Overview

A critical contextualizing of the early work of modernist painter Ceri Richards. This study assesses Ceri Richards's early art and career, documenting experimental drawings and constructions. The emerging analysis establishes a complex relation between this artist and his European contemporaries—prominently Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuși, and Hans Arp—contributing to an art historical study of the emergencies of modernism in Britain during the early twentieth century. The book includes a full account of Richards as a European modernist and of the dislocation of British artists' engagement with, and Richards's processing of, Paris surrealism; accompanying illustrations include previously unseen drawings and reconstructed early states, discussed here for the first time.

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9781837721443

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""The Reconciliation of Modernism is a superb achievement, which shows in elegant detail why Ceri Richards matters to a nuanced history of visual modernism. Jones's work deftly locates Richards in terms of a European tradition, and astutely theorises and traces how the artist developed over those intense interwar years - moving between his paintings, drawings and haunting relief constructions. The analysis demonstrates the complex history of techniques in Richards's visionary avalanches of intensity, and yet counterpoints this with his laconic and finely graded detail. But the book also - vitally - reflects on how we encounter Richards now, and the compelling nature of his vision, one both rooted in material textures and simultaneously striving for emotional transcendence ... Magnificent."" -- ""Dr. Leo Mellor, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge"" ""The Reconciliation of Modernism presents a fascinating and timely reappraisal of the art of Ceri Richards in relation to European modernism between 1930 and 1945. Jones provides a revealing account of the complex interactions with the international avant-gardes that shaped Richards's art during this critical period. Through perceptive close readings of key artworks and writings, he explores the deep engagement with abstraction and surrealism that allowed Richards to shape these influences into his own unique visual style. An essential resource for students, scholars and enthusiasts of modern art, this book offers a brilliant and nuanced study of one of the unsung heroes of modernism.""-- ""Professor Eric Robertson, Royal Holloway, University of London""

Author Information

Dafydd W. Jones is an academic writer and editor. His books include Dada 1916 in Theory: Practices of Critical Resistance and The Fictions of Arthur Cravan: Poetry, Boxing and Revolution.

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