Art in Its Own Terms: Selected Criticism 1935-1975

by Porter, Fairfield

• ISBN13: 9780878467433
• ISBN10: 0878467432
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-12-01
• Publisher: Distributed Art Pub Inc

Summary

"Considered one of America's most influential painters, Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) was also a prolific and insightful critic. Replacing doctrinal cant with concise lucidity, his writing not only displays the same the original mind that presided over his visual works but also covers an extraordinary period in American art, in which he played the double role of protagonist and witness. Porter believed that "criticism should tell you what is there," and these essays - which treat figures as diverse as Rodin, Leonardo, de Kooning, Cornell, and Cezanne, and such topics as the relations between art and science and abstraction versus realism - form a key statement in the ongoing discussion between modern art and its past. An introduction by the painter and critic Rackstraw Downes beautifully sets the stage for this indispensable and illuminating volume."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	p. 9
Introduction	p. 19
Contemporary Artists
Willem de Kooning	p. 36
Richard Stankiewicz	p. 38
Giacometti	p. 41
The Education of Jasper Johns	p. 44
Joseph Cornell	p. 49
Contemporary Styles
American Non-Objective Painting	p. 54
New Images of Man	p. 59
Happenings	p. 61
Abstraction in Sculpture	p. 63
Constructivism	p. 65
Recent American Figure Painting	p. 69
Art, Nature, and Reality
Perfection and Nature	p. 74
The Immediacy of Experience	p. 79
Intellect and Comedy	p. 81
Reality and the Museum	p. 84
What Is Real?	p. 87
A Realist	p. 90
Non-Objectivity and Realism	p. 91
Kinds of Beauty	p. 95
Realism Transcends System	p. 98
Against Idealism	p. 102
Tradition and Other Topics
Abstract Expressionism and Landscape	p. 107
Impressionism and Painting To-Day	p. 111
The Oriental in American Art	p. 114
Taste and Energy	p. 117
Tradition and Originality	p. 121
Attitudes to the Past	p. 124
Tradition and Revolt	p. 127
California and New York	p. 130
Sculpture and the Material	p. 132
Humor in Sculpture	p. 136
Art and Rubbish	p. 137
Is Photography an Art?	p. 140
Communication and Moral Commitment	p. 143
Experiencing Art	p. 146
The Past Today
Cezanne	p. 150
Whistler, Morisot, Corinth	p. 152
France and America in the Nineteenth Century	p. 156
Italy and France in the Renaissance	p. 159
Restoration	p. 164
The Short Review
The Short Review	p. 167
Vuillard, Bonnard	p. 169
Rodin, Matisse	p. 172
Dufy, Pougny, Berend	p. 175
Two Primitives	p. 176
Dubuffet, Klee	p. 178
Inness, O'Keeffe	p. 179
De Kooning	p. 180
Leslie, Ferren, Schueler	p. 181
Hartl	p. 184
Freilicher, Kahn	p. 185
Noguchi, Armitage, Kohn	p. 188
Lichtenstein	p. 190
From the Short Reviews	p. 191
Portraits of Americans
Homer	p. 196
Sargent	p. 201
Prendergast	p. 204
Marin	p. 209
Graham	p. 214
Books and Critics
Poets and Painters in Collaboration	p. 220
Rhys Carpenter on Greek Sculpture	p. 225
Alberti and Leonardo on Painting	p. 228
Selden Rodman's Apology for Art	p. 230
Clement Greenberg on "American-type" Painting: A Letter to the Partisan Review	p. 233
Rosenberg and Hess on de Kooning	p. 236
Wyndham Lewis on Picasso: A Letter to the Kenyon Review	p. 239
Art and Politics
Murals for Workers	p. 241
The Purpose of Socialism	p. 245
Class Content in American Abstract Painting	p. 249
Art and Science
Art and Knowledge	p. 258
Art and Scientific Method	p. 265
Albert York	p. 269
Technology and Artistic Perception	p. 271
Two Statements	p. 281
Index	p. 283
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