Considered to be a master of the essay, Meyer Schapiro (1904-1996) was a prolific art historian and critic who taught at Columbia University for over forty years.

Modern Art: 19th and 20th Centuries
by Meyer Schapiro
preface by Adrienne Baxter Bell

Paperback, 278 pages

ISBN: 978-0-8076-1607-9
$27.95 (Can $32.95)

This revised edition of Meyer Schapiro's exceptional collection of essays includes a new preface by Adrienne Baxter Bell.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award (1978) and the Mitchell Prize for Art History (1979), this rich and diverse collection of writings offers studies of individual artists (Cézanne, Picasso, Mondrian, and Seurat) as well as essays on the reception and social meanings of modern art. Yet, even in his most aesthetic analyses, Schapiro never lost sight of the heroic efforts of the individual artists and of the cultural contexts in which their works were made and received.

Praise For Meyer Schapiro


"THE CAPACITY OF ART, including modern art, to convey the 'highest human values' grounded Meyer Schapiro’s sense of responsibility as a scholar and artist - indeed, as a human being - to assess and to judge always with an open mind and eager heart. His lifelong passion for knowledge, his capacity for independent thought, and his defense of all forms of creative expression are nowhere more evident than in the pages of Modern Art."
-Adrienne Baxter Bell