Jed Perl Livres

"The concluding volume of the first authorized biography of one of the most important, influential, and beloved of 20th century sculptors, and one of the greatest artists in the cultural history of America--a vividly written, illuminating account of his triumphant later years. The concluding volume of this magnificent biography begins during World War II, when Calder--known to all as Sandy--and his wife, Louisa, opened their home to the stream of artists and writers in exile from Europe. In the postwar decades, they divided their time between the United States and France, as Sandy made his first monumental public sculptures and received blockbuster commissions that included Expo '67 in Montreal, and the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Jed Perl makes clear how Sandy's radical sculptural imagination shaped the minimalist and kinetic art movements that emerged in the 1960s. And we see, as well, that through everything--their ever-expanding friendships with artists and writers of all stripes; working to end the war in Viet Nam; hosting riotous dance parties at their Connecticut home; seeing "mobile," Sandy's essential artistic invention, find its way into Webster's' dictionary--Sandy and Louisa remained the risk-taking, singularly bohemian couple they had been since first meeting at the end of the Roaring Twenties. The biography ends with Sandy's death in 1976 at the age of seventy-eight--only weeks after an encyclopedic retrospective of his work opened at the Whitney Museum in New York--but leaves us with a new, clearer understanding of both the artist and the man"-- Provided by publisher

Focusing on the enigmatic life of Antoine Watteau, this exploration delves into the intricate connection between art and existence. Art critic Jed Perl combines historical insights with personal reflections to narrate the life of this groundbreaking bohemian artist. Despite his early death at thirty-six in 1721, Watteau's influence endures, shaping the perspectives of countless painters and writers. His work continues to enrich our comprehension of love, friendship, and pleasure in everyday life, highlighting the timeless relevance of his artistic vision.

In this landmark work, Jed Perl captures the excitement of a generation of legendary artists–Jackson Pollack, Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ellsworth Kelly among them–who came to New York, mingled in its lofts and bars, and revolutionized American art. In a continuously arresting narrative, Perl also portrays such less well known figures as the galvanic teacher Hans Hofmann, the lyric expressionist Joan Mitchell, and the adventuresome realist Fairfield Porter, as well the writers, critics, and patrons who rounded out the artists’world. Brilliantly describing the intellectual crosscurrents of the time as well as the genius of dozens of artists, New Art City is indispensable for lovers of modern art and culture.

“I do not photograph nature, I photograph my fantasy,” Man Ray proclaimed, and he found in the camera's eye and in light's magical chemistry the mechanisms for dreaming. Schooled as a painter and designer in New York, Man Ray turned to photography after discovering the 291 Gallery and its charismatic founder, Alfred Stieglitz. As a young expatriate in Paris during the twenties and thirties, Man Ray embraced Surrealism and Dadaism, creeds that emphasized chance effects, disjunction and surprise. Tireless experimentation with technique led him to employ solarization, grain enlargement, mixed media and cameraless prints (photograms)--which he called “Rayographs”. These successful manipulations for which he was dubbed “the poet of the darkroom” by Jean Cocteau, were a major contribution to twentieth-century photography. Man Ray presents 43 of the greatest images from the artist's career. The essay by Jed Perl describes the influences on Man Ray's career and his enduring contribution to photography.