Alexander Nemerov is the Carl and Marilyn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University. In 2019, he received the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. He is the author of several books, including Soulmaker- The Times of Lewis Hine and Summoning Pearl Harbor.
“Neither conventional biography nor arm’s-length critical
appraisal, Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise shines a light on Helen
Frankenthaler’s early artistic breakthrough by blending both forms.
. . . A thrillingly alive account of a woman unapologetically
pursuing her own vision in an era and a milieu largely defined by
men.” —Vogue
“Nemerov is emphatic about not neglecting the political side of
art. 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. The
ability to convey the particularity of a sensation, at a precise
moment, isn’t political in the usual sense, but it can be deeply
ethical, reminding another person of a simple fact that is
profoundly hard to process: that other conscious beings exist. . .
. For a long time, art critics and historians have worked to
recover the darker truths obfuscated by the glamour and mystique of
America at the mid-century, including the world in which
Frankenthaler built her career. Next up is redeeming the lightness
from that darkness, without indulging the old myths or perpetuating
the old inequities. Nemerov believes that is possible. He has
written a book that shows us how it can be done.” —Philip
Kennicott, The Washington Post
“Nemerov, a professor of art history at Stanford, explores the
abstract expressionist’s career between 1950 and 1960, starting
each of the book’s 11 chapters on an important day in her life. . .
. The result is the illumination of not only how central
Frankenthaler was to the artistic movement that’s often defined by
the likes of Pollock and Rothko, but how she’s also one of the most
compelling personalities in contemporary art history.” —WSJ
Magazine
“Brisk, aptly elegant. . . . Nemerov does full justice to the
artistic result. Concentrating on the early years allows him to
show Frankenthaler’s work unfolding, and he attends closely to
spunky early paintings, with their bumptious forms and gauche reds
and browns. . . . Nemerov is especially good on the undeniably
graceful and gorgeous—and paradigm-shifting—Mountains and Sea. . .
. In celebrating Mountains and Sea, Nemerov argues convincingly
that everything matters: the experiences of the artist’s
entire life and those of the moment; gestural habit; specific
intentions; chance outcomes. Finally, he writes, this exhilarating
painting creates its own world, ‘complete unto itself as an
autonomous kingdom.’ It is a good description of this book’s
achievement as well.” —Art in America
“Lyrical, powerful.” —Susan Stamberg, NPR.org
“Alexander Nemerov’s sharp and vibrant biography, Fierce Poise
offers a distinctive portrait of the sustained challenges of a
woman with considerable advantages. . . . Keeping the biography
tightly drawn to the 1950s gives Nemerov the space to speak at
length about [Frankenthaler’s] work as well as the theory and
motivation behind it. . . . This slim biography touches upon
considerable facts of history, art, and society in such a way that
leaves you eager to read further and return to museum halls.” —The
New York Observer
“[Nemerov’s] interpretations and descriptions of her work are
passionate and infectious, and Nemerov is perhaps at his best when
sharing his own reactions to it. . . . Along with offering rich
descriptions and analysis that make you fall in love with her work,
we also get an incredible story, one of turmoil and resourcefulness
and utter determination.” —Mayday
“A masterful new biography. . . . [Nemerov’s] narrative combines an
intense infatuation for his subject with his own autobiographical
confessions, and the result is a dazzling collage of impressions
and interpretations that leaves the reader spellbound . . . . He
has a unique sensibility that allows him to imaginatively show us
not only the person Helen might have been but also who he is or
was, and what they both might become together. It is their
collision, even with its blind spots, that takes center stage here,
setting off brilliant sparks of perception and recognition.” —Los
Angeles Review of Books
“Vibrant . . . . Nemerov is a thoughtful and judicious writer . . .
. In just over 200 pages, Nemerov takes us on a fast, exhilarating
ride through the formative decade of [Frankenthaler’s] career,
providing a lucid introduction to an artist we’re likely to hear
more about in the near future.” —The Associated Press
“This book . . . is part of an insistence by many of today’s art
historians that attention must be paid to female artists and
artists of color who have been denied respect and recognition for
their achievements. The book also greatly enriches our knowledge of
a critically important decade in American art.” —The Christian
Science Monitor
“Gorgeous . . . A shimmering portrait of the artist. . . . A
rewarding journey.” —Newsday
“Nemerov is a beautiful writer, and his evocation of
Frankenthaler’s groundbreaking artistic process is a delight.”
—Hyperallergic
“[Nemerov] captures the first decade of Helen Frankenthaler's
career along with her personal life with both a fly-on-the-wall
intimacy and a great understanding of her work and what made her
tick. Is it a biography? Yes, but it also captures the cultural
world in a key decade in New York City and with it a good many of
the great artists, poets, curators, and critics of the time moving
through the narrative. Mr. Nemerov manages to give those
personages a depth in their portrayal similar to Frankenthaler's
treatment, all while devoting his fanboy erudition to his main
subject.” —East Hampton Star
“[A] lyrical biography . . . Masterful . . . Fierce Poise is the
latest of a particular kind of artist biography that is unabashedly
personal, reveling in the hushed intimacy of a memoir in a way that
seeks to demystify great artists by recreating their formative
years in straightforward terms—often through what those
breakthroughs say about the writer’s own life.” —The Art
Newspaper
“Alexander Nemerov’s biography of the painter Helen Frankenthaler
is more than just an exploration of an artist, it’s also a look
back into the lost world of the 1950s Manhattan art scene.
Frankenthaler is inarguably a great talent, and it’s a pleasure to
learn about her life and work, but equally enjoyable is learning
how she fit into (or sometimes didn’t) a world of painters,
critics, collectors, and hangers-on whose impact on American
culture can still be seen today.” —Town & Country
“Nemerov . . . [creates] a collage-like narrative that conjures the
glamor and bustle of postwar New York City, when high art met
downtown renegades.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
“Tantalizing . . . . lively.” —Los Angeles Times
“Informative and erudite.” —Harper’s Magazine
“Moody and textured, Fierce Poise celebrates, and mimics,
Frankenthaler’s sweetly explosive paintings.” —Vulture
“Pairing vivid anecdotal biography with energetic descriptive
analysis, the author recalibrates our perception of Frankenthaler’s
undulating and entrancing canvases, on which she channeled
in-the-moment feelings and celebrated the ‘beauty and power and
glory’ of life. With reverence and irreverent wit, nimble
narration, pertinent art history, and a vibrant cast of characters,
Nemerov chronicles the first round in Frankenthaler’s extraordinary
artistic adventure.” —Booklist
“Fascinating.” —Kirkus
“The magic of Alexander Nemerov’s portrait of Helen Frankenthaler
in Fierce Poise is that it reads like one of Helen's paintings. His
poetic descriptions of her work and his rich insights into the
years when Helen made her first artistic breakthroughs are both
light and lush, seemingly easy and yet profound. His book is an ode
to a truly great artist who, some seventy years after this story
begins, we are only now beginning to understand.” —Mary Gabriel,
author of Ninth Street Women
“Throughout his book, Alexander Nemerov refers to Frankenthaler as
‘Helen,’ even though the two never met. By the time I was done
reading, I was calling her that, too, and felt she and I had a
close connection. It takes courage for a major scholar to assume
the personal approach, and voice, that Nemerov does in this
biography, but by plunging so deep into Frankenthaler’s mind and
life, he makes new sense of the veils and stains in her paintings.”
—Blake Gopnik, author of Warhol
“Fierce Poise is an exquisite blend of biography and criticism that
excavates Helen Frankenthaler’s creative beginnings—and so much
more. Every page sparks with Alexander Nemerov’s deep knowledge and
insights into the everyday exaltations and terrors of making art of
any kind, at any time. Anyone who burns to forge their own life
should read this book.” —Kate Bolick, author of Spinster
“Reading Alexander Nemerov’s Fierce Poise felt like basking in the
sun on the first warm day of spring. With great sensitivity,
Nemerov demonstrates why Helen Frankenthaler’s colorful, beautiful
paintings deserve our attention. And with warmth and empathy, he
chronicles Helen’s devotion to her art, which she maintained even
in times of turmoil. I finished reading the book feeling newly
attuned to the brief moments of grace and joy that can be found in
daily life. Fierce Poise, like Helen’s paintings, shows us how art
can drive away darkness, leaving us to take in the brilliant day.”
—Maggie Doherty, author of The Equivalents
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