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Title: Painting Berlin Stories: Marsden Hartley, Oscar Bluemner and the First American Avant-Garde in Expressionist Berlin (American University Studies. Series Xx, Fine Arts, Vol. 30) by Patricia McDonnell ISBN: 0-8204-3066-8 Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $57.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Good essay but not worth the price
Comment: "Painting Berlin Stories" is more of an extended essay for scholars than a thorough art history book for the general public. It does a fine job of explaining how both Marsden Hartley and Oscar Bluemner ended up in Germany instead of France (where most early twentieth century American artists went) for their art educations abroad. Also, it very clearly describes Kandinsky's influence and Stieglitz' support of both artists. German expressionist art resonated with both Hartley and Bluemner, but both of them dismissed purely non-objective painting, instead believing that a work of art needed to ultimately be based on reality, even if it was abstracted away from pure representation. Both were influenced by the transcendentalism of Americans Emerson, Whitman, and James, as well as by the idealism of Kant, Goethe, and Neitzche. The book does a nice job of describing all of the German influences on American culture in the pre-WWI timeframe.

However, there are serious problems with this book as it stands. First, it is a major disservice to publish a book mostly about Hartley and Bluemner that is completely in black and white -- there are NO color photos in this book. Both artists are excellent colorists and much is lost because all twenty of the book's illustrations are B&W. Although the book's description lists 208 pages, there are actually 190 numbered pages and of those, over 50 (!) are full of footnotes (most of which are just source references, not additional reading material) and bibliographic information. Further, the book contains no index, limiting its usefulness as a reference work. Biographical information is very limited for all artists, focusing almost exclusively on the years around their time spent in Germany. Finally, one chapter very briefly discusses other German-influenced American artists -- Bloch, Feininger, and Demuth -- but does not include any pictures of their paintings and does not add much to the discussion. Thus, [the price] is an awful lot of money for a small (6"x9"), short, black-and-white art book. If you need a very focused essay on the German influence of early twentieth century American modernist painters, especially a detailed bibliography, then you might find this book helpful. Otherwise, while interesting, it is very expensive for what it delivers.