Books in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (YALE) series

"The spiritual in contemporary art is everywhere evident, yet rarely examined in scholarly research. Encountering the Spiritual in Contemporary Art addresses the subject in depth for the first time since Maurice Tuchman's seminal 1986 The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. It significantly broadens the scope of previous scholarship to include new media and non-Western and Indigenous art in addition to that of the West. Encountering the Spiritual presents art from diverse cultures with equal status, promotes its cultural specificity, and moves beyond previous notions of "center and periphery," celebrating the plurality and global nature of contemporary art today. This unprecedented book--a valuable reference for years to come--integrates different ways of exploring the spiritual in art. Essays based on cultural affinities are rhythmically interspersed with thematic categories. These themes demonstrate greater diversity and hybridity of artists' sources of inspiration and their emphasis on art-making as spiritual process. Finally, selected artists' statements further expand the knowledge of an academic and general audience"--

A glimpse into the development of the American West through startling photographs of the frontier landscape and the rich culture of American Indian tribes

Focuses on Homer Page's New York photographs taken while he was a Guggenheim Fellow during the late '40s.

Steam locomotives gripped the imagination when they first appeared in nineteenth-century Europe and America. Aboard these great machines, passengers travelled at faster speeds than ever before. This work captures both the fear and excitement of early train travel as it probes the artistic response to steam locomotion within its social setting.