Jean Clay

This coffee-table sized history of [western] Modern Art from the death of Vincent van Gogh in 1890 to the end of World War I in 1918 is organized around six subjects: color, distortion, the pulverized object, frontality, the real object, and movement.

Beautiful plates represent the work of Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Gris, Leger, Delaunay, Klee and more. Movements covered include symbolism, expressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, Dada, and de Stijl, inter alia.

There is sufficient narrative show more interspersed throughout to record the social, political, and cultural changes that are reflected by these works of art. Biographical information about the artists is also included.

This beautiful and comprehensive book helped me understand some of the more confusing concepts of modernism, and the illustrations have provided hours of wonder. show less