Florine Stettheimer Painting poetry

During the early decades of the 20th century, American artist and poet Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944), together with her sisters Ettie and Carrie, held salons in her Manhattan apartment that hosted luminaries of modernist art, music, literature, and dance. After training at the Art Students League of New York, Stettheimer traveled extensively in Europe before returning to New York and bringing together such American notables as Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, and European expats such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York, and subsequently at the Art Gallery of Ontario, this beautifully illustrated book is a gem. Including biographical essays on the Stettheimers, along with archival photographs and reproductions of Florine's inimitable paintings and poetry, this book brings the life of this remarkable woman to the attention of a wider audience. Full of vitality and enchantment, Stettheimer's images conjure an elite world, populated by dancers, critics, artists, and poets from her own social circle, daring individuals who challenged past gender, creative, and intellectual constraints at the height of the Jazz Age, embracing the pioneers of the avant-garde from the Ballets Russes through surrealism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --Catherine Jane Jolivette, Missouri State University

Artist, poet, and set designer Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944) was ahead of her time. A salonista in New York during the 1920s, her wide circle of friends and collaborators included artist Marcel -Duchamp, -writer Gertrude Stein, and photographer Alfred Steiglitz. This volume documents a significant exhibition of her work curated by Brown (the Jewish Museum, NY) and Uhlyarik (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto). Although described as a "haute outsider," Stettheimer studied art formally and was influenced by artists such as James Whistler and Paul Gauguin. The "faux naïve" use of flat perspective and bright, clear colors in her portraits of family and friends belie an acute observance of a privileged social world. Stettheimer's wealth allowed her to live independently with her two sisters and mother on the Upper East Side. While her talents were recognized by fellow artists, the single showing of her art during her lifetime, held at M. Knoedler & Co. in 1916, was a disappointment. VERDICT The appreciation of Stettheimer's work is long overdue. First published in association with a 2014 exhibition in Germany, this updated volume includes conversations with seven female contemporary artists inspired by Stettheimer.-Nancy B. Turner, Temple Univ. Lib., Philadelphia © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.