Picasso and American Art - Tapa dura

An unprecedented examination of the history of American modern art through the work of its most influential forerunner Many American artists throughout the 20th century designated Pablo Picasso as the central figure of the modern movement and defined their own artistic achievements through their absorption, critique, or rejection of his example. Picasso and American Art is a groundbreaking publication juxtaposing works by Picasso with the paintings, sculptures, and drawings created in response by an extremely diverse group of his contemporaries and successors, including Max Weber, Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, John Graham, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, David Smith, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. Based on extensive research, Michael FitzGerald's text provides valuable new information on the fundamental role that Picasso played in the development of modern American art--both through his friendships with individual artists and through the dissemination of his evolving work. This book also documents, for the first time, the accessibility of Picasso's work in the United States between 1911 and 1957 in exhibitions, collections, and publications through a comprehensive chronology. This unique book is essential for anyone interested in either Picasso or American art of the 20th century.

Michael FitzGerald is associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and author of Picasso: The Artist's Studio, also published by Yale University Press. Julia May Boddewyn is curator of a private art collection in New York.