Raymond Jonson and the Spiritual in Modernist and Abstract Painting

<p>This is the most thorough and detailed monograph on the artwork of Raymond Jonson. He is one of many artists of the first half of the twentieth-century who demonstrate the richness and diversity of an under-appreciated period in the history of American art. Visualizing the spiritual was one of the fundamental goals of early abstract painting in the years before and during World War I. Artists turned to alternative spirituality, the occult, and mysticism, believing that the pure use of line, shape, color, light and texture could convey spiritual insight. Jonson was steadfastly dedicated to this goal for most of his career and he always believed that modernist and abstract styles were the most effective and compelling means of achieving it.</p> <p>Contents</p><p>Acknowledgments</p><p>List of Illustrations</p><p>Introduction: Raymond Jonson and Twentieth Century American Art: Reconsidering the Canonical in American Art History and the Spiritual in American Modernist Painting</p><p>Chapter One: "Art Is as Broad as Space": Jonson’s Early Years in the West and Chicago</p><p>Chapter Two: "The Land of Sunshine and Color and Tragedy": New Mexico and Jonson’s Landscape Paintings and Compositions</p><p>Chapter Three: "These Are the Second Attack on the Abstract": the Thematic, Conceptual Series Paintings of 1929-1936</p><p>Chapter Four: "A More Intense Participation in the Life of the Spirit": Jonson’s First Totally Abstract Paintings, His Theories of Art and the Transcendental Painting Group</p><p>Chapter Five: "Fast Arriving and Spontaneous Combustions of Color–space–line and Design": Absolute Painting, 1938-1950</p><p>Chapter Six: "Causing the Surface to Come to Life": Jonson’s Late Career, 1950-1978</p><p>References</p><p>Index</p>