Peter Vergo

The artistic stagnation of Vienna at the end of the 19th century was rudely shaken by the artists of the Vienna Secession. Their work shocked a conservative public, but their successive exhibitions, their magazine Ver Sacrum, and their application to the applied arts and architecture soon brought them an enthusiastic following and wealthy patronage. Art in Vienna, 1898–1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and their Contemporaries, now published in its 4th edition, brilliantly traces the course of this development. Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele were the leading figures in the fine arts; Wagner, Olbrich, Loos and Hoffmann in architecture and the applied arts. In other fields, Mahler, Freud and Schnitzler were influencing the avant&hyphen;garde. The book includes eye&hyphen;witness accounts of exhibitions, the opening of the Secession building and other events, and the result is a fascinating documentary study of the members of an artistic movement which is much admired today. Some 150 color images and 75 black and white archival illustrations make this a sumptuous and historically engrossing study of a period when Vienna was the centre of the European art world.

Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and their contemporaries

Art in Vienna 1898 1918

John Collins

National Gallery of Canada

Colin B. Bailey

Gustav Klimt

"Klimt's artistic vision pushed the boundaries of art at the turn of the last century. His unparalleled ability to merge the decorative arts with painting led him to create brilliant and glittering works studded with jewel-like motifs; and his richly patterned landscapes and portrayals of embracing figures and elegant women are among the most spellbinding images in the history of art" "Gathered here are essays by eminent scholars Colin B. Bailey, Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Emily Braun, Jane Kallir, and Peter Vergo that explore the extent and context of the artist's oeuvre. The full-color plates are illuminated by individual commentaries and accompanied by black-and-white comparative illustrations. In addition, an illustrated chronology traces Klimt's life and the milieu in which he worked." "With nearly two hundred color plates of Klimt's most popular images, as well as rarely published drawings and period photographs, this lavish book, which accompanies a major exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, pays tribute to the unique style of this artist, one of the most important and revolutionary figures of the late nineteenth century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Gustav Klimt, Modernism in the Making

With essays by Charles Saumarez Smith, Ludmilla Jordanova, Paul Greenhalgh, Colin Sorensen, Nick Merriman, Stephen Bann, Philip Wright, Norman Palmer and Peter Vergo. "A lively and controversial symposium ... thought-provoking"—The Sunday Times (Paperbacks of the Year, 1989) "The essays are all distinguished by their topicality and lucidity."—MuseumNews "A welcome addition to the library of Museology"—Art Monthly "The New Museology is essential reading for all those seeking to understand the current debate in museum ideologies."—International Journal of Museum Management and Scholarship

New Museology

Reaktion Books

Traditionally, museums have concerned themselves with foremost with conservation and classification. What is conserved, and why? How is it classified? Who does this benefit? Are exhibitions really designed with the visitor in mind? And what qualities of experience are being offered? These are just some of the pressing questions which the authors,museum professionals, historians and critics raise in this volume. Art collections, museums of childhood, science and photography, theme parks and 'time machines', and the Great Exhibitions are among the diverse subjects discussed. As a collection of critical views of museum history, theory and practice, "The New Museology" is of interest not only to those in the museum profession, but to all those concerned with society's attitude to its own history and culture.

The New Museology

Kenneth C. Lindsay

"The importance of Kandinsky's art and thought in the history of modern art combined with the completeness, careful scholarship, and crisp design of this volume make it especially useful."--Choice Of all the giants of twentieth-century art, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was the most prolific writer. Here, available for the first time in paperback, are all of Kandinsky's writings on art, newly translated into English. Editors Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo have taken their translations directly from Kandinsky's original texts, and have included select interviews, lecture notes, and newly discovered items along with his more formal writings. The pieces range from one-page essays to the book-length treatises On the Spiritual in Art (1911) and Point and Line to Plane (1926), and are arranged in chronological order from 1901 to 1943. The poetry, good enough to stand on its literary merits, is presented with all the original accompanying illustrations. And the book's design follows Kandinsky's intentions, preserving the spirit of the original typography and layout. Kandinsky was nearly thirty before he bravely gave up an academic career in law for his true passion, painting. Though his art was marked by extraordinarily varied styles, Kandinsky sought a pure art throughout, one which would express the soul, or "inner necessity," of the artist. His uncompromising search for an art which would elicit a response to itself rather than to the object depicted resulted in the birth of nonobjective art-and in these writings, Kandinsky offered the first cogent explanation of his aims. His language was characterized by its desire for vivification, of the infusion of life into mundane things. Considered as a whole, Kandinsky's writings exceed all expectations of what an artist should accomplish with words. Not only do his ideas and observations make us rethink the nature of art and the way it reflects the aspirations of his era, but they touch on matters vital to the situation of the human soul.

Peter Vergo

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