Guggenheim Museum Thannhauser Collection

Studded with masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Braque, Manet, Degas and others, this sparkling catalog documents the Thannhauser Collection of Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum. As art historian Barnett relates, art dealer Heinrich Thannhauser (1859-1935) founded the Moderne Galerie in Munich, where the Blue Rider group premiered with works by Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc; his son Justin Thannhauser (1892-1976), who fled Nazi Germany to settle in New York City, preserved and expanded a fabulous art collection. Tucker, author of many books on impressionism, traces the catalytic role played by impressionists and post-impressionists in the creation of modernism. Licht, curator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, demonstrates that Picasso's respect for the traditions of Spanish art and French and German romanticism inspired his audacious extension of those traditions in new directions. (June)