The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works - Hardcover

Cooper, Harry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848220502 ISBN 13: 9781848220508

Publisher: Lund Humphries, 2010

Synopsis

From 1958 to 2004, Robert and Jane Meyerhoff assembled one of the greatest collections ever to focus on American painting of the postwar era. Built around six major figures - Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella - the collection comprises some three hundred works, almost half of which are included here. It reaches back to the leading abstract expressionists - Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still - and forward to younger artists such as Terry Winters, Julian Lethbridge, Mel Bochner and Joel Shapiro. A dazzling array of paintings is complemented by sculptural objects that incorporate the wall (or even hang from it), while a strong selection of prints and drawings highlights daring technical innovations in those media. Rather than organize the collection by artist, chronology, or medium, Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art, identifies ten material and visual themes that crisscross it: Scrape, Concentricity, Line, Gesture, Art on Art, Drip, Stripe to Zip, Figure or Ground, Monochrome and Picture the Frame. There is a short essay devoted to each category begins with an early twentieth-century work from the National Gallery's own collection to offer a broad perspective on the modernist enterprise that is both furthered and subverted by the brilliant artists of the Meyerhoff stable. Jane Meyerhoff's untimely death in 2004 brought the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection to a close. In addition to many important gifts already made to the National Gallery, the Meyerhoffs have pledged their collection to the nation, together with their home and galleries near Baltimore, Maryland. Here then is a celebration of a historic act of philanthropy and, above all, a great gathering of art.

About this title

About the Author:

Harry Cooper is curator of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Review:

'...provides readers with a new lens through which they can see and appreciate art...Colorful plates and concise, instructive essays make this an enjoyable, light read that American postwar-era art lovers must check out.' Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Lund Humphries
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1848220502
• ISBN 13: 9781848220508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160