Preface

Brown, Milton W.

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Preface

Milton W. Brown

American Painting: From the Armory Show to the Depression

~THE research and writing of this book, which was interrupted by military service during World War II, was begun more than a decade ago. Because of a lamentable dearth of scholarship in the area of American art, I was faced from the very beginning with the problem of reconstructing the history of a vital period in our culture out of a wealth of...

Author

Milton W. Brown

PublisherPrinceton University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.v-

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00013.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18408

Preface

The research and writing of this book, which was interrupted by military service during World War II, was begun more than a decade ago. Because of a lamentable dearth of scholarship in the area of American art, I was faced from the very beginning with the problem of reconstructing the history of a vital period in our culture out of a wealth of uncatalogued material—the works of art themselves in original and reproduction, catalogs of exhibitions, journalistic reports, contemporary articles, and eyewitness or participant accounts either set down for eternity on the printed page or passed on informally in verbal interview. The spadework on individual artists and specific events, which should be the grounding of a larger synthesis such as this work is intended to be, had not been done except in a very limited sense and even today is far from complete. However, in more recent years the literature on individual artists has happily been increased by several monographs and especially by the exhibition catalogues of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. In many cases these have duplicated my own work and gone more completely into specific phases of the period than was my original intention. I have attempted to include these more recent investigations of my colleagues within this field, but the major purpose of this work is the recreation of the total period, in which individual artists played their relative parts.

The extended period of time taken in the completion of this work makes it almost impossible for me to remember and thank by name the many people who by great and little favors, advice and information have made this book possible. In the course of my research, I visited most of the museums in this country, the staffs of which, by offering me free access to their files and stacks and by answering innumerable questions, have been kind and helpful. I have also been granted many favors by private collectors, practically all of whom have been graciously cooperative. To all these people and institutions too numerous to mention, I should like to tender a blanket but sincere thanks.

I am especially indebted to Paul J. Sachs of Harvard University and the William Hayes Fogg Museum of Art for the grant of the Fogg Museum Fellowship in Modern Art under whose auspices and support this work was begun. My heartfelt thanks go also to Dr. Walter W. S. Cook of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, for his constant moral support and encouragement, and to Dr. Walter Friedlaender of the same institution for advice and sympathy; to Dr. Robert J. Goldwater of Queens College for considered criticism freely given during the preparation of the book; to Lloyd Goodrich of the Whitney Museum of American Art and Elizabeth McCausland who read the completed manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions. They are, however, all absolved from any complicity in the matter as it now stands.

I would like to express my gratitude to the following libraries and photographic collections and their staffs—The Frick Reference Library, The New York Public Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, the Museum of Modern Art Library, as well as the American Art Research Council.

I am obliged also to the various museums, institutions, art dealers, collectors and artists who have helped me in tracing and obtaining photographs and who have granted me permission to reproduce them.

And lastly, but most profoundly, my thanks go to Margot Cutter, formerly of the Princeton University Press, whose interest in the manuscript helped make its publication possible, and to my wife who was a constant help in all stages but most especially in undertaking the tedious job of getting the original manuscript, the notes and the bibliography into shape during my army service.

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