Art of the Twenties

New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1979. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good. The format is approximately 11 inches by 9 inches. 142, [2] pages. Illustrations, Contents include Introduction, Chronology, The Art of the Twenties: The City, The Machine, The False Mirror, The World Transformed,and The Modern Style. William Slattery Lieberman (1924-2005), began his lengthy career at The Museum of Modern Art in 1943 as a volunteer in the Department of Exhibitions and Publications. He graduated from Swarthmore College. He left the Museum for two years of graduate study at Harvard University. In 1945 he returned to the Museum; in 1949 he became the first curator of prints in the newly established Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Print Room under the aegis of the Department of Museum Collections. When the department expanded and gained independence as the Department of Drawings and Prints in 1960, Lieberman became its curator, and in 1966, its director. In 1967 he was concurrently appointed curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, then director in 1969. In 1969, a Department of Prints and Illustrated Books was formed. In 1971, a separate Department of Drawings was created, and Lieberman concentrated his energies solely on that department serving as its first director (1971-1979). While at the Museum, he directed over forty exhibitions including Modern Masters: Manet to Matisse, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Modigliani, Etchings by Matisse, and Art of the Twenties. He left the Museum in November 1979 to become Chairman of the Twentieth Century Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book provides an excellent overview of a wide variety of art of that era. The images are clear and concise. Since many of the images are photographs and prints, the black and white printing style presents them as they look. While some of the artists are well known like Bourke-White, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Edward Hopper, Paul Klee, Le Corbusier, Man Ray, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Modigliani,.Mondrian, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Georgia O;Keefe, Pablo Picasso, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, the book also introduces the reader to less well known artists.