Paths to the Absolute: Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still

by John Golding

Overview

A groundbreaking account of the meaning of abstract painting

From Mondrian's bold geometric forms to Kandinsky's use of symbols to Pollock's "dripped paintings," the richly diverse movement of abstract painting challenges anyone trying to make sense of either individual works or the phenomenon as a whole. Applying his insights as an art historian and a painter, John Golding offers a unique approach to understanding the evolution of abstractionism by looking at the personal artistic development of seven of its greatest practitioners. He re-creates the journey undertaken by each painter in his move from representational art to the abstract—a journey that in most cases began with cubism but led variously to symbolism, futurism, surrealism, theosophy, anthropology, Jungian analysis, and beyond. For each artist, spiritual quest and artistic experimentation became inseparable. And despite their different techniques and philosophies, these artists shared one goal: to break a path to a new, ultimate pictorial truth.

The book first explores the works and concerns of three pioneering European abstract painters—Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky—and then those of their American successors—Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still. Golding shows how each painter sought to see the world and communicate his vision in the purest or most expressive form possible. For example, Mondrian found his way into abstraction through a spiritual response to the landscape of his native Holland, Malevich through his apprehension of the human body, Kandinsky through a blend of religious mysticism and symbolism. Line and color became the focus for many of their creative endeavors. In the 1940s and 50s, the Americans raised the level of pictorial innovation, beginning most notably with Pollock and his Jung-inspired concept of action.

Golding makes a powerful case that at its best and most profound, abstract painting is heavily imbued with meaning and content. Through a blend of biography, art analysis, and cultural history, Paths to the Absolute offers remarkable insights into how a sense of purpose is achieved in painting, and how abstractionism engaged with the intellectual currents of its time.

Please note: All images in this ebook are presented in black and white and have been reduced in size.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691252940
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Series:	The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts , #35
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	98 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Golding (1929–2012) was a distinguished art historian, art critic, curator, and painter. He was a lecturer and reader in the history of art at the Courtauld Institute; a senior tutor at the Royal College of Art, London; and Slade Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Cambridge. His history of cubism published in 1959 remains a standard work on the subject. His other books include Braque: The Late Works, Picasso: Sculptor/Painter, and Visions of the Modern.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Mondrian and the architecture of the future

2. Malevich and the ascent into ether

3. Kandinsky and the sound of colour

Pollock and the search for a symbol

Newman, Rothko, Still and the reductive image

Newman, Rothko, Still and the abstract sublime

Notes on the text

List of illustrations and sources

Index

Editorial Reviews

Well-known artist and historian Golding offers a series of lectures concerning the beginnings of abstraction and 20th-century painting. In this account, Mondrian, Malevich, and Kandinsky represent the early Europeans who refocused artistic vision toward the absolute. The big American names--Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still--built on this vision and made great strides toward the sublime in their art. While each chapter centers on a different artist, Golding focuses throughout on meaning in abstraction, and plentiful reproductions (many in color) help to give substance to the text. No book covering the start and spread of abstract art is accepted as the standard, yet a lot of what Golding says is not news. Still, beginning students of abstract art may be well served by Golding's book, as it does give a good feeling for the process artists have gone through to create a body of work in this style. Recommended for larger general libraries and libraries specializing in art history.--Nadine Dalton Speidel, Cuyahoga Cty. P.L., Parma, OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"Seldom has an art movement been so misunderstood, yet so instrumental in shaping the direction of art in so many ways. . . . Golding's excellent work brings the reader from an artistic cloud of unknowing into expert mode with beauty and precision."

Booklist

Winner of the 2002 Mitchell Prize

From the Publisher

"Whether writing of Mondrian's quest for the purity of art, Pollock's search for the symbol, or Rothko's abstract sublime, the author eloquently conveys the deep spiritual impulses of such art in vivid and learned analyses."

Virginia Quarterly Review

"[Golding] argues that the best abstract art is about something and that its meaning comes partly from the artist. The modernists he discusses were drenched in ideas, especially of better or hidden worlds."

The Economist

"[A] sensitive survey of seven of art's most influential abstract painters."

The Sunday

"The restraint, subtlety, and intellectual rigor of John Golding's Paths to the Absolute . . . are especially timely."

New York Review of Books

"The restraint, subtlety, and intellectual rigor of John Golding's Paths to the Absolute . . . are especially timely."

The New York Review of Books

"Seldom has an art movement been so misunderstood, yet so instrumental in shaping the direction of art in so many ways. . . . Golding's excellent work brings the reader from an artistic cloud of unknowing into expert mode with beauty and precision."

Booklist

John Golding beautifully handles the thorniest of subjects. . . . The narrative maintains what was indeed the tenor of the talks themselves a shrewd selectiveness allied to insights of a discretion that almost belies their profundity. . . . It is the extraordinary rightness of the perceptions running throughout Paths to the Absolute which makes it finally so memorable.

Apollo - David Anfam

Short, lucid, and written in a wonderfully jargon-free prose.

Burlington Magazine - Michael White

The skill of Golding's style is that it draws together considerations of art-historical significance, aesthetic value . . . and personal opinion into a provocative amalgam.

Times Literary Supplement - Matthew Reynolds

A beautifully designed, superbly illustrated volume . . .

Art and Auction - Carter Ratcliff

John Golding beautifully handles the thorniest of subjects. . . . The narrative maintains what was indeed the tenor of the talks themselves a shrewd selectiveness allied to insights of a discretion that almost belies their profundity. . . . It is the extraordinary rightness of the perceptions running throughout Paths to the Absolute which makes it finally so memorable.
— David Anfam

Apollo

Short, lucid, and written in a wonderfully jargon-free prose.
— Michael White

Burlington Magazine

The skill of Golding's style is that it draws together considerations of art-historical significance, aesthetic value . . . and personal opinion into a provocative amalgam.
— Matthew Reynolds

Times Literary Supplement

A beautifully designed, superbly illustrated volume . . .
— Carter Ratcliff

Art and Auction