Gustave Caillebotte

A stunning study of the life and work of Gustave Caillebotte-until recently the "forgotten man" of Impressionism but now recognized as one of the most interesting and attractive artists in the group and as the painter of some of its most powerful and memorable images. The book includes beautiful color reproductions of all Caillebotte's most important works, his working drawings, and a selection of critical responses to his art when first shown.

Arts & Photography

Kirk Varnedoe

History & Criticism

Yale University Press

"What is abstract art good for? What's the use--for us as individuals, or for any society--of pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves?" In this invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts the uncertainties we may have about the nonrepresentational art produced in the last five decades. He makes a compelling argument for its history and value, much as E. H. Gombrich tackled representation fifty years ago in Art and Illusion, another landmark A. W. Mellon Lectures volume. Realizing that these lectures might be his final work, Varnedoe conceived of them as a statement of his faith in modern art and as the culminating example of his lucidly pragmatic and philosophical approach to art history. He delivered the lectures, edited and reproduced here with their illustrations, to overflowing crowds at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in the spring of 2003, just months before his death.
 With brilliance, passion, and humor, Varnedoe addresses the skeptical attitudes and misunderstandings that we often bring to our experience of abstract art. Resisting grand generalizations, he makes a deliberate and scholarly case for abstraction--showing us that more than just pure looking is necessary to understand the self-made symbolic language of abstract art. Proceeding decade by decade, he brings alive the history and biography that inform the art while also challenging the received wisdom about distinctions between abstraction and representation, modernism and postmodernism, and minimalism and pop. The result is a fascinating and ultimately moving tour through a half century of abstract art, concluding with an unforgettable description of one of Varnedoe's favorite works.

Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock (The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts)

Princeton University Press

Excerpt from the "High and Modern Art and Popular Culture" continues a tradition that has been important to The Museum of Modern Art throughout its thematic exhibitions that examine the fundamental premises of modern art, and link the innovations of its pioneers to the explorations of younger, contemporary artists. This kind of exhibition is particularly demanding, and the present project, so ambitious and heterogeneous in its scope, was only made possible by the dedication of an extraordinary number of individuals and institutions. Excerpt from the Our goal is to examine the transformations through which modern painters and sculptors have made new poetic languages by reimagining the possibilities in forms of popular culture; and, as a corollary, to acknowledge the way those adaptations in modern art have found their way back into the common currency of public visual prose. To demonstrate that process, we will focus on aspects of style, including small items like sans-serif typefaces or Benday dots, and broader strategies such as gigantism or the mind-arresting transformation of objects.

High & Low: Modern Art Popular Culture

Harry N. Abrams

This is a full and richly nuanced study of the career of Cy Twombly (b. 1928), an American artist whose work forms a unique bridge between Europe and America in the postwar era. An almost legendary figure among artists in the 1960s and 1970s, Twombly connects in his work such disparate traditions as Abstract Expressionism and the more conceptually oriented art that came to prominence in the 1970s.Kirk Varnedoe's text draws on much previously unpublished material, both visual and textual. Nearly 50 of the artist's most important paintings are illustrated, as well as a dozen sculptures and approximately 45 works on paper. In addition, some 60 documentary illustrations are included in the text.

Cy Twombly: A Retrospective

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) is widely considered as the most challenging and influential American artist of the 20th century. This sumptuous book offers a fresh overview of his achievement, reinterpreted for a new generation. Published to coincide with an exhibition opening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in October of 1998. 318 illustrations, 218 in color. 9 foldouts.

Jackson Pollock

Museum of Modern Art

Presenting nine critical essays by leading scholars--among them T.J. Clark, Robert Storr, James Coddington, Rosalind Krauss, and Kirk Varnedoe--this collection offers dramatically different ways of understanding Jackson Pollock's art and influence. Revealing not just the richness of Pollock's work, but also the vitality and diversity of contemporary criticisms, these texts discuss the crisis of easel painting, Pollock's relationship with his wife, artist Helen Frankenthaler, the Americanization of Europe, and the place of chaos in Pollock's work. Based on a symposium held in 1999 during The Museum of Modern Art, New York's retrospective exhibition of Pollock's oeuvre, this volume is a companion to Jackson Pollock: Key Interviews, Articles, and Reviews, a collection of older texts by or about the artist.

Jackson Pollock: New Approaches (Museum of Modern Art Books)

Picasso : chefs-d'oeuvre du Musée d'art moderne de New York : exposition organisée par Le Musée d'art moderne de New York en collaboration avec le Musée des beaux-arts du Canada

Pepe Karmel

Musee des beaux-arts du Canada

Book by Kirk Varnedoe, Terence Riley, Peter Reed, Mirka Benes

Philip Johnson and The Museum of Modern Art (Studies in Modern Art 6)

Terence Riley

Peter Reed

Mirka Benes

Architecture

New York: Museum of Modern Art

Masterpieces from the David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection: Manet to Picasso

Masterpieces from the David and Peggy Rockefeller collection: Manet to Picasso

Distributed by H.N. Abrams

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Books by Kirk Varnedoe