Prehistoric Pictures and American Modernism

Abstract Art at MoMA 1937-1939

Elke Seibert

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781350185241
• eBook ISBN: 9781350185265
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Art

In April 1937, the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted an exhibition that served as a catalyst for the appropriation of prehistoric rock art in postwar abstract painting. With the title "Prehistoric Rock Pictures in Europe and Africa", it displayed a range of copies from the influential collection of the German ethnologist Leo Frobenius. Largely disregarded in modern American art history up until now, this book highlights the importance of this exhibition to artists such as Josef Albers, Adolph Gottlieb, David Smith, and The American Abstract Artists group, who sought inspiration from the prehistoric images' primordial creativity. With a transnational scope, this book reveals new facts about the connections between Paris and New York, and the importance of communication and collaboration between them for these artists. In doing so, Seibert shows that this debate was about more than just legitimizing abstract art forms from the past, but about recognizing an autonomous American abstract art. Presenting unseen archival material, letters, and exhibition documentation, Prehistoric Pictures and American Modernism offers a new reading of the development of modern American abstraction, and will hold an important place in the historiography of the movement, its global traditions, and its legacy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Part One Introduction
• 1 Preface
• 2 Prehistory as a Modern Idea in Europe and “Primitivism” as Intertwined Concepts (1900–40)
• Part Two Prehistoric Artifacts, Prints, Painted Copies, and the Genesis of Modern Art in New York (1937)
• 3 Alfred Barr’s View of Prehistory and Modernism as Shown at MoMA—and on Tour throughout the USA
• 4 Barr’s Exhibition Concept: “Prehistoric” Avant-Garde and Lala Eve Rivol’s Federal Art Project
• 5 Leo Frobenius’s Objectives, His Collection in Western Debates—and Henry Moore
• 6 The Making of the MoMA Exhibition Prehistoric Rock Pictures in Europe and Africa (April 28–May 30, 1937)
• Part Three The Art of Copying the Past—in Transatlantic Dialog
• 7 Copies and Copyists: Pictorial Heritage at the Museum of Modern Art
• 8 Copying for the Index of American Design (1935–42)
• Part Four Modern American Abstract Art and the Reappropriation of Prehistoric Rock Paintings
• 9 The Founding of the American Abstract Artists (1936) and their Appropriation of Prehistoric Rock Paintings (1937–40)
• 10 Bridging Time and Space: The Transcontinental AAA Network in the Interwar Period
• 11 The Influence of (Prehistoric) Artistic Concepts from Mexico on the American Abstract Artists
• 12 Prehistorical Modernists: Gottlieb, Lassaw, Schanker, Smith
• Part Five Conclusion
• 13 The “Modernity of Prehistory” in the Thirties in Paris and New York
• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Plates
• Copyright