Of Modernism presents original research by ten contemporary scholars of modern art. By turns provocative, insightful and informative, these essays – written in honour of the eminent British art historian Christopher Green – rethink some of the crucial artworks, problems and practitioners of European high modernism, from Les Demoiselles d’Avignon to Guernica, avant-gardism to internationalism, Joan Miró to Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe.

 

Professor Christopher Green has made an outstanding contribution to the historiography of European modernism. As a teacher at the Courtauld Institute, his wide-ranging scholarship and generosity of mind have inspired several generations of students, many of whom have gone on to lead distinguished careers in the worlds of art and academia. Of Modernism is a collection written in his honour.

Questions about modernism shape the ten essays presented here, explicitly or otherwise, and they come in as many different shapes. However, the subject-matter is predominantly European (which still includes Britain at the time of writing!); the method is historical, true to Chris’s conviction that ‘the work of an artist is, in its largest sense, inseparable from history thought of in its largest sense’; and finally, the canon is open, situating Picasso – a theme in the collection – alongside artists far more obscure, and in the context of a visual culture which is strikingly eclectic and often ephemeral.

 

The ten contributors to this collection – Fae Brauer, Grace Brockington, Penelope Curtis, Linda Goddard, Nancy Ireson, William Jeffett, Silvia Loreti, C.F.B. Miller, Gavin Parkinson and Sarah Victoria Turner – all studied with Chris as postgraduates at the Courtauld, and several have also collaborated with him as curators. They have all moved on to distinguished careers worldwide, ranging from critics and historians to eminent professors and museum professionals.