The Figure in American Sculpture

Book excerpt: Although most modern art historians viewed the figure as regressive, early-20th-century American sculptors embraced the human form. Curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fort presents a wide selection of works from this period, not as a movement from the naturalistic to the abstract but as a reflection of a rapidly changing American society. While she sees much modern American sculpture as rooted in the works of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), she shows how the figure?whether represented in genre, primitive, folk, archaic, or classical styles?allowed artists to criticize or praise modern society. Fort's selection of minority and female artists for the work is especially refreshing, and the biographies at the end of the book are useful because several are not well known. Unfortunately, the mostly black-and-white plates are small and cannot properly represent the lines and textures of the pieces. Regardless of the quality of the photographs, this highly original work complements Donald Martin Reynold's Masters of American Sculpture (LJ 4/1/94) and is recommended for fine arts collections and academic libraries. ǂb --Review by Julie C. Boehning from Library Journal.