Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity

The first major monograph in sixty years on the San Francisco modernist sculptor who developed a unique abstract style rooted in surrealism and inspired by nature.This beautifully produced volume celebrates the life and career of Adaline Kent (1900–1957), a member of one of the Bay Area’s most productive and innovative midcentury artistic groups. Kent is linked to modernist artists Ruth Asawa, Mark Rothko, Isamu Noguchi, and Clyfford Still.Texts by a diverse range of scholars cover such subjects as infinity and movement in Kent’s work; the influence of nature; and the diverse artistic milieu at the San Francisco Art Institute and beyond that surrounded Kent and her husband, artist Robert Howard.With an extensive chronology and a wide selection of sculptures, photographs, and rarely seen works on paper and paintings on Hydrocal, the book substantiates Kent’s achievement as one of midcentury America’s most innovative sculptors, re-excavating her work for younger generations.