Gerry Souter

Edward Hopper, born in Nyack in 1882, remains one of the most important American painters. After studying to be an illustrator, he entered the famous New York School of Art, where he studied under the direction of Robert Henri, whose influence on Hoppers work was fundamental, as he was the one who encouraged Hopper to paint scenes from American life. In his works, Hopper poetically expressed the solitude of man confronted to the American way of life as it developed in the 1920s. Inspired by the movies and particularly by the various camera angles and attitudes of characters, his paintings expose the alienation of mass culture. Done in cold colours and inhabited by anonymous characters, Hoppers paintings also symbolically reflect the Great Depression. Despite his numerous trips to Europe, he remained impervious to the major trends revolutionizing painting at the time, such as cubism or surrealism. Dedicated to a very personal approach to his subjects, he modelled himself on classical painters, such as Rembrandt, Degas, or Daumier.His paintings of gas stations, motels, and scenes from everyday life represent an aesthetic testimony to individualism, wide open spaces, and the fundamental values of the American nation. He died in 1967, leaving behind a definitive imprint on American art.

Kazimir Malevich (1878 - 1935) was a painter and a great art theorist but first and foremost he was the founder of Suprematism (pure abstraction), a style based on geometrical forms. "Suprematism," he wrote, "has led me to discover something that had not been understood until then??? there is in human consciousness an imperious desire of space and the will to escape from Earth." This new publication presents the brilliant works of Malevich, the original painter, who until the age of twentyseven had no professional background as a painter, and who learned to draw out of curiosity and out of his will to learn. Gerry Souter once more offers us the works of a brilliant artist as well as a new perspective on the artist's personality.

The unconventional movement of American Realism allowed artists to break free from the established traditions of art in America and enabled the birth of a true national artistic identity. Through detailed descriptions of both the strong personalities and the artistic exchanges marking this movement, Souter shows the reader how these artists radically altered the art of their time and forever impacted the history of art.

Diego Rivera is celebrated by Gerry Souter as a virtuoso Mexican muralist, where he could express at once his legend and myths, his technical talent, his intense story-telling focus and self-indulgent ideological convictions. His easel paintings and drawings also constitute a large body of both his early and late work and are represented in the book. Gerry Souter, the author of the remarkable Frida Kahlo, overcomes his huge admiration for Diego Rivera to give the artist a human dimension, found in his political choices, his love affairs and his belief that this truth was Mexico, the language of his thoughts, the blood in his veins, the azure sky above his resting place.

Armáda duchů je nezvyklý název 23. americké jednotky čítající 1100 mužů. Jejím úkolem bylo za druhé světové války zmást německé nepřátele rozmístěním umělých tanků, děl či letadel. Němci na radarech nerozeznali pravé válečné stroje od falešných, a očekávali tak útok na špatných místech. Kniha shrnuje konkrétní případy, kdy se Američanům manévr podařil.

The unconventional movement of American Realism allowed artists to break free from the established traditions of art in America and enabled the birth of a true national artistic identity. Through detailed descriptions of both the strong personalities and the artistic exchanges marking this movement, Souter shows the reader how these artists radically altered the art of their time and forever impacted the history of art.