Full Description
As one of the leading critical voices on art of the postwar years, polymath Lawrence Gowing (1918-1991) combined a passion for close visual involvement with formidable literary skills. Edited by art historian Sarah Whitfield, four decades of Gowing's writing are brought together for the first time in this volume, covering subjects from the Old Masters to Francis Bacon and Howard Hodgkin.
Having first gained success as a painter, Gowing's 1952 monograph on Vermeer brought him early recognition as a writer with the ability to combine aesthetic experience with a meticulous historical perspective.
Gowing's foremost commitment was to the pioneering painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, notably Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse. The exhibitions he curated at the Tate and Museum of Modern Art famously helped to mould and reshape public perceptions. Characterised by a desire to instruct and encourage, his writing reflects a highly successful career as a curator and teacher.
Contents
Preface · sarah whitfield 9
Writers on Art
Monument of Criticism 27
Mr Berenson's Venice 29
Berenson 33
Mind the Paintwork 37
History and Faith 42
Spellbinder 47
Art Before 1900
Mantegna 55
Brueghel's World 61
The Solemnity of Martyrs 85
Roman Paroxysm 88
Privacy and Pride 93
An Artist in His Studio 97
Forger Versus Critic 106
Hogarth in Print: The Tyranny of Taste 113
Hogarth Revisited 128
Francisco Goya 144
The Unfathomable Goya 153
Turner: Imagination and Reality 157
Turner's Pictures of Nothing 197
Confidence and Conscience in Two Centuries of Art 203
Daumier at the Tate 215
Impressionism and Beyond
The Great Transformation 221
The Logic of Organised Sensations 234
The Early Work of Cézanne 274
Renoir's Sentiment and Sense 301
Matisse: The Harmony of Light 317
Henri Matisse: Harmony in Red 352
Teaching by Example 360
In the Monkey Cage 363
Living in the Present 366
Objects-Lessons in Object-Love 370
Cubist 375
Paint in America 378
British Painting
A Brilliant Game of Tip and Run 387
Remembering Coldstream 390
Positioning in Representation 406
Francis Bacon: The Human Presence 417
Howard Hodgkin 440
The New Tate 447
Index of Names 455
