Introduction by Rick Kinsel

Line drawings by Paula Kinsel

In the early decades of the 20th century, the United States underwent a period of rapid change. The pace of life accelerated as the machine age took hold, and the landscape was transformed by increasing urbanization. Artists responded in a variety of visual styles, but what they had in common was a desire to reflect modern society and to challenge the conventions of art with a bold, energetic approach to colour and composition. The Coloring Book of American Modernist Artists presents 30 works of the period, ready for you to complete, whether by reproducing the original vibrant palettes or by experimenting and letting your creativity run free. Follow Marsden Hartley and Andrew Dasburg in finding spiritual inspiration in the wide open spaces of the American West, or immerse yourself in the atmospheric city streets as painted with the sleek lines and hard-edged forms of such Precisionists as George Copeland Ault. Max Weber’s expressive still lifes reveal primitive influences and an interest in native cultures, while Jan Matulka’s arrangement is more stylized and geometric. If your mood lends itself to something more abstract, be stimulated by the daring colour combinations of the Cubist-inspired work of Oscar Bluemner, or relax in the mindful contemplation of the swirl of multicoloured forms in Morgan Russell’s and Stanton Macdonald-Wright’s Synchromist paintings. Celebrate this important movement in the history of American art by creating your own modernist masterpieces!

Published in association with the Vilcek Foundation, New York