Shelfology Book Pairing

by Eckhard Hollmann

KEYNOTE: This authoritative history of one of modern art's most important movements celebrates one hundred years since the inception of the Blue Rider artists' group. Although it only lasted three years--from 1911 to 1914--the collaborative force of German and Russian artists that made up "Der Blaue Reiter" had an amazing impact on the development of Expressionist art and, as a result, on modern art as a whole. This publication looks at the history of this group from the early artists' salons to its dissolution as a result of World War I. Richly illustrated with reproductions of iconic and lesser-known works as well as photographs of the artists, the book looks at the events and places considered the most formative to the movement, taking readers on the trail of the Blue Rider as they weathered intense criticism while inspiring dozens in their wake. The book considers many unresolved questions about the symbolism inherent in the group's paintings, and ends with an appreciation of the legacy these daring artists left behind. AUTHOR: Eckhard Hollmann is an art historian and the author of many books on art. ILLUSTRATIONS: 140 colour illustrations *

Beneath the Surface

by Paul Smith

The art of the Impressionists is beloved of experts and non-experts alike. Paul Smith reexamines this popular group of artists in light of recent scholarship on the social context of late nineteenth-century France. He begins with Edouard Manet, often seen as a forerunner of Impressionism: a sophisticated, detached, ironic observer of the social scene in Paris. He then examines various key artists of the Impressionist movement - Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Cassatt, Monet, Pissarro - to offer a lively reading of such topics as the role of women in Impressionism, the influence of industrialization, the invention of modern color theory, the social position of the artist, and the use of psychoanalytic theory in the understanding of art. The result is to make this very familiar art movement seem fresh and new. To conclude, he proposes Cezanne's art as the culmination of, and heir to, the Impressionist experiment.