Barbara Hess Knihy

Nová klasická příručka o moderních uměleckých směrech. Přibližuje newyorské hnutí 40. a 50. let minulého století, jež rozvíjejí mladí malíři a pod titulem „abstraktní expresionismus“ mělo dosáhnout světového uznání. Svými odvážnými vizemi a novým uměleckým slovníkem přispěli k průlomu a vůdčímu postavení amerického malířství druhé poloviny 20. století. Pojem „abstraktní expresionismus“ nechce popisovat nějaký konkrétní styl, nýbrž postoj, který je charakterizovaný duchem vzpoury a vírou ve svobodu výrazu. Představitelé kladli důraz na morálně nabitá témata, která ztvárňovali s primárním ohledem na individualitu a spontánní improvizaci.

The leader of the abstract expressionists "If you pick up some paint with your brush and make somebody’s nose with it, this is rather ridiculous... It’s really absurd to make an image, like a human image, with paint, today." —Willem de Kooning Dutch-born American painter Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) was a leader of the abstract expressionist movement. Inspired by Arshile Gorky to abandon the realist style that had dominated his work in the 1930s, he began experimenting with abstraction in the 1940s and quickly gained critical success. His monumental Woman series of the 1950s—characterized by wild color and aggressive overtones— was received with both controversy and acclaim. He continued to paint until the late 1980s, leaving behind a vast and impressive body of work. About the Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series

Common symbols reinterpreted Though his work is often categorized as Pop Art for its use of popular iconography and household objects, Jasper Johns can also be described as a Neo-Dadaist. Using wax-based paint, plaster relief, collage, and even commonplace objects such as brooms and rulers in his paintings, Johns achieves a sculptural texture in his work. He is arguably most known for his flag paintings of the 1950s (the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently paid over $20 million for White Flag ), though other themes, including targets, numbers, letters, and maps, are also famously recurrent. Johns is widely considered one of the most important American artists of the 20th century. About the Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series

Concepts in Artworks as visual explanations of ideas Italian artist Lucio Fontana tore apart the modern art establishment—literally. Trained initially as a sculptor, Fontana (1899-1968) blurred the lines between painting and sculpture by creating works that combined both form and color in a spatial context, most famously exemplified by his slashed canvases of the 1950s and 60s. Fontana`s work was truly conceptual, in that the ideas he wanted to express were more important than the actual work itself; with titles like Concetto Spaziale (Spatial Concept) and Scultura Spaziale (Spatial Sculpture), his pieces served as visual explanations of his ideas. From his early work in collaborating with architects through his years in Buenos Aires (where, in the mid-1940s, he published the famous "White Manifesto" and "Technical Manifesto of Spatialism," among others), his experimental light installations of the early 1950s, and his later experiments with various media, this book covers the entire career of Italy`s pioneering abstract artist. About the Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series

Aus den frühen documenta-Ausstellungen in ihrer Markt-Nähe, gingen der Kölner Kunstmarkt und danach weltweit moderne Kunstmärkte hervor