Histories of 20th-century art tend to downplay the persistent and powerful presence of realist painting. This book argues—and illustrates through 191 color and black and white reproductions—that realism has had a continuous, vibrant, restlessly shifting place in American and European painting throughout the 20th century, from Eakins, Bellows, and Homer, through Vuillard, Bonnard, Schiele, Hopper, and Giacometti, to Balthus, Freud, and Hockney. Brendan Prendeville discusses the historical, artistic, and critical contexts in which painting has taken realistic turns, as well as its dialog with more abstract styles.
