The Triumph of Modernism

Hilton Kramer

doi:10.5771/9781442223226

Summary

Widely acknowledged as the most authoritative art critic of his generation, Hilton Kramer advanced his comments and judgments largely in the form of essays and short pieces. Thus this first collection of his work to appear in twenty years is a signal event for the art world and for criticism generally.

The Triumph of Modernism not only traces the vicissitudes of the art scene but diagnoses the state of modernism and its vital legacy in the postmodern world. Mr. Kramer bracingly updates his incisive critique of the artists, critics, institutions, and movements that have formed the basis for modern art. Appearing for the first time in greatly expanded form is his consideration of the foundations of modern abstract painting and the future of abstraction.

The aesthetic intelligence that Mr. Kramer brings to bear on certain tired assumptions about modernism—many of them derived from methodologies and politics that have little to do with art—helps rescue the artwork itself and its appreciation from the very institutions, such as the art museum and the academy, that purport to foster it.

Always clear-eyed and vastly illuminating, Hilton Kramer’s art criticism remains among the very finest written in the past hundred years. Readers of The Triumph of Modernism will be treated to an exhilarating experience.

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2013
ISBN-Print: 978-1-56663-708-4
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4422-2322-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 370
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Preface No access
1. Kandinsky and the Birth of Abstraction No access
2. Mondrian and Mysticism: “My Long Search Is Over” No access
3. Art, Revolution, and Kazimir Malevich No access
4. Abstraction and Utopia No access
5. Abstraction in America: The First Generation No access
6. Was Rothko an Abstract Painter? No access
7. Jackson Pollock and the New York School No access
1. Clement Greenberg in the Forties No access
2. Clement Greenberg and the Cold War No access
3. T. J. Clark and the Marxist Critique of Modern Painting No access
4. Rembrandt as Warhol: Svetlana Alpers’s “Enterprise” No access
1. 1. Richard Serra at MOMA No access
  2. The Death of Andy Warhol No access
  3. How Good Was Gauguin? No access
  4. John Szarkowski’s “History of Photographic Pictures” No access
  5. Reflections on Matisse No access
  6. Philip Johnson’s Brilliant Career No access
  7. Duchamp and His Legacy No access
  8. Léger’s Modernism No access
  9. Bonnard and “the Stupidities” No access
2. 1. Mapplethorpe at the Whitney: Big, Glossy, Offensive No access
  2. Kiefer at MOMA No access
  3. Frankenthaler at the Whitney No access
  4. The Citadel of Modernism Falls to Deconstructivists No access
  5. Fairfield Porter, a Master Long Ignored No access
  6. Hoving’s Biteless Barking No access
  7. A Wretched Nauman Show No access
  8. How Long Will Curators Ignore the Great Nerdrum? No access
  9. Best-kept Secret in Art? Stettheimer No access
  10. Reintroducing Nadelman No access
  11. Alex Katz Blossoms No access
  12. Welcome, Professor Forge No access
  13. The Somber Brilliance ofBraque’s Late Work No access
  14. Richard Diebenkorn at the Whitney No access
  15. Arthur Dove at the Phillips Collection No access
  16. Richard Pousette-Dart at the Met No access
  17. Gustave Courbet at Salander-O’Reilly No access
  18. Jinny and Bagley Wright Collection at the Seattle Art Museum No access
  19. Honoré Daumier at the Phillips Collection No access
  20. Thomas Eakins at the Philadelphia Museum No access
  21. The Thaw Collection at the Met and the Morgan Gallery No access
  22. Lois Dodd at Alexandre Gallery No access
  23. Christopher Wilmarth at the Fogg Museum No access
  24. Max Beckmann at MOMA No access
  25. Manet at the Art Institute of Chicago No access
  26. The Matisse Collection at the Met No access
  27. John Walker at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art No access
  28. R. B. Kitaj at Marlborough Gallery No access
  29. Marvin Bileck and Emily Nelligan at Alexandre Gallery No access
  30. Oscar Bluemner at the Whitney No access
1. Modernism and Its Institutions No access
2. Has Success Spoiled the Art Museum? No access
3. Tate Modern Inside and Out: The Museum as Culture Mall No access
4. The Man Who Created MOMA No access
5. Does Abstract Art Have a Future? No access
Index No access Pages 345 - 368
A Note on the Author No access Pages 369 - 370