Publication

Serge Guilbaut looks at the international impact of the dominant style of North American abstract expressionism, an avant-garde movement that emerged in the wake of World War II and shifted the centre of the international art scene from Paris to New York. Unlike art criticism from the period focusing on the aesthetic and formal aspects of the movement, Guilbaut zeroes in on its political and social implications. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art (University of Chicago Press, 1983) reflects the commitment and struggle of this avant-garde group and the artists’ interest in tackling problems linked to symbolic creation.