The Frankenthaler portrayed in art historian Alexander Nemerov’s biography “Fierce Poise” (publishing Monday by Penguin Press) comes from a world that we now find in many ways incomprehensible. It is also a courageous book because it obliges Nemerov to indulge a discourse that some readers may find elitist. Today, it would probably get her evicted from the art world. He has written extensively about art that is embedded in social life, and the power of art to prod the conscience and change the world. But in this book he wrestles with another kind of art — art that is deeply self-conscious, inward, sensitive and committed to extending a tradition of art as a sacred calling.

Source: Washington Post March 19, 2021 11:04 UTC