William C. Agee – författare

Max Weber studied under Matisse, associated with influential figures including Apollinaire, Picasso, and Delaunay, and is credited with bringing firsthand knowledge of the Parisian avant-garde to Alfred Stieglitz s modernist circle in New York, inspiring a generation of artists. While his works are in important collections, they have not yet received the close study of the artist s peers, such as Picasso, Braque, and Leger. William C. Agee, a veteran museum curator and renowned scholar of twentieth-century American art, and scholar Pamela N. Koob take up the challenge in a lavishly illustrated volume, gathering together a selection of Max Weber s best cubist works. Close readings of Weber s paintings open the most complete survey to date of American cubism, with entries on key cubist works by Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, Hans Hofmann, Charles Sheeler, Morgan Russell, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Alice Trumbull Mason, and David Smith, among many others. Filling in a missing piece of one of the twentieth century s most influential movements, this critical reevaluation is long overdue.

Modernism, referring to the period dating roughly from the late 19th century to 1970, is regarded as a crucial moment in the history of American art. Although Modernist artists adopted a wide range of styles, they were linked by a desire to interpret a rapidly changing society and to cast aside the conventions of representational art. Some, such as Stuart Davis and Joseph Stella, responded to consumerism, urbanism and industrial technology; others, such as Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe, found inspiration in nature and the Native American culture of the Southwest. This magnificent new book presents the works of the Vilcek Collection, an unparalleled private collection of American Modernist paintings, drawings and sculpture. Art historian Lewis Kachur explores almost 100 rarely seen works by 20 leading artists active during the first half of the last century, while William C. Agee contributes an incisive introduction. Lavishly illustrated throughout, Masterpieces of American Modernism provides an outstanding overview of the radical shift in art driven by this major aesthetic movement.