Spiritual Moderns: Twentieth-Century American Artists and Religion (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226820910)

Examines how and why religion matters in the history of modern American art.

Andy Warhol is one of the best-known American artists of the twentieth century. He was also an observant Catholic who carried a rosary, went to mass regularly, kept a Bible by his bedside, and depicted religious subjects throughout his career. Warhol was a spiritual modern: a modern artist who appropriated religious images, beliefs, and practices to create a distinctive style of American art.

Spiritual Moderns centers on four American artists who were both modern and religious. Joseph Cornell, who showed with the Surrealists, was a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Mark Tobey created pioneering works of Abstract Expressionism and was a follower of the Bahá'í Faith. Agnes Pelton was a Symbolist painter who embraced metaphysical movements including New Thought, Theosophy, and Agni Yoga. And Warhol, a leading figure in Pop art, was a lifelong Catholic. Working with biographical materials, social history, affect theory, and the tools of art history, Doss traces the linked subjects of art and religion and proposes a revised interpretation of American modernism.


Author: Erika Doss
ISBN-10: 0226820912
ISBN-13: 9780226820910
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 05/03/2023
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.20lbs
Size: 10.00h x 6.90w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 02/15/2023 pg. 12
Choice 01/01/2024