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The art of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) is usually viewed as quite distinct from Surrealism, a movement which the artist himself displayed some hostility towards. However, Rauschenberg had a very positive reception among Surrealists, particularly across the period 1959-69.In the face of Rauschenberg's avowals of his own'literalism'and insistence on his art as'facts,'this book gathers generous evidence of the poetic, metaphorical, allusive, associative and connotative dimensions of the artist's oeuvre as identified by Surrealists, and thus extrapolates new readings from Rauschenberg's key works on that basis. By viewing Rauschenberg's art against the expansion of the cultural influence of the United States in Europe in the period after the Second World War and the increasingly politicized activities of the Surrealists in the era of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), Robert Rauschenberg and Surrealism shows how poetic inference of the artist's work was turned towards political interpretation. By analysing Rauschenberg's art in the context of Surrealism, and drawing from it new interpretations and perspectives, this volume simultaneously situates the Surrealist movement in 1960s American art criticism and history.

Excerpt:'From May 1945 until February 1946, I served as a Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Officer in Germany. During the first four months of this assignment, I was engaged in field work which included the recovery of looted works of art from such out-of-the-way places as a monastery in Czechoslovakia, a salt mine in Austria, and a castle in Bavaria. Later, as Deputy Chief of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section, Office of Military Government, U. S. Zone, I participated in the restitution of recovered art treasures to the countries of rightful ownership. This book is primarily an account of my own experiences in connection with these absorbing tasks; but I have also chronicled the activities of a number of my fellow officers, hoping thereby to provide the reader with a more comprehensive estimate of the work as a whole than the resumé of my own duties could have afforded.'

This book expands and updates W. R. Valentiner's informative, yet flawed, Frans Hals Paintings in America from 1936. An important contribution to the history of collecting in America, it provides readers with a detailed understanding of Hals in America today. The book discusses topics such as the thorny issue of Hals attributions, the impact of a dynamic art market over several generations, and more than a century of scholarly research and debate.Frans Hals represents one of the most gifted and innovative masters associated with the genius of Dutch seventeenth-century art. During his remarkable career he excelled as a painter of portraits—both individual and group—and half-length genre figures. Owing to his increasingly broad and vigorous paint application, Samuel Ampzing, a contemporary of Hals, was prompted to write in 1628 “How dashingly Frans [Hals] paints from life!”Frans Hals in America begins with an overview of Hals's rediscovery by artists during the second half of the nineteenth century. Shortly thereafter, collectors on both sides of the Atlantic sought out his paintings. Here, ‘Gilded Age'Americans led the charge. In addition to exploring in detail the narrative of Hals in America, this fully illustrated book also includes a catalogue of paintings, and a detailed bibliography.