Somehow a Past http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Somehow-Past-Marsden-Hartley-Susan-Elizabeth-Ryan-Volume-editor/9780262581639?cf=3

The Autobiography of Marsden Hartley

By Marsden Hartley, Susan Elizabeth Ryan (Volume editor), Susan Elizabeth Ryan (Introduction by)

Prizes

"Hartley's diffident and elusive title does not convey the energy,charm and sheer pleasure of this artist's account of his life andtravels... Marsden Hartley is an extraordinary witness to hisage. The book joins a rich body of 'witness' literature left us byHartley's friends and conspirators in the 'modern movement' likeGertrude Stein, Robert McAlmon and Kay Boyle, Mabel Dodge and ErnestHemingway. One of the few painters turned writer, Hartley has given usan intensely visual record of a time he called a 'cross 'tween acircus and a sacred affair,' when everything was possible, and theartist's goal was simply to remake the world." Julie Martin , The New York Times Book Review "As a writer, Hartley renders his life and the circumstances of hiswork with an often overblown drama, but it is precisely this dramathat mirrors the physic mood underlying his character and,consequently, much of his art. While biographical information existselsewhere, Hartley's own recounting of his story offers illuminationsthat transcend the factual. By making this self-view available tomore than a handful of scholars, this book will enrich the field ofearly 20th century art history." Barbara Haskell, Curator, Painting and Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art

Reviews

Hartley (1877-1943) was a pioneer modernist in American art whose travels and acquaintances comprise much of the avant-garde in the early-20th-century U.S. and Europe. Inspired by his friend Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, among other memoirs, Hartley began a series of reminiscences in 1933, now gathered and incisively introduced by Ryan. Slapdash though they often are, the writings present a revealing look at a well-connected but solitary figure and a peek into a restless and energetic age. The narrative hopscotches from Hartley's native Maine to Cleveland to New York, where he joined the circle of Alfred Stieglitz, to the Paris of Stein's salon, to pre-WWI Berlin, to Provincetown, Mass.; New Mexico; Florence; Mexico; Aix-en-Provence... and at last back to Maine. Hartley's voice is often that of a chirpy naïf‘at its worst when he tries for Steinian pastiche ("It is the room around Alice and Gertrude‘it is them in the room it is the room with everybody passing through it"). More often he tosses off arresting imagery‘notably a military pageant in Berlin‘or such gems as "you must sleep well and eat well if you are to look at pictures." The reader is left with a touching portrait of a shy New Englander eager to be liked and disposed to wander. Illustrations. (Jan.)

"Hartley's diffident and elusive title does not convey the energy,charm and sheer pleasure of this artist's account of his life andtravels... Marsden Hartley is an extraordinary witness to hisage. The book joins a rich body of 'witness' literature left us byHartley's friends and conspirators in the 'modern movement' likeGertrude Stein, Robert McAlmon and Kay Boyle, Mabel Dodge and ErnestHemingway. One of the few painters turned writer, Hartley has given usan intensely visual record of a time he called a 'cross 'tween acircus and a sacred affair,' when everything was possible, and theartist's goal was simply to remake the world." Julie Martin , The New York Times Book Review "As a writer, Hartley renders his life and the circumstances of hiswork with an often overblown drama, but it is precisely this dramathat mirrors the physic mood underlying his character and,consequently, much of his art. While biographical information existselsewhere, Hartley's own recounting of his story offers illuminationsthat transcend the factual. By making this self-view available tomore than a handful of scholars, this book will enrich the field ofearly 20th century art history." Barbara Haskell, Curator, Painting and Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art