Wharton Esherick and the Birth of the American Modern

Book excerpt: An exploration of Wharton Esherick's artistic evolution during the early decades of the twentieth century. Based on the exhibition in the Kamin and Kroiz Galleries of the University of Pennsylvania, this work expands upon the exhibition's themes with well over 300 vibrant images and current research, including an essay by Paul Eisenhauer, Curator of the Wharton Esherick Museum. Esherick experimented with woodcarving and printmaking, laying the foundations for his emergence as an artist of remarkable range. He produced paintings and woodblock prints, set designs, sculpture, furniture, and architecture. He and his community of friends created an artistic circle in which arts and crafts were joined, and in which radical new ideas flourished, helping to shape the course of American Modernism. This book will be a treasure for all who appreciate twentieth-century modernism.