Synopses & Reviews
The American artist Theresa Ferber Bernstein (1890and#8211;2002) made and exhibited her work in every decade of the twentieth century. This authoritative book about Bernstein provides an overview of her life and artistic career, examining her relationships with contemporary artists.
Bernsteinand#8217;s work is noteworthy, even among her more famous male contemporaries such as John Sloan, Stuart Davis, and Edward Hopper, all of whom she knew. Working in realist and expressionist styles, she treated the major subjects of her time, including the fight for womenand#8217;s suffrage, the plight of immigrants, World War I, jazz, unemployment, racial discrimination, and occasionally explicitly Jewish themes such as a synagogue interior or ritual objects such as a menorah. She was a member of the American Artistsand#8217; Congress and painted a mural for the U.S. government during the Great Depression.
Bernsteinand#8217;s portrait subjects include Albert Einstein, Martha Graham, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Lil Hardin, and Billie Holiday, yet it is her particular sensibility and empathy with those subjects that set her apart from her mostly male contemporaries.
Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art includes thematic essays by Michele Cohen, Patricia M. Burnham, Elsie Heung, Sarah Archino, Stephanie Hackett, Gillian Pistell, and by the editor, Gail Levin. It features more than two hundred images, including full-color reproductions of her art and rare documentary photographs, many published here for the first time. It also includes a detailed chronology of Bernsteinand#8217;s life, a list of public collections, and a list of her writings.
Review
andldquo;Gail Levin and her team of authors have assembled a fascinating account of the life and art of Theresa Bernstein, who came of age in the early years of the twentieth century and painted with a boldness of technique and feeling on a par with John Sloan and Stuart Davis. Indeed, she often surpassed them in terms of the praise showered on her when she exhibited in New York and Gloucester during the interwar years. Eclipsed at midcentury, as so many other women artists were, she is today recognized as a leading artist of the early twentieth-century urban scene.andrdquo;andmdash;Patricia Hills, professor of art history at Boston University and the author of Painting Harlem Modern: The Art of Jacob Lawrence
Review
and#8220;Based on extensive research, this important book illuminates the compelling life and work of American realist painter Theresa Bernstein. Bernsteinand#8217;s career spans a century, from her early success in the vibrant New York art world of the 1910s to the diverse portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and prints she produced and exhibited until well past the age of one-hundred. This volumeand#8217;s rich essays and illustrations restore Bernstein to the place she deserves in art history.and#8221;and#8212;Laura R. Prieto, professor of history and womenand#8217;s and gender studies at Simmons College and author of
At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in Americaand#160;
Review
and#8220;
Theresa Bernstein: A Century in Art is a major contribution to art history. Although there are exhibition catalogs of Theresa Bernsteinand#8217;s work and her writings, there is no overview of her life and career, so this book is unique in viewing all the aspects of Bernsteinand#8217;s artistic career and her biography, as well as her relationship with contemporary artists.and#8221;and#8212;Alicia Craig Faxon, professor of art history emerita at Simmons College and the author of
Self-Portraits by Women Paintersand#160;
Review
"This book helps bring to life Theresa Bernstein, her life and her art. . . . Her work is impressive, especially compared to her peers at the time. . . . This book will help people appreciate her art more."and#8212;Kevin Winter, Portland Book Review
Review
andquot;Levinandmdash;who first encountered Bernstein's name while researching her book on Edward Hopperandmdash;has rendered an intriguing biography out of wonderful artwork and a provocative life story.andquot;andmdash;Arlene B. Soifer, Jewish Book Council
Review
andquot;Ruud has compiled a stunning, temporally- and spatially-diverse set in this first major monograph of photography from the University of Nebraska's Sheldon Museum. . . .and#160;[he] has demonstrated his curatorial prowess while offering a solid reason to visit Lincoln, Nebr.andquot;andmdash;Publishers Weekly
Review
"An attractively formatted publication, Encounters establishes the strength and diversity of the Sheldon Museum of Art's photography collection, certainly one worth seeing."Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth, Great Plains Quarterly
Review
"This excellent assemblage of over one hundred photos of primarily black and white and sepia pieces strives to show a multinational world in transition, a goal it meets and exceeds. This volume will delight photography buffs, design students and anyone with an eye for art."and#8212;Sandy Amazeen, Monsters and Critics
Synopsis
In this volume, the Sheldon Museum of Art presents more than one hundred examples from its distinguished photography collection, which contains nearly twenty-five hundred objects. Encompassing the full range of photographic history,
Encounters showcases recognized masterpieces, recent acquisitions, and rarely seen treasures by a diverse range of artists, including Berenice Abbott, Manuel and#193;lvarez Bravo, Julia Margaret Cameron, Gertrude Kand#228;sebier, Andrand#233; Kertand#233;sz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Yinka Shonibare, Paul Strand, William Henry Fox Talbot, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Encounters explores photography through the lens of transnationalism, highlighting the artistic, cultural, geographic, scientific, and technological conflicts and concurrences that have shaped the modern photographic image. Arranged thematically rather than chronologically, the catalog addresses issues such as tourism, souvenir production, and the search for authenticity in the face of increasing industrialization; the transmission of American, European, and Mexican forms of modernism; gender identity and sexuality; the real and perceived tensions between nature and the built environment; and the convergences of art and science, craft and technology. Images are set within their context by the catalogand#8217;s principal author, Brandon K. Ruud, and are accompanied by lively, thought-provoking essays by a team of scholars that includes Zeynep and#199;elik, Keith F. Davis, Gregory Nosan, Robert G. Oand#8217;Meally, Britt Salveson, and the museumand#8217;s director, Jorge Daniel Veneciano.
About the Author
Brandon K. Ruud is the curator of transnational American art at the Sheldon Museum of Art. He is the editor of Karl Bodmerand#8217;s North American Prints (Nebraska, 2004), which was named a New York Times notable book. More recently, he contributed to the catalogs American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago and Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago.