Struggle over the modern : purity and experience in American art criticism, 1900-1960

In Struggle Over The Modern, Dennis Raverty Argues That There Was Not One, But Two, Competing Modernisms Vying For Dominance Of The Critical Field In American Art During The First Half Of The Twentieth Century. The Most Familiar Strain Of This Debate To Us Today Is Formalism, Which Emphasized Purity In Art And Culminated In The Writing Of The Influential Late Modern Critic, Clement Greenberg. The Other Critical Position, He Contends, Is Not As Familiar To Us Today, Partly Because It Was So Overshadowed By Formalist Thought In The Postwar Period. This Position Emphasized The Importance Of Experience Over Formal Purity And Is Evident In The Writing Of Greenberg's Rival, Harold Rosenberg, As Well As In A Number Of American Writers And Critics From The First Half Of The Century. Struggle Over The Modern Reconstitutes This Neglected Yet Important Dimension Of The Avant-garde Debate In American Art Criticism Decade By Decade.--jacket. 1. Formalism And Anti-formalism In Turn-of-the-century American Thought -- 2. Formalism And Anti-formalism In The Critical Debate Surrounding The Armory Show -- 3. A Split Among The Moderns -- 4. The Paradigms Take Shape -- 5. The Paradigm Comes Of Age I : The Social Parameters Of Experience -- 6. The Paradigm Comes Of Age Ii : The Political Parameters Of Experience -- 7. Formalism As A Minority Position In The 1930s And Into The 1940s -- 8. The Culmination Of The Paradigms In Postwar Critical Thought. Dennis Raverty. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 161-166) And Index. In struggle Over the Modern, Dennis Raverty argues that there was not one, but two competing "modernisms," vying for dominance of this critical field in American art during the first half of the twentieth century. In 'Struggle Over the Modern', Dennis Raverty argues that there was not one, but two competing "modernisms," vying for dominance of this critical field in American art during the first half of the 20th century.