Abstract

This volume is in the series of scholarly catalogues of The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection deals with some of the most innovative artworks of the first half of the twentieth century. More than forty artists from ten countries, including France, Spain, Italy, Britain and the Netherlands, are represented, and the catalogue throws fresh light on a period of intense creative ferment in the visual arts. An illustrated catalogue of 97 works by more than 40 artists: Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Theo van Doesburg, Juan Gris, Piet Mondrian, Picasso. Christopher Green's introductory essay presents a valuable overview of the complex period, teasing out the various lines of inquiry and elucidating the central themes. His catalogue offers new research on significant groups of works by Braque, Ernst, Gris, Kupka, Leger, Picasso, and Schwitters, as well as important discoveries concerning major paintings by Balla, Bomberg, Dali, Miro and Wadsworth. A special feature of many entries is the use of technical investigations to address questions concerning processes of conception and making. Fresh light is thrown on the so-called 'automatist' procedures of the leading Surrealists (especially Ernst), on the open-ended working methods of the leading Cubists and Mondrian, and on the explicitly mechanistic methods of artists like Van Doesburg or Servranckx. Based on extensive documentary and archival research, this latest catalogue of The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection makes a major contribution to twentieth century art history.