Paths to the Absolute

by John Golding

In this survey of the origins and development of abstraction in twentieth-century painting, John Golding analyses the ambitions and careers of seven major artists, each of whom 'had been inspired by the fact that he was on the path to some new, ultimate pictorial truth or certainty, to a visual absolute'. The artists under discussion fall into two the three greatest pioneering abstract painters in Europe - Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Severinovich Malevich and Vasily Kandinsky - and the four leading figures in America - Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still - who, in the 1940s and 1950s were able to endow abstraction with a new purpose and meaning. In his discussion of each artist the author has chosen key works to illustrate a visual progress on away from figurative painting; each is described and analysed in terms of colour, medium, content and scale, supplemented by a range of comparative material demonstrating stylistic influences, especially the pivotal role and impact of Cubism in general on the three European painters. This book is based on one of the series of A. W. Mellon Lectures in Fine Arts, delivered by the author at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. With its wealth of illustrations and highly perceptive insights into the historical background and the individual personalities of the painters under discussion, supplemented by quotations from their writings on art, it provides a scholarly yet accessible approach to an understanding of the content and meaning of abstract art at its best and most profound.

Genres: Art

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2000

Reviews

[Peyton Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

“They are unique elements in a unique situation. They are organisms with volition and a passion for self assertion. They move with mental freedom, and without need to conform with or to violate what is probable in the familiar world. They have no direct association with any particular visual experience, but in them one recognizes the principles and passion of organisms.” - Rothko on his new forms

[Zo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read about 2/3 of this (the sections on Malevich, Kandinsky, and Rothko). Tons of good information on all three artists coupled with interesting formal analysis. I would've been interested to see if the book could have connected the stories comparatively even more than it did, but maybe that would have been intellectually dishonest. Didn't provoke the same emotion as "About Rothko" or provide as in-depth analysis, but maybe that's a product of differing mindsets at time of reading? Hard to say, but a stimulating read either way.

[Mitchel Granados · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen análisis en la evolución y el trayecto técnico y narrativo de cada artista, con buena representación de las obras más importantes.

[Martin Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I have been reading, on and off, for a while. I originally got it because of my love of Kandinsky and a desire to understand more of what was happening at the turn of the C19 to create such an upheaval in artistic endeavour.

[Eamonn Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to masters of modern art.