Skip to main content
University of California Press

Theories of Modern Art

A Source Book by Artists and Critics
by Herschel B. Chipp (Author), Peter Selz (Contribution by), Joshua C. Taylor (Contribution by)
Paperback
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Jun 1968
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 688
ISBN: 9780520052567
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 113 black-and-white illustrations
Series:
Request an Exam or Desk Copy(opens in new window)RightsLink(opens in new window)
Recommend to your Library (PDF)(opens in new window)Rights and Permissions

About the Book

Herschel B. Chipp's Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book By Artists and Critics is a collection of texts from letters, manifestos, notes and interviews. Sources include, as the title says, artists and critics—some expected, like van Gogh, Gauguin, Apollinaire, Mondrian, Greenberg, just to name a few—and some less so: Trotsky and Hitler, in the section on Art and Politics. The book is a wonderful resource and insight into the way artists think and work.

About the Author

Herschel B. Chipp is Professor of Art History at the University of California in Berkeley and the author of Theories of Modern Art.

From Our Blog

#CAA2021: Browse Titles for Art History Courses

Explore our groundbreaking books that facilitate teaching across disciplines. To request
Read More

Table of Contents

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

I. POST-IMPRESSIONISM: Individual Paths to Construction and Expression
Introduction: The Letters of Cézanne
Paul Cézanne: Excerpts from the Letters
Introduction: The Lettters of van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh: Excerpts from the Letters

II. SYMBOLISM AND OTHER SUBJECTIVIST TENDENCIES: Form and the Evocation of Feeling
Introduction: Gauguin and Other Subjectivists
Paul Gauguin: Synthetist Theories
Gauguin: On His Paintings
Gauguin: On Primitivism
Symbolist Theories

III. FAUVISM AND EXPRESSIONISM: The Creative Intuition
Introduction by Peter Selz
Fauvism
Expressionism

IV. CUBISM: Form as Expresssion
Introduction

V. FUTURISM: Dynamism as the Expression of the Modern World
Introductoin by Joshua C. Taylor

VI. NEOPLASTICISM AND CONSTRUCTIVISM: Abstract and Nonobjective Art
Introduction

VII. DADA, SURREALISM, AND SCUOLA METAFISICA: The Irrational and the Dream
Introduction: Dada and Surrealsism
Dada
Surrealism
Introduction: Scuola Metafisica by Joshua C. Taylor

VIII. ART AND POLITICS: The Artist and the Social Order
Introduction by Peter Selz

IX. CONTEMPORARY ART: The Autonomy of the Work of Art

Introduction: The Americans
Introduction: The Europeans
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Reviews

"A rich feast of letters, manifestos, reviews, interviews, and other writings relating to the study of modern art, carefully searched and methodically selected. . . . He wrote the book to fill a need often cited by art historians and students -- to put the study of modern art on a sounder ideological basis. This he does. . . . Other collections of documents of art by modern artists have been printed, but this source book has the advantages of objectivity and large scope. . . . highly recommended for art collections and also for its relevance to humanities in general."
— Library Journal
"Once in a great while one discovers a book that is unusual in approach, scope, and content. This is such a book . . . From the words of the artists, . . . one gets an insight concerning their art, a feeling of knowing the artists, and an awareness of their humanness -- added dimensions that make viewing their art work even more meaningful. . . . This book is a significant contribution and is an important source for anyone interested in or involved with modern art."
— Art Education
"The richest, most thorough and authoritative anthology of theoretical source materials on painting and sculpture since Cezanne which has so far appeared."
— San Francisco Chronicle