| FA-55147-10 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Ellen G. Landau | Mexico and American Modernism | 7/1/2010 - 3/31/2011 | $42,000.00 | Ellen | G. | Landau | | | | Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland | OH | 44106-1712 | USA | 2009 | Art History and Criticism | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 42000 | 0 | 37800 | 0 |
Mexico and American Modernism presents a related set of tightly argued interdisciplinary cross cultural case studies. I am interested in charting the impact on four important mid-20th century American artists of their significant, but as yet under-examined aesthetic connections to Mexico and/or Mexican art. Major contributions by these artists, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Isamu Noguchi and Philip Guston, were sparked in decisive ways by links to Mexican artistic accomplishments and, in the latter three instances, to unique opportunities available south of the border. The little-known Mexican mural experiences of Guston and Noguchi both foreshadowed and nourished central tenets of their mature artistic production. A closer reading of many of the most innovative works by Jackson Pollock, who encountered Mexican muralists Orozco and Siqueiros in New York, and Robert Motherwell, likewise reveals thematic and technical dimensions unlikely without synthesizing Mexican impetus. |