Lawrence Gowing: Selected Writings on Art

Four decades of writings on art by English artist Lawrence Gowing (1918 1991) have been brought together for the first time, edited and introduced by art historian and curator Sarah Whitfield, in this substantial publication. Gowing was first recognized as a portrait and landscape painter and later rose to prominence as an educator, writer and curator. His still-lauded monographs on Vermeer, Turner, Cézanne, Matisse and Bacon among others brought him recognition as a writer who combined his experience as a painter with a meticulous historical perspective. Though largely self-taught as a student of art history, Gowing became a leading critical voice on art of the postwar years, combining a passion for close visual involvement with formidable literary skills. His exhibitions curated for the Tate, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, famously helped reshape public perceptions of the period.