Modern Art

Description

The fifth and final volume in the Essays by Leo Steinberg series, focusing on modern artists.  
Leo Steinberg was one of the most original art historians of the twentieth century, known for taking interpretive risks that challenged the profession by overturning reigning orthodoxies. In essays and lectures ranging from old masters to modern art, he combined scholarly erudition with eloquent prose that illuminated his subject and a credo that privileged the visual evidence of the image over the literature written about it. His writings, sometimes provocative and controversial, remain vital and influential reading. Steinberg’s perceptions evolved from long, hard looking at his objects of study. Almost everything he wrote included passages of formal analysis that were always put into the service of interpretation.
 
Following the series publication on Pablo Picasso, this volume focuses on other modern artists, including Cézanne, Monet, Matisse, Max Ernst, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Hans Haacke, and Jeff Koons. Included are seven unpublished lectures and essays, Steinberg’s landmark essay “Encounters with Rauschenberg,” a survey of twentieth-century sculpture, and an examination of the role of authorial predilections in critical writing. The final chapter presents a collection of Steinberg’s humorous pieces, witty forays penned for his own amusement. 
 
Modern Art is the fifth and final volume in a series that presents Steinberg’s writings, selected and edited by his longtime associate Sheila Schwartz.
  Leo Steinberg (1920–2011) was born in Moscow and raised in Berlin and London, emigrating with his family to New York in 1945. He was a professor of art history at Hunter College, City University of New York, and then Benjamin Franklin Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. Sheila Schwartz worked with Steinberg from 1968 until his death in 2011. She received her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and is presently the Research & Archives Director of the Saul Steinberg Foundation.
 
  Preface and Acknowledgments, Sheila Schwartz Introduction, James Meyer 1. Art Conquers All: The Unloved Wife
2. Cézanne’s Barnes Bathers & Co.
3. Thoughts on Monet
4. Matisse: Music
5. Max Ernst: This Is a Test
6. “Jasper Johns”: For the Record
7. Encounters with Rauschenberg
8. Some of Hans Haacke’s Works Considered as Fine Art
9. The Statue in the Taxi: The Ins and Outs of Modern Sculpture
10. Art Minus Criticism Equals Art
11. Exit Clown, Speaking Anything
Notes
Leo Steinberg: Chronology
Leo Steinberg: Publications (1947–2010)
Photography Credits
Index

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