Available for the first time in English, "Portrait of an Artist" brings the work and philosophy of Willem Sandberg (1897-1962), the legendary director of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, to a broad readership. In the wake of World War II, Sandberg transformed the Stedelijk into a dynamic center for modern art and culture. Collaborating closely with artists and architects, Sandberg had strong views about heading up a museum for modern and contemporary art, about the importance of art, dealing with artists and his work as typographic designer. Based on interviews with Sandberg, "Portrait of an Artist" offers firsthand insight into museum culture, providing a vivid picture of the period with fascinating stories about artists such as Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Alexander Calder, and architects such as Gerrit Rietveld, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.

An art collector who was a patient at the Amsterdam Medical Center once expressed his gratitude with a donation of several works of art, the seed for the extraordinary modern art collection that now flourishes at the Amsterdam Medical Center. Since it began seriously cultivating its art collection in the 1980s, the Center has amassed approximately 5,000 works by Dutch and Dutch-resident artists. The Amsterdam Medical Center Art Book is an extraordinary showcase of the Center’s rich and diverse collection, which focuses on Dutch art from the 1950s through the 1970s. The book highlights several stunning examples within the collection of such benchmark art movements as CoBrA, Mixed Media Art, Zero Art, and New Figuration. Other fascinating pieces featured in the book were created by artists-in-residence, who were allowed to draw from live scenes in the Center’s operating theater and maternity ward. This volume ultimately presents a fascinating survey of Dutch post-war art, with over 100 vibrant color illustrations that include works by Eugene Brands, Karel Appel, Constant, Marc Mulders, Roy Villevoye, and Marlene Dumas.

More than 115 entries clearly explain the who, what, when, and where of art since 1945. Some entries deal with concepts, such as formalism, multiculturalism, and the picture plane; some discuss specific movements, such as Abstract Expressionism and Fluxus; some describe various ways of making art, such as collage, performance, and video. Together they provide an invaluable key to the specialized, often baffling vocabulary so often used in today's art world. Complementing the entries are two additional noteworthy features. The first, a one-page ArtChart, presents the movements of the postwar years in a concise format that makes their chronological connections immediately visible. The second is a twenty-eight-page timeline - illustrated with full-color reproductions of paintings, sculptures, and installations - that chronicles events in the art world and the world at large, providing a context for the entries that follow, in addition, for this updated and revised edition, birth and death dates for the artists have been added to the index, along with their nationalities, making this easy-to-use reference even more informative.

Edited by Gerard Meulensteen, Vincent Polakovic and Gabrielle Wimmer. Essays by Rudi Fuchs, Lodovit Petrnsky and Florian Steininger.

Subtle and wide-ranging in its account, this study explores the impact of Australian art in Britain in the two decades following the end of World War II and preceding the 'Swinging Sixties'. In a transitional period of decolonization in Britain, Australian painting was briefly seized upon as a dynamic and reinvigorating force in contemporary art, and a group of Australian artists settled in London where they held centre stage with group and solo exhibitions in the capital's most prestigious galleries. The book traces the key influences of Sir Kenneth Clark, Bernard Smith and Bryan Robertson in their various (and varying) roles as patrons, ideologues, and entrepreneurs for Australian art, as well as the self-definition and interaction of the artists themselves. Simon Pierse interweaves multiple issues of the period into a cohesive historical narrative, including the mechanics of the British art world, the limited and frustrating cultural scene of 1950s Australia, and the conservative influence of Australian government bodies. Publishing for the first time archival material, letters, and photographs previously unavailable to scholars either in Britain or Australia, this book demonstrates how the work of expatriate Australian artists living in London constructed a distinct vision of Australian identity for a foreign market.