Contemporary Art in the Light of History

Description

Erwin Rosenthal's Contemporary Art in the Light of History, originally published in 1971, is a small masterpiece of writing on the art of the twentieth century. A scholar of medieval art by training and a prominent antiquarian bookseller, Rosenthal, who died in l981, was equally entranced by modern art, particularly abstraction. His three linked essays in this book-"Contemporary Art in the Light of History," "Art and Technology," and "Art Theories and Manifestos, Old and New"-set out a path to understanding modern art through its affinities with the art of the past. Rosenthal engages with some of the enduring aesthetic questions: How do new forms and new artistic vocabularies respond to the deepest human needs and impulses? What is the relationship between artistic theory and artistic expression? Nicolas Poussin's mythological landscapes, Paul Klee's graphic abstractions, Bridget Riley's op-art compositions-these and many other examples from centuries of painting, sculpture, poetry, and music take us, in these pages, on a fascinating cultural journey with a sophisticated and lucid guide. Rosenthal's explorations of the theory and practice of twentieth-century artists bring us directly into the minds and studios of modern artists. What is more, like his previous The Changing Concept of Reality in Art, already republished by Arcade, this book invites us into a great intimacy with the origins of art.

Erwin Rosenthal, historian, antiquarian, and scion of the famous Jacques Rosenthal dynasty of antiquarian book and manuscript dealers, was born in Germany. He came to the United States in the 1930s, where his lectures and publications were highly praised. Deborah M. Rosenthal is Consulting Editor for the series. She is a painter who has shown in New York and nationally during the past twenty-five years. For her writing on art in many journals, including Art in America and Modern Painters, she won an NEA Critic's Grant. She is Professor of Fine Arts in the School of Fine and Performing Arts of Rider University. Lance Esplund is the U.S. art critic for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. Previously, he was a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, chief art critic for the New York Sun, and editorial board member and New York correspondent for Modern Painters Magazine.