André Salmon on French Modern Art

André Salmon was one of the premier art critics of his day and the author of two important eyewitness accounts of early twentieth century art in France, La jeune peinture française and La jeune sculpture française. These works capture the revolutionary spirit of the period and include references and jokes of a small coterie of artists and poets that included Picasso, Guillaume Apollinare, Max Jacob, Georges Braque, and Salmon himself. This is the first English-language translation of Salmon's first two books, which serve as the primary sources on the Fauves, the Cubists, and their avant-garde contemporaries. Gersh-Ne∫ic's translation includes annotations that expand upon the period, most notably the literary references that came so naturally to Salmon. His rapport with his peers becomes transparent, providing insight into the studio banter that gave rise to some of the art work of that era, particularly Picasso's collages. The introduction calls attention to Salmon's main criteria as a critic and offers an understanding of his personal aesthetics through which we gain a better sense of his ideas and prejudices.

'The more scabrous the story, the more exquisitely it was told. The best of his art criticism combines a sharp focus on an artist's individual characteristics with an often acerbic wit, evident in his observations (both made in La jeune peinture française) that Kees van Dogen 'confused the artist's box of colours with the prostitute's box of makeup' and that André Chapuy 'is a painter of habits: bad habits'. … contributes a useful introduction, outlining his biography and considering his relationship to nominalist aesthetics.' Burlington Magazine

Beth S. Gersh-Ne∫ic is Director of the New York Arts Exchange. She is the author of The Early Criticism of André Salmon: A Study of his Thoughts on Cubism (1991).