READ THIS: YOUTH AND BEAUTY: Art of the American Twenties Edited by Teresa A. Carbone Essays by Teresa A. Carbone, Bonnie Costello, Randall R. Griffey, and Sarah M. Lowe
Youth and Beauty explores American art produced during the decade whose beginning and end were marked by the aftermath of World War I and the onset of the Great Depression. American life was dramatically transformed in the years following the Great War, as urbanization, industrialization, mechanization, and rampant materialism altered the environment and the way people lived. American artists responded to this dizzying modern world with works that embraced a new brand of idealized realism to evoke a seemingly perfect modern world. The twenties saw a vigorous renewal of figurative art that melded uninhibited body-consciousness with classical ideals. Wheareas images of the modern body were abundant, artists represented American places and things as distilled and largely uninhabited arrangements of pristine forms. Encompassing a wide array of artists, Youth and Beauty celebrates this striking and original modern art and questions its relation to the riotous decade from which it emerged.
Youth and Beauty is the first publication solely devoted to an overview of American painting, sculpture, and photography of the 1920s. With more than 200 illustrations, this book brings together an array of artists and media for the first time, featuring iconic and surprising works by Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keefe, Charles Demuth, Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and many others. It is comprised of five thematic sections focused on the figure, the environment, still life and poetry, photography, and notions of American identity. Along with the meticulous researched texts and vivid illustrations, Youth and Beauty is a remarkable contribution to the study of American art of this period.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS: Teresa A. Carbone is Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Bonnie Costello is professor of English at Boston University. Randall R. Griffey is curator of American art at the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College. Sarah M. Lowe is an art historian and author.
YOUTH AND BEAUTY: Art of the American Twenties
Edited by Teresa A. Carbone
Essays by Teresa A. Carbone, Bonnie Costello, Randall R. Griffey, and Sarah M. Lowe
Hardcover / 9 ½” x 11” / 304 pages / 216 color and b&w illustrations
US $60.00 / Can $65.00 / UK £40.00
Skira Rizzoli
ISBN: 978-0-8478-3725-0
Publication date: October 2011
www.rizzoliusa.com
www.brooklynmuseum.org
