Pierre Sterckx's '50 Géants de l'Art Américain' Offers a Personal Take on Postwar Masters

Pierre Sterckx's book '50 géants de l'art américain' (published by Beaux-Arts éditions) selects fifty major American artists from the post-war period to the present. While the list includes expected figures and omits some like David Smith, John Chamberlain, or Allan Kaprow, the book's novelty lies in Sterckx's personal, daring tone and his use of vivid analogies and singular analytical tools. He revisits well-known works with a fresh perspective, offering an alternative to formalist criticism. In the introduction, Sterckx explains New York's rise as the global art center, emphasizing cultural mosaic, pragmatism, and mental availability from the 1940s onward, without denying economic and political factors. He contrasts an art of the imaginary with an art of the imagination and highlights the moralism in American production, driven by a desire to unmask evil on a planetary scale. Notably, only three of the featured artists are under sixty, raising questions about generational succession. The review was written by Ann Hindry for artpress.