The Extreme of the Middle: Writings of Jack Tworkov

by Jack Tworkov, Mira Schor (Editor)

Jack Tworkov (1900–1982) was a significant figure of the Abstract Expressionist period. A noted painter, he was one of the first group of artists who defined the ideals of the New York School, along with Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, and Franz Kline, among others. This book, the first collection of Tworkov’s writings, sheds new light on the lives and studio practices of Tworkov and his colleagues as well as on Tworkov’s artistic theories and values.

 

These enlightening and intimate writings—personal journals and letters, teaching notebooks, correspondence with other artists, previously unpublished essays, and published articles—are introduced and annotated by Mira Schor, who provides an informed account of an important artist and thinker. The book is enriched by photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Irving Penn, Arnold Newman, and Robert Rauschenberg; family photographs with Hans Hofmann, John Cage, Kline, and others; and reproductions of some of Tworkov’s finest work.

Genres: Art

512 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2009

Reviews

[Nick]

This diary by abstract expressionist artist Jack Tworkov joins a select group of artist's journals that vividly reveal the artist's life inside and out. The book contains diary writings, letters, essays, personal notes, which together create a kind of documentary novel of Tworkov's life and work. The book also includes plates of drawings and paintings and photographs of the artist as well as insightful and revealing comments about many of the famous painters he was close with, including DeKooning, Kiine and Rothko.

[Ploughshares]

From Recommended Books and Writers in the Winter 09/10 issue of Ploughshares. Recommended by John Skoyles, Ploughshares' Poetry Editor.

You can read a full review here: http://www.pshares.org/issues/article...

[Barry]

You can read my review of this book at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091109...