Teach Yourself Modern and Contemporary Art Bibliography, Part 2: The Twentieth Century

Fred Tomaselli, Dead Eyed Bird Blast, 1997. Photo by author.

Once again, this bibliography should be understood as in-progress. There are currently some important holes, the most obvious and serious being Fluxus as well as the recent arts of China and Latin America. I hope to add these later.

In addition to checking out some or all of the following books and essays, the most helpful thing anyone can do in increasing their understanding of modern and contemporary art is to go to exhibitions and read the wall labels.


General

Gamwell, Lynn. Exploring the Invisible: Art, Science, and the Spiritual. Princeton University, 2002.
This book begins in the mid-19th century and concludes in the early 20th century. It is a great alternative to a regular survey book for those who are particularly interested in the role of science in Modern art. [also listed in the 19th century bibliography]

Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “The Multiple Viewpoint: Diaspora and visual culture,” in The Visual Culture Reader, Second Edition. Edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff. Routledge, 2002. 204–214.

Molesworth, Helen. Part Object, Part Sculpture. Wexner Center for the Arts, 2005.

Potts, Alex. The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist. Yale, 2000.
This beautifully produced book covers a broad range of sculpture, but focuses primarily on Western productions from the 20th century. Although the writing is clear enough for the casual reader, the content, which deals with the shifting philosophical underpinnings of sculpture, is more complex than most historical or stylistic surveys.

Rothfuss, Joan and Elizabeth Carpenter. Bits and Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole: Walker Art Center Collections. Walker Art Center, 2005.
As one of the pre-eminent museums for contemporary art in the United States, the Walker’s collection catalogue reads as a who’s-who in contemporary art, up to the date of publication. Although not every included artist is equally well represented, the catalogue nonetheless serves as a good introduction to the variety of contemporary practices.


Essay Collections

Foster, Hal. The Return of the Real: The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century. MIT Press, 1999.

Hassan, Salah and Iftikhar Dadi (eds). Unpacking Europe: Towards a Critical Reading. NAi, 2001.
Among other things, this exhibition catalogue and essay collection serves as a critique of, and counter-point to, the canonical narrative of Western Art.

Krauss, Rosalind. Passages of Modern Sculpture. MIT, 1977.
This is a definitive collection of essays and should be read (critically) by anyone with a serious interest in Modern art.


Primitivism

Rubin, William. Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern. The Museum of Modern Art, 1984.
See also: McEvilley, Thomas. Artforum 23 (November 1984): 54–61 and Artforum 28 (March 1990): 19–21. [Artforum essays in Flam and Deutch, Primitivism and 20th Century Art: A Documentary History]


AUSTRIA

Turn-of-the-century Vienna: Secession, Expressionism, and the Wiener Werkstätte
Compared to contemporary movements in France and Germany, Viennese artists are under-represented outside of Austria. For those interested in this period, the small but excellent Neue Museum in New York has a solid collection of art and design, and also periodically hosts related temporary exhibitions. Otherwise, Vienna is the place to go.

Schmuttermeier, Elisabeth and Christian Witt-Dörring (eds). Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: A Catalogue Raisonné (Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection). Neue Museum, 2010.

Varnedoe, Kirk. Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture and Design. The Museum of Modern Art, 1986.

Vergo, Peter. Art in Vienna, 1898–1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and Their Contemporaries. Phaidon, 1975.


Viennese Actionists (1960s)
There are even fewer resources on the Viennese Actionists in the US. Exhibitions and other resources are more common in Europe, particularly Austria.

Museum Hermann Nitsch. Hatje Cantz, 2008.

Barber, Stephen. The Art of Destruction: The Films of the Vienna Action Group. 2004
I haven’t read this yet, but the films are worth knowing about for those interested in performance or body-based art.

Green, Malcolm. Writings of the Vienna Actionists. Atlas, 1999.


FRANCE

Fauvism and Matisse
Elderfield, John. The Wild Beasts: Fauvism and its Affinities. The Museum of Modern Art, 1976.
There are larger, more recent books on Fauvism, but Elderfield’s slim volume is still a useful and accessible introduction.

Elderfield, John. Henri Matisse: A Retrospective. The Museum of Modern Art, 1992.


Cubism

Clark, T. J. “Cubism and Collectivity,” in Farewell to an Idea. Yale, 1999.

Rubin, William, et al. Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism. The Museum of Modern Art, c. 1989.

Brancusi
A number of museums around the country possess works by Brancusi. However, some of the best collections are to be found at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Bach, Friedrich Teja, Margit Rowell, and Ann Temkin. Constantin Brancusi. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995.
If you read one book on Brancusi, this should be it. An excellent and far-reaching catalogue of the sculptor’s production.

Spear, Athena. Brancusi’s Birds. New York University, 1969.
A closer look at one of Brancusi’s most discussed series of sculpture, covering related topics ranging from Romanian folklore to the importance of the base.


Purism
See also the "Europe Between the Wars" section, below, for related materials.

Silver, Kenneth, “Purism: Straightening Up After the Great War,” Artforum 15 (March 1977): 56–63.
There are good books on the subject of Purism, but Silver’s article outlines the basics and is probably all most people will need.


GERMANY AND RUSSIA

Kandinsky, the Blaue Reiter, and the Blue Four

Kandinsky. Guggenheim, 2009.
A well-illustrated catalogue and good survey of Kandinsky’s work.

Barnett, Vivian Endicott and Josef Helfenstein (eds). The Blue Four: Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World. Dumont, 1997.

Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Translation and introduction by M.T.H. Sadler. Dover, 1977 [1914].

Kandinsky, Wassily and Franz Marc. The Blaue Reiter Almanac, Documents of 20th-Century Art. Viking, 1974 [1965].


German Art Before and After WWI: Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit
See also the "Dada" section for other relevant readings.

Beckmann, Max. Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903–1950. Edited by Barbara Buenger. University of Chicago, 1997.

Lavin, Maud. Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch. Yale, 1993.

Lloyd, Jill. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Royal Academy of Arts, 2003.
This monograph on Kirchner also serves as an accessible introduction to German Expressionism.

Peters, Olaf. Otto Dix. Neue Galerie, 2010.

Rewald, Sabine, Ian Buruma and Matthias Eberle. Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.


Bauhaus

Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity. The Museum of Modern Art, 2009.

Gropius, Walter. "The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus [1923],” in Art in Theory: 1900–1990. Blackwell, 1993. 130–135.


Russia: Suprematism and Constructivism
I am still waiting for a single accessible, informative, and enjoyable text on Constructivism. However, the movement is too important to the development of later art to exclude.

Bois, Yve-Alain. “Lissitsky's Radical Reversibility,” Art in America 76, 4 (April 1988). 160–181.

Fer, Briony. “Metaphor and Modernity: Russian Constructivism,” Oxford Art Journal 12, 1 (1989). 14–30.

Gabo, Naum and Antoine Pevsner. “The Realistic Manifesto,” in The Tradition of Constructivism. Edited by Stephen Bann. Da Capo, 1974.

Gough, Maria. “Faktura: The Making of the Russian Avant-Garde,” Res 36 (Autumn 1989). 32–59.

Gurianova, Nina, Jean-Claude Marcade, Tatyana Mikhienko and Yevgenia Petrova. Kasimir Malevich: Suprematism. Guggenheim, 2003.

Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood (eds). Art in Theory: 1900–1990. Blackwell Press, 1992. See the manifestos on pages 308–330.

Lodder, Christina. Russian Constructivism. Yale, 1984.

Margolin, Victor. The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy: 1917–1946. University of Chicago, 1997.

Tupitsyn, Margarita. “From the Politics of Montage to the Montage of Politics: Soviet Practice 1919 through 1937,” in Montage and Modern Life: 1919–1942. MIT, 1992.


NETHERLANDS

Mondrian and De StijlDe Stijl, 1917–31: Visions of Utopia. Walker Art Center, 1981. 

Bois, Yve-Alain and Angelica Rudenstine. Mondrian: 1872–1944. National Gallery of Art, 1995.Troy, Nancy. The De Stijl Environment. MIT, 1983.


ITALY

Futurism

Italian Futurism 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe. Guggenheim, 2014. 

Apollonio, Umbro (ed). Futurist Manifestos. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1973.
See especially the manifestos by Marinetti and Boccioni.Krauss, Rosalind. “Analytic Space: Futurism and Constructivism,” in Passages of Modern Sculpture. MIT, 1977.

Poggi, Christine. Inventing Futurism: The Art and Politics of Artificial Optimism. Princeton University, 2009.

Tisdall, Caroline and Angelo Bozzolla. Futurism. Thames and Hudson, 1977.


JAPAN

MAVO

Weisenfeld, Gennifer. MAVO: Japanese Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1905–1931. University of California, 2001.

Munroe, Alexandra. Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky. Harry N. Abrams, 1994.


INTERNATIONAL MODERNISM
Although Futurism, Cubism, and the Bauhaus gathered together multinational artists or had ramifications outside their countries of origin, they are each still largely associated with Italy, France, and Germany, respectively. In contrast, the following movements are intrinsically international and should be understood as such.

Europe Between the Wars: “The Return to Order”

Braun, Emily, et al. Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy and Germany, 1918–1936. Guggenheim, 2011.

Silver, Kenneth. “Matisse’s Retour à l’ordre,” Art in America (June 1987), 110–123ff.


Dada

Dietrich, Dorothea, Brigid Doherty, Sabine Kriebel and Leah Dickerman. Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris. DAP, 2008.

Camfield, William A. Marcel Duchamp: Fountain. The Menil Collection, 1989. 13–61.

Nesbit, Molly. “The Language of Industry,” in The Definitively Unfinished Marcel Duchamp. Edited by Thierry de Duve. MIT, 1991. 351–384.


Surrealism

Breton, André. Manifestoes of Surrealism. Translated by Richard Seaver and Helen R. Lane. University of Michigan, 1969. 
See especially “Manifesto of Surrealism” (1924) and “Second Manifesto of Surrealism” (1930).

Foster, Hal. Compulsive Beauty. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993.

Krauss, Rosalind and Jane Livingston. L’Amour fou: Photography and Surrealism. Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986.

Morris, Frances (ed). Louise Bourgeois. Rizzoli, 2008.

Mundy, Jennifer (ed). Surrealism: Desire Unbound. Tate, 2001.

Taylor, Michael R. Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009.
This exhibition catalogue focuses on Duchamp’s last and most Surrealistic work, Étant donnés, as well as its relevant context and legacy. Made secretly over the course of 20 years while Duchamp was an ex-patriot in New York, this sculptural installation is well worth the kind of deep analysis it receives here and is an excellent jumping-off point for a broader understanding of Surrealism and Surrealist circles in New York.


AMERICA

Barron, Stephanie and Sabine Eckmann. Exiles + Emigrés: The Flight of European Artists from Hitler. LACMA, 1997.

Abstract Expressionism

de Antonio, Emile. Painters Painting (1972) [DVD 2010]

Guilbaut, Serge. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom, and the Cold War. University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Leja, Michael. Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s. Yale, 1993.

Temkin, Ann (ed). Barnett Newman. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002.

Terenzio, Stephanie (ed). The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell. University of California, 1999.

Weiss, Jeffery. Mark Rothko. National Gallery of Art, 1998.

Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg: Between AbEx and Pop

Schimmel, Paul (ed). Robert Rauschenberg: Combines. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2005.

Weiss, Jeffery. Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955–1965. National Gallery of Art, 2007.

Los Angeles
See also The Rise of the Sixties under "Art of the 1960s and 70s."

Robin Clark (ed). Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface. University of California, 2011.

Peabody, Rebecca, Andrew Perchuk, Glenn Phillips, and Rani Singh. Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945–1980. Getty, 2011.


Native American (U.S. and Canada)
The Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection. Seattle Art Museum, 1995.
In this context, I especially recommend Nora Marks Dauenhauer’s essay, “Tlingit At.óow: Traditions and Concepts,” as a window into the role of tradition and traditional objects in Tlingit culture.

Berlo, Janet C. and Ruth B. Phillips. “The Twentieth Century: Trends in Modern Native Art,” in Native North American Art. Oxford University, 1998. 208–239.
The line between “Modern” and “Contemporary” art is blurred here, but the emphasis in this chapter is primarily on works that are more in keeping with broader “Contemporary” practices.

Macnair, Peter, Alan Hoover, and Kevin Neary. The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art. University of Washington, 1984.


INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART

Africa
See also the "1980–2010: A few biased selections" section for additional readings.

Enwezor, Okwui. The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945–1994. Prestel, 2001.

Fall, N’Goné and Jean Loup Pivin. An Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century. DAP, 2002.

Fitzgerald, Shannon and Tumelo Mosaka. A Fiction of Authenticity: Contemporary Africa Abroad. Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, 2003.

The “Return of the Real” in Art of the 1960s and 1970s: “Minimalism,” Pop, Land Art, Conceptualism, Performance, and their legacies
See also the "Viennese Actionists" section [above]. 

Donald Judd’s Marfa, Texas/Tony Cragg: In Celebration of Sculpture [2006, DVD].

Richard Serra: The Matter of Time. Bilbao: Guggenheim, 2005.

Crow, Thomas. The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Era of Dissent. Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Diserens, Corinne (ed). Gordon Matta-Clark. Phaidon, 2003. 

See especially the text by Thomas Crow, pages 7–132.

Flam, Jack (ed). Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. University of California, 1996.

Hoptman, Laura, Akira Tatehata, and Udo Kultermann. Yayoi Kusama. Phaidon, 2000.
Covers Kusama’s career from the late 1950s through the 1990s.

Koch, Stephen. Stargazer: Andy Warhol’s World and His Films (second edition). New York: Marion Boyars, 1985.

Marzona, Daniel. Conceptual Art. Taschen, 2006.
A slim and inexpensive volume that offers a good introduction to Conceptual Art and several of the movement’s most notable artists. Consists of a brief historical overview in the introductory essay followed by a series of 2-page spreads, each focusing on a signature work by artists like Marcel Duchamp, Mel Bochner, and Ana Mendieta.

*Meyer, James. Minimalism. Phaidon, 2010.
This is an abbreviated version of Meyer’s 2001 book, Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties. Informative, well-illustrated, and to-the-point; highly recommended.

Lee, Pamela M. Chronophobia: On Time in the Art of the 1960s. MIT, 2006.

Rorimer, Anne. New Art in the 60s and 70s: Redefining Reality. Thames and Hudson, 2001.

Rosenthal, Mark. Joseph Beuys: Actions, Vitrines, Environments. Tate, 2004.

Sussman, Elizabeth (ed). Eva Hesse. SFMoMA, 2002.

Sussman, Elizabeth and Fred Wasserman. Eva Hesse: Sculpture. The Jewish Museum, 2006.
Although shorter and more limited in scope than the SFMoMA catalogue, Eva Hesse: Sculpture has the advantage of being more easily available than the previous publication, while focusing on Hesse’s most iconic works through a collection of well-illustrated, thoughtful essays.

Tsai, Eugenie and Cornelia Butler. Robert Smithson. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2004. 

See especially Moira Roth’s interview with Smithson (p. 80-94) and the essays by Thomas Crow and Jennifer Roberts (p. 32-56 and p. 96-103, respectively).

Wood, Paul. Conceptual Art. Tate, 2002.
Another slim volume which takes a broad view of conceptual art, and would perhaps be better titled, The Conceptual Basis of Contemporary Art. Regardless, it is a very good introduction to contemporary productions in Europe and the Americas during the 1960s and 1970s.


1980–2010: A few biased selections
In addition to the below, which are mostly monographs, I also find biennial catalogues to be useful references for the major concepts, concerns, and artists of their times. The Venice Biennale is the oldest and most famous of the biennials, and its catalogues are also the easiest to come by. The 1997 Johannesburg Biennial was a pivotal exhibition, both intellectually and politically, but the catalogue is more difficult to find. A review by Carol Becker, originally published in Art Journal, can be found online via Google Books as part of her book, Surpassing the Spectacle.

For those interested in watching artists talk about their work, the Art:21 series―which covers a range of themes and methods from the 21st century―is also very informative. It is available on DVD.

Augaitis, Daina. Brian Jungen. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2005.

Bankowsky, Jack, Alison M. Gingeras, and Catherine Wood (eds). Pop Life: Art in a Material World. Tate, 2009.

Crone, Rainer and Petrus Graf Schaesberg. Louise Bourgeois: The Secret of the Cells. Prestel, 2008.

de Duve, Thierry. Jeff Wall: Complete Edition. Phaidon, 2010.

Enwezor, Okwui, et al. Contemporary African Art Since 1980. Bologna: Damiani, 2009.

Friis-Hansen, Dana, Lynn M. Herbert, Marti Mayo, and Paola Morisiani. Outbound: Passages from the 90’s. Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 2000.
This well-illustrated catalogue includes short but incisive texts on some of the most sustaining artists of the 1990s (and today), including Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney, Cai Guo-Qiang, Robert Gober, Ann Hamilton, Jim Hodges, William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, and Fred Wilson.

Goldstein, Ann. Barbara Kruger. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1999.

Heartney, Eleanor. Roxy Paine. Prestel, 2009.

Koons, Jeff, Eckhard Schneider, Ingrid Sischy, and Katy Siegel. Jeff Koons. Taschen, 2009.

Murakami, Takashi. Super Flat. MADRA, 2000.

Neri, Louise (ed). Looking Up: Rachel Whiteread’s Water Tower. Scalo, 1999.
An in-depth look at one of Whiteread’s major works. Highly recommended.

Rosenthal, Norman. Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection. Thames and Hudson, 1998.
There has been a lot written on individual YBA artists—including Damian Hirst, Tracey Emin, and Yinka Shonibare—but this is the exhibition that introduced most of them to the US. It is also the exhibition that sparked serious discussion and controversy about public funding and censorship in the arts.

Schimmel, Paul (ed). ©Murakami. Rizzoli, 2007.

Spector, Nancy. Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle. Guggenheim, 2002.

Townsend, Chris. The Art of Rachel Whiteread. Thames and Hudson, 2004.
A solid overview of Whiteread’s work up to the date of publication, approximately the first decade of her career.


Interviews, Novels, and Other Writings by Artists, Critics, and Philosophers

Bataille, Georges. Story of the Eye. City Lights Books, 1987 [1928].
This is Bataille’s first novel and represents a particularly dark (but illustrative) form of Surreal pornography.

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility (Second Version)," in The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, by Walter Benjamin. Edited by Brigid Doherty, Michael W. Jennings, and Thomas Y. Levin. Harvard University Press, 2008. 19–55.

Blavatsky, H. P. The Key to Theosophy. Wheaton: Quest, 1972 [1889]
Emerging near the end of the 19th century, Theosophy was important to a number of early 20th century artists, including Kandinsky, Mondrian, Kupka, and the Futurists. This abridged version of The Key to Theosophy may be useful to those who want a better understanding of one of the philosophical influences of the period or a peek into the zeitgeist of the late 1800s.

Bourgeois, Louise. Destruction of the Father, Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923–1997. MIT Press, 1998.

Breton, Andre. Nadja. Translated by Richard Howard. Grove Press, 1960 [1928].
Breton was the founder of the Surrealist movement. This autobiographical novel about his encounter and affair with an unstable woman epitomizes the often troubling gender dynamics of Surrealism.

Fried, Michael. Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews. University of Chicago, 1998. 

See especially “Art and Objecthood (1967),” which critiques Minimalism with a focus on Morris and Judd. Judd’s response to this essay is also an iconic text and represents an important counter-point to Fried’s claims.

Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture. Beacon, 1961. 

See especially “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” (p. 3-21).

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. Scribner, 2003 [1964].
Hemingway’s account of his time in Paris in the 1920s.

Lawrence, D.H. Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Penguin, 2006 [1928].
Banned in England and the US at the time of its original publication, Lady Chatterley’s Lover vividly illustrates the appeal of primitivism during the early 20th century and its relationship to the changing social landscape brought on by the Industrial Revolution.

Obrist, Hans Ulrich. Interviews, Volume 1. Charta, 2003.
Obrist’s list of interviewees reads like a who’s who of contemporary artists, and the interviews themselves are informative.

Stein, Gertrude. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Vintage, 1990 [1933].
Despite its name, this is Stein’s own auto-biography written through the eyes of her partner, Alice B. Toklas. As an avant-garde collector and writer, Stein became close to modern figures such as Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso, and her home in Paris often served as a hub for modern artists in the early 20th century.

Zürn, Unica. The House of Illnesses. Translated by Malcolm Green. Atlas, 1993 [1977].
Unica Zürn became associated with Surrealist circles through her relationship with Hans Bellmer. This is an illustrated excerpt from Zürn’s Man of Jasmine, and serves as an account of her time in a hospital during a jaundice-induced fever.