Figure And Abstraction In Contemporary Painting
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
A rigorous work of art criticism and theory, Figure and Abstraction in Contemporary Painting presents Ronald Paulson's incisive examination of the tension between representational imagery and abstract form in modern painting. Paulson argues that the figure—the human body and recognizable subject matter—has never truly disappeared from even the most abstract canvases, but instead persists in transformed, fragmented, or sublimated states. Drawing on a wide range of twentieth-century artists and movements, the text illustrates how painters negotiate the boundary between legibility and pure form, grounding theoretical claims in close, authoritative visual analysis. Written with the precision and depth expected of a distinguished literary and art historian, the work challenges prevailing narratives about the so-called triumph of abstraction, offering a nuanced reassessment of how meaning and the human presence endure in contemporary art.
Author: Ronald Paulson
Format: Hardback
Published: 1990, Rutgers University Press
Genre: History of arts
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
A rigorous work of art criticism and theory, Figure and Abstraction in Contemporary Painting presents Ronald Paulson's incisive examination of the tension between representational imagery and abstract form in modern painting. Paulson argues that the figure—the human body and recognizable subject matter—has never truly disappeared from even the most abstract canvases, but instead persists in transformed, fragmented, or sublimated states. Drawing on a wide range of twentieth-century artists and movements, the text illustrates how painters negotiate the boundary between legibility and pure form, grounding theoretical claims in close, authoritative visual analysis. Written with the precision and depth expected of a distinguished literary and art historian, the work challenges prevailing narratives about the so-called triumph of abstraction, offering a nuanced reassessment of how meaning and the human presence endure in contemporary art.