Colorado Abstract: Paintings and Sculpture

Albuquerque, New Mexico: Fresco Fine Art Publications, 2009. Hardbound. VG, DJ has some edge wear. White cloth boards w/ glossy color illustrated DJ, 319pp, profuse color and BW plates. From the publisher--The rise of abstraction in the first half of the 20th century and its firm establishment in the art of Colorado of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is the expansive topic taken up by Colorado Abstract: Paintings and Sculpture. This book marks the first time such an ambitious project has been undertaken that zeroes in on this visually rich yet virtually unexplored topic.

In the late 19th century artists flocked to Colorado, drawn to the world-renowned scenery of the Rocky Mountains. These artists were quick to embrace European styles such as realism and impressionism, but their successors in the early 20th century were resistant to another Old World invention: abstraction. However, in the 1930s, some Colorado artists would begin to turn toward abstraction so much so that by the 1950s, this aesthetic mode was well entrenched and came to dominate the visual arts in the state. In the 1960s and 1970s, abstract artists in Colorado set a national standard. Today, in the first decade of the 21st century, the abstract sensibility is alive and well among the state's most accomplished painters and sculptors.

Colorado Abstract: Paintings and Sculpture is co-authored by two well-known Denver art writers: Michael Paglia who selected all the artists featured, and Mary Voelz Chandler who authored individual discussions of each of the more than fifty contemporary abstractionists included. In addition, Hugh Grant of the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art has prepared a foreword.