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My Dear Stieglitz: Letters of Marsden Hartley and Alfred Stieglitz, 1912-1915
Correspondence between two prominent artists that chronicles the modern art world in New York, Paris, and Berlin during the early twentieth century
A collection of previously unpublished correspondence between American artist Marsden Hartley and avant-garde impresario and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, My Dear Stieglitz chronicles a painter's three-year-plus European pilgrimage before―and during the inception of―World War I. Beginning with Hartley's 1912 arrival in Paris, his letters to Stieglitz from this pioneering capital of modern art and world culture provide sweeping accounts of Gertrude Stein's salons, gossip of Montparnasse cafés filled with poets, writers, artists, and composers, and commentary on paintings by Picasso, Cézanne, and Matisse. Searching for social acceptance as well as artistic growth and inspiration, Hartley reports to Stieglitz on leading galleries such as Ambroise Vollard, Bernheim-Jeune, and Paul Durand-Ruel, while finding solace in art at the Musée du Louvre.
From Germany in early 1913, Hartley writes vibrant letters about the Expressionist artists in Munich, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and their group Der Blaue Reiter. Hartley's missives quickly become up-to-the-minute exposés on avant-garde trends in Germany with childlike lamentations over the bustling, modern city of Berlin. His glory in Germany turns solemn with the onset of World War I and the death of his close friend, a German officer named Karl von Freyburg―a loss vividly depicted in Hartley's renowned war motif paintings from this period. Steiglitz's correspondence from New York gives an American point of view of a war in Europe and chronicles exhibitions at 291, his own gallery for modern art. Although Stieglitz's letters are less personal than Hartley's, he shows subtle signs of resentment toward the famous 1913 Armory Show, which usurped his reign over modernism in America.
Closing in late 1915 with Hartley's return to an America filled with anti-German sentiment and a New York seasoned by the influx of modern art, My Dear Stieglitz provides an intimate perspective on modern art and the human condition during the tempestuous years of the early twentieth century.
A collection of previously unpublished correspondence between American artist Marsden Hartley and avant-garde impresario and photographer Alfred Stieglitz, My Dear Stieglitz chronicles a painter's three-year-plus European pilgrimage before―and during the inception of―World War I. Beginning with Hartley's 1912 arrival in Paris, his letters to Stieglitz from this pioneering capital of modern art and world culture provide sweeping accounts of Gertrude Stein's salons, gossip of Montparnasse cafés filled with poets, writers, artists, and composers, and commentary on paintings by Picasso, Cézanne, and Matisse. Searching for social acceptance as well as artistic growth and inspiration, Hartley reports to Stieglitz on leading galleries such as Ambroise Vollard, Bernheim-Jeune, and Paul Durand-Ruel, while finding solace in art at the Musée du Louvre.
From Germany in early 1913, Hartley writes vibrant letters about the Expressionist artists in Munich, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and their group Der Blaue Reiter. Hartley's missives quickly become up-to-the-minute exposés on avant-garde trends in Germany with childlike lamentations over the bustling, modern city of Berlin. His glory in Germany turns solemn with the onset of World War I and the death of his close friend, a German officer named Karl von Freyburg―a loss vividly depicted in Hartley's renowned war motif paintings from this period. Steiglitz's correspondence from New York gives an American point of view of a war in Europe and chronicles exhibitions at 291, his own gallery for modern art. Although Stieglitz's letters are less personal than Hartley's, he shows subtle signs of resentment toward the famous 1913 Armory Show, which usurped his reign over modernism in America.
Closing in late 1915 with Hartley's return to an America filled with anti-German sentiment and a New York seasoned by the influx of modern art, My Dear Stieglitz provides an intimate perspective on modern art and the human condition during the tempestuous years of the early twentieth century.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2002
About the author
James Timothy Voorhies
4 booksJames Voorhies is a curator and art historian of modern and contemporary art. He is Dean of Fine Arts and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 31, 2012
I like to affectionately refer to this book as "My Dear Stieglitz, Please Send Money" because in essence that is the major content of the letters (mostly Hartley's) to Stieglitz while he was working abroad in Europe over these 3-4 years. Steiglitz was Hartley's sole financial lifeline while in Paris and Berlin...monthly forwarding or advancing money from a few sporadic artwork sales or patron donations. However, if you are a fan of Marsden Hartley, this book is a must-read. The letters place you immediately and intimately within Hartley's nervous, alternately depressed and hopeful, deeply thoughtful mind. The tone of Stieglitz's responses are generally soothing and encouraging, but even he loses patience with Hartley's constant childlike whining on occasion and will send a sternly worded father-like reprimand; especially in times where it seems Hartley seems non-appreciative of Stieglitz's never-ceasing work to help him on his path. Other interesting things about this book include Hartley's first-hand account of the Gertrude Stein/Picasso/Matisse circle in Paris and all the characters within; also Stieglitz's philosophies on modern art, his thoughts about his alternative gallery space "291" and his experimental art/writing journal "Camera Work"; and some insights into the beginning of World War 1 and the feeling of living as an American in Germany in the early years of the war. This is the kind of book that you mourn when it's finished. You'll feel a pang no longer being inside these two men's lives.
August 25, 2019
I had read this previously and just re-read it for a new line if research. This time around I felt more sympathetic to Hartley's begging for money, though it certainly does consume so much of his thought. Anyone looking for deep insights for why he's painting what he's painting will have to dig elsewhere.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews