A. H. MAURER

The first biography of one of the strangest, least known and most introverted of all American artists, this carefully compiled account follows Maurer's career from his fairly conventional childhood in New York's brownstone era through a life in which misery, parental misunderstanding and frustration were to sound the dominant notes. Maurer's father, the last surviving Currler & Iven artist, a painter of conventional style, was totally unable to understand or appreciate modern art, least of all that of his son, and Alfred his father's ""spiritual espionage and censorship"" only through outside seventeen days after his centenarian father's death. From the rather orthodox young painter who embarked for Paris in the closing years of the last century, Alfred Maurer became, through his contact with the cauldron of exploding artistic ideas in Paris, a for the most advanced schools of modern painting. But even at the time, Alfred Maurer was abused and misrepresented by critics and even fellow painters. Although the writing may be too intimate for some, this is a valuable addition to the art biography library.