Paths To Abstraction 1867 - 1917 

Published by Art Gallery Of New South Wales, Sydney, 2010

With essays by Terence Maloon and Edmund Capon

First Edition

With 245 offset lithograph plates

This volume was produced on the occasion of the exhibition. It features a survey collection of the abstract art movement, with compelling accompanied essays authored by editor Terence Maloon, Edmund Capon, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, Richard Shiff, and Annegret Hoberg. 

This beautiful volume surveys five decades of late nineteenth and early twentieth century abstract art and chronicles the evolution of the movement that the book argues was the inevitable precursor to modernism. fFilled with gorgeous full page reproductions as well as stunning details of some of the most influential abstract paintings of this time period. 

This important book follows the broad and diverse ways that painters such as Whistler, Monet, Cezanne, Vuillard, Derain, Picasso, and Braque learned from each other as they embarked on an entirely new kind of expression. 

Informative and fascinating essays explore how these artists arrived at such a convergence; why abstract art took root so quickly; and why has it never been singled out by critics or historians as an independent art movement. This beautifully produced volume illustrates how abstraction arose directly from a tradition of speculation about the nature of art and aesthetic experience.

Included in the book are artworks by more than forty of the most influential abstract artists including Hans Jean Arp, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Maurice Denis, Andre Derain, Paul Gauguin, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Frantisek Kupka, Fernand Leger, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Hans Richter, Edouard Vuillard, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler among many more. 

Measures 24cm x 28.5cm and weighs a significant 1.8 kgs unpacked.