American Realism

One of the myths of "realism" is that it is somehow less challenging than non-representational art. This terrific book takes on the broad sweep of American Realism from the Civil War through 1990. The book is full of wonderful images from so many different styles that the reader can begin to see that what is called realistic or representational has its own symbolic language and is full of its own abstractions and distortions of trying to represent aspects of our four dimensional world on a two dimensional surface. The book is full of paintings of all types and styles within this broad topic. There are also photographs of related sculpture and even photographs that are themselves the work of art. The images contained in the book range from the sublime, to the odd and strange, through the raunchy and vulgar. The text is lively, insightful, and adds a great deal to the reader's understanding of the images included.

Edward Lucie-Smith's inimitable style of writing endears him to his readers who might just be buying art books for the pictures - the ubiquitous coffeetable book. His approach to his subject (and his catalogue of published books on art is staggering in scope) is always 'Art first, Opinion second', which is another way of saying that he lets the work describe itself in the sensitive way in which he constructs his books. AMERICAN REALISM is as much a sociological study of the American progress as it is a matrix to etch images that accompany that historical trek. In his fine introduction he sets the tone for the journey, then addresses early American art and begins his intensive presentation with the works of Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer. Subsequent chapters find new insights into American Still Life, the Impressists in America (Cassatt, Sargent, Chase, Hassam), then proceeds on through the Ashcan School, Regionalism (one of the most creative chapters), through the Urban and Social Realism of the likes of Hopper, Marsh, Soyer and Shahn. Here his style of writing diverges as he addresses the Revolution in American Art, or, what has America made that is uniquely her own. Of great interest here is his emphasis on painters such as Paul Cadmus, Philip Guston, Jared French, George Tooker, Andrew Wyeth, bringing to their works a sensitivity rarely written prior to this book. After Abstraction he once again returns to representational art and brings to life Fairfield Porter, Neil Welliver, Jane Freilicher, Larry Rivers, Richard Diebenkorn,Wayne Thiebaud, Chuck Close, John Nava, Alice Neel, Gregory Gillespie, Martha Mayer Erlebacher, Eric Fischl, Leon Golub, and yes, even Jeff Koons.The sparkling and informative dialogue of this book is enhanced by superb reproductions of paintings in both color and black and white. This book is somewhat dated now, having been published in 1994 and newly released in paperback. One hopes that Lucie-Smith will write a sequel to this volume and bring the public up to date with the many artists who belong in this company, artists - like Wes Hempel, Gerard Huber, Michael Workman, Wade Reynolds, James Doolin, Willaim Fogg, Robert Peterson, Daniel Sprick..........and of course countless others. A 'must have' for any solid library.