Long overdue, this is the first comprehensive book on the lives and works of turn-of-the-century California painters. It focuses on the plein air, or outdoor, painters working in Southern California from the 1890s through the 1930s. While their styles reflect a range from Decorative and Romantic Realist to Post-Impressionist, most prevalent is an Impressionistic bias.
Their work, popular in its day, was essentially buried by the heterogeneous avalanche of modern art produced since World War II. In the last declare a rediscovery has gained momentum as these radiant paintings reassert themselves in a culture that for several decades has regarded beauty with suspicion.
Covering the lives and works of better-known painters such as William Wendt, George Gardner Symons, Edgar Payne and Guy Rose, it also reveals the equally impressive work of lesser-known artists such as Joseph Kleitsch, Donna Schuster, and Alfred Mitchell.
Included are essays by several individuals most knowledgeable in California art history: Nancy Dustin Wall Moure, Assistant Curator of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Thomas Kenneth Enman, Director Emeritus, Laguna Beach Museum of Art; Martin E. Petersen, Curator of Paintings, San Diego Museum of Art; Jean Stern, Director, Petersen Galleries, Beverly Hills; and Terry DeLapp, Long-time Los Angeles art dealer. This is a unique and comprehensive reference source, valuable for the neophyte as well as the sophisticated collector, curator or art historian.
Price: $57.50
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