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The first book on American artist John B. Flannagan, a pioneering sculptor during the 1920s and 1930s who found the meaning of life in stone.
Although seen as a progenitor of modern American sculpture, John B. Flannagan (1895–1942) has never been the subject of a book. Flannagan was arguably the most important of the early twentieth-century direct carvers: artists who cut into wood or stone without preliminary models or technical assistants. Uniquely, Flannagan also foresaw central tenets of abstract expressionism, as well as the burgeoning field of animal studies, yet because so little information has traditionally been available, he is now slipping from the record. Flannagan's quest to find "the Image in the Rock" echoed his belief in the near-spiritual quality of directly working with his chosen material. This book uses previously undiscovered primary sources to reveal the sculptor in context. It includes over eighty works by Flannagan, many seldom reproduced, restoring his rightful place as a full participant in the American art scene of the 1920s and 1930s.
"In this thoroughly researched monographic study of John B. Flannagan, Katherine Rangoon Doyle has produced a major artist-biography that illuminates the life and work of a singular American sculptor. Hers is the first in-depth investigation of Flannagan's significance as an American original. Her probing analysis deepens understanding of the direct carving movement in American sculpture as well as the cultural and socioeconomic factors that constrained the development of twentieth-century American modernism before World War II. An eminently engaging biography that would appeal to artists, art lovers, and general-interest readers alike." — Judith Zilczer, Curator Emerita, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
"This book makes an important contribution to the fields of American art history and the history of both American and European sculpture, as it will be the first published major monograph on this important artist.." — Melissa Dabakis, Kenyon College, Professor Emerita of Art History