Front cover image for Modernism's history : a study in twentieth-century art and ideas

Modernism's history : a study in twentieth-century art and ideas

"The history of twentieth-century visual arts can no longer be written as a succession of avant-garde movements, contends eminent art historian Bernard Smith in this stimulating book. He argues that a return to the concept of period style is inevitable and that modernism--the dominant "style" of art that emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and continued through the 1960s--deserves recognition as a period style. Smith renames this period Formalesque since it is no longer modern and since it emphasizes the formal values of art more than any previous period does."--Publisher's information
Print Book, English, 1998
Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998
vi, 376 pages ; 24 cm
9780300073928, 0300073925
38535888
Introduction1(14)
PART ONE: THE RISE OF THE FORMALESQUE15(94)
1 Modernity and its modernisms
15(14)
2 Theoretical sources of the Formalesque
29(23)
3 Exotic sources of the Formalesque
52(15)
4 Occult and `primitive' sources of the Formalesque
67(27)
5 The creation of the Formalesque
94(15)
PART TWO: THE FORMALESQUE AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY MODERNISM109(237)
6 The origins of twentieth-century modernism
109(38)
7 Institutionalising the Formalesque
147(50)
8 The 1930s: Politics and the Formalesque
197(36)
9 The late Formalesque
233(22)
10 The Eurusan visual culture
255(17)
11 The turn to meaning
272(33)
12 Cultural imperialism and the Formalesque
305(38)
13 Conclusion
343(3)
References cited346(19)
Index365