This long-overdue new look at the life and work of Albert Pinkham
Ryder explores the artist's deeply visionary paintings and the powerful
and enduring paths he forged for generations of American modernists.
Few American artists have captured painters' imaginations with the
gripping force of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847-1917). The brooding
spirituality of his works, coupled with formal innovation decades ahead
of its time, have long made Ryder a favorite of trailblazers like
Jackson Pollock, Marsden Hartley, and Robert Rauschenberg. And yet, the
artist's biography and practices remain elusive. A Wild Note of
Longing--whose title comes from a Ryder poem--takes up the challenge,
bringing a new generation of scholarship to the most comprehensive
collection of Ryder masterworks assembled to date.
Ryder is considered a seminal artist for both the late
nineteenth-century Gilded Age and for the emerging modernism of the
early twentieth century. This monumental new book presents multiple
voices from leaders in the field on the continuing and ever evolving
relevance of Albert Pinkham Ryder in modern art. In addition to a
general overview of the artist's career, essays also cover Ryder within
the context of his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Ryder's
influence and context within modernism.
