Review by Choice Review
One sometimes loses sight of the pioneering collectors who supported individual Abstract Expressionist and Modern artists, not only through verbal encouragement but through tangible, monetary means, by purchasing their works, especially when they were struggling to make ends meet, and, arguably, at times when they were creating some of their finest and most exciting work. Such a pioneering collector is Muriel Newman, a Chicagoan who has collected predominantly New York City-based artworks, and who recently donated them to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. To celebrate this homecoming, the Met has produced this excellent catalog for the 63 superb works in the collection. Practically a who's who of Modern art, the collection ranges from Paula Modersohn-Becker to Richard Artschwager, and includes, e.g., Marin, Schwitters, Leger, Ernst, Lipchitz, Miro, Arp (2), Lachaise, Dove, Wols, Matta, Gorky (4), Tobey, de Kooning (4), Still, Tworkov (2), Guston, Roszak (2), Cornell (2), Giacometti, Pollock, Kline (2), Smith, De Niro, Guston, Lassaw, Rivers, Leslie, Rothko, Motherwell, Frankenthaler, Calder, Stankiewicz, Hofmann, Louis (2), Noland, Olitski, and Oldenburg. Twenty-three curators, artists, academics, and independent scholars have written the excellent entries, each of which is accompanied by several fine color images. Summing Up: Recommended. All collections of modern art; upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. J. Weidman Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
