement) - comprises individual existence. His works appear at first glance to be the result of bold, powerful strokes with a large brush, but close examination reveals each large stroke is composed of innumerable tiny strokes, dots, and splashes representing hado. Tawara rejected representational art and struggled instead to paint ultimate reality. Drawing on conversations with the artist and notes that he left behind, the essays discuss how Tawara's unique methods expressed his views of art and the universe at large, examine Tawara's works in the context of traditional Japanese and Chinese ink and literati painting, and focus on Tawara's "Thinking of da Vinci" series, drawing analogies between Tawara's investigation of the microcosm and the brushstroke and Leonardo da Vinci's exploration of these ideas in his drawings. The techniques that Tawara utilized to create his art resulted in a body of work that not only expresses his views of the universe but is also aesthetically powerful and beautiful.

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