The importance of American artists in the history of modern art is well-documented, but surveys often exclude artists working in the first half of the twentieth century, who were instrumental for the development of modernism - including Arthur Dove, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe and John Marin. This book argues for a continuity between this period and the artists who went on to become celebrated internationally, such as Arshile Gorky, Edward Hopper, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, Morris Louis, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Donald Judd. William C. Agee's ground-breaking account of American modernism unites pre- and post-1945 art in a continuous narrative spanning four generations of artists. He also integrates the work of certain European artists who were central to modern American art. Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian as well as Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann became influential teachers. Their work had a strong impact on several American artists not previously compared-or connected to the European art canon. As a re-evaluation of art history from the early twentieth century to the late 1960s, this brilliant survey of American modernism is a must-read for enthusiasts and students of art as well as for all those interested in modernism and its wider cultural history.
