Arts Magazine

Last updated

The April 1981 cover of Arts Magazine ArtsMag-April 1981.jpg
The April 1981 cover of Arts Magazine

Arts Magazine was a prominent American monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992.

Contents

History

Founding

Launched in 1926 and originally titled The Art Digest, it was printed semi-monthly from October to May and monthly from June to September. [1] Its stated purpose was to provide complete coverage of arts exhibitions in America, collated from all relevant news sources.

Growth

Art Digest was later purchased by James N. Rosenberg and Jonathan Marshall, who subsequently owned and published the Scottsdale Daily Progress newspaper. In 1954, the title was changed to Arts Digest; [2] then, in 1955, the title was changed to ARTS. The word "Digest" was dropped because, as Marshall explained in the September 15, 1955 issue, the magazine was introducing newer features, design modernization, and seeking a widening audience. "We realized that there was a great need in this country for a serious art magazine to serve the growing public," the announcement stated. "Perhaps," he continued, "the best description of our editorial aims in the new ARTS can be found in the words interesting, unbiased, and authoritative." [3] Contributors to that issue included J.P. Hodin, Martica Sawin, Robert Rosenblum, Ada Louise Huxtable, and Dore Ashton, whose article "What is 'avant-garde'?" was the feature essay.

Three years after Marshall and Rosenberg sold the publication in 1958, in 1961, its name was changed to Arts Magazine. [4] Regular contributors at the time included Donald Judd, Sidney Tillim, Annette Michelson, Michael Fried, Lawrence Alloway, Jan Butterfield, and April Kingsley.

The magazine's offices were in New York City and it was last published by Art Digest, Co. [5] The magazine was glossy and priced at $4.00 a copy in 1981. The April 1981 issue had a cover story called "Gertrude Greene: Constructions of the 1930s and 1940s", written by Jacqueline Moss.

Closure

The last issue to reach subscribers was in March 1992, featuring Alexandra Anderson-Spivy on artist Rackstraw Downes and Annie Sprinkle on Jeff Koons. The April issue was published but never mailed. Editors at the time [6] included Dore Ashton, Jerry Saltz, Barry Schwabsky, Bill Jones, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Peter Selz, John Yau, Elizabeth Frank, and Jeanne Siegel.

Revival

As of 2020, the magazine is in the process of a revival. A new team of writers from leading media publications (e.g. The New York Times) and universities (Vanderbilt, New York University) has been assembled and website in developed and prepared for the official launch. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Smithsonian</i> (magazine) Official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian is a science and nature magazine, and the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; although editorially independent from its parent organization. The first issue was published in 1970. The Smithsonian holds events such as the American Ingenuity Awards, Future Con and Museum Day.

<i>Weird Tales</i> American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printed early work by H. P. Lovecraft, Seabury Quinn, and Clark Ashton Smith, all of whom went on to be popular writers, but within a year, the magazine was in financial trouble. Henneberger sold his interest in the publisher, Rural Publishing Corporation, to Lansinger, and refinanced Weird Tales, with Farnsworth Wright as the new editor. The first issue under Wright's control was dated November 1924. The magazine was more successful under Wright, and despite occasional financial setbacks, it prospered over the next 15 years. Under Wright's control, the magazine lived up to its subtitle, "The Unique Magazine", and published a wide range of unusual fiction.

<i>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> American magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science-fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science-fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine".

<i>Science Fantasy</i> (magazine) British science fiction magazine (1950–1964)

Science Fantasy, which also appeared under the titles Impulse and SF Impulse, was a British fantasy and science fiction magazine, launched in 1950 by Nova Publications as a companion to Nova's New Worlds. Walter Gillings was editor for the first two issues, and was then replaced by John Carnell, the editor of New Worlds, as a cost-saving measure. Carnell edited both magazines until Nova went out of business in early 1964. The titles were acquired by Roberts & Vinter, who hired Kyril Bonfiglioli to edit Science Fantasy; Bonfiglioli changed the title to Impulse in early 1966, but the new title led to confusion with the distributors and sales fell, though the magazine remained profitable. The title was changed again to SF Impulse for the last few issues. Science Fantasy ceased publication the following year, when Roberts & Vinter came under financial pressure after their printer went bankrupt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Nevelson</span> American sculptor

Louise Nevelson was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, she emigrated with her family to the United States in the early 20th century. Nevelson learned English at school, as she spoke Yiddish at home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Bontecou</span> American sculptor and printmaker (1931–2022)

Lee Bontecou was an American sculptor and printmaker and a pioneer figure in the New York art world. She kept her work consistently in a recognizable style, and received broad recognition in the 1960s. Bontecou made abstract sculptures in the 1960s and 1970s and created vacuum-formed plastic fish, plants, and flower forms in the 1970s. Rich, organic shapes and powerful energy appear in her drawings, prints, and sculptures. Her work has been shown and collected in many major museums in the United States and in Europe.

<i>Imagination</i> (magazine) American fantasy and science fiction magazine

Imagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue, February 1951, for the rest of the magazine's life. Hamling launched a sister magazine, Imaginative Tales, in 1954; both ceased publication at the end of 1958 in the aftermath of major changes in US magazine distribution due to the liquidation of American News Company.

<i>Fantastic Adventures</i> American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine

Fantastic Adventures was an American pulp fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1953 by Ziff-Davis. It was initially edited by Raymond A. Palmer, who was also the editor of Amazing Stories, Ziff-Davis's other science fiction title. The first nine issues were in bedsheet format, but in June 1940 the magazine switched to a standard pulp size. It was almost cancelled at the end of 1940, but the October 1940 issue enjoyed unexpectedly good sales, helped by a strong cover by J. Allen St. John for Robert Moore Williams' Jongor of Lost Land. By May 1941 the magazine was on a regular monthly schedule. Historians of science fiction consider that Palmer was unable to maintain a consistently high standard of fiction, but Fantastic Adventures soon developed a reputation for light-hearted and whimsical stories. Much of the material was written by a small group of writers under both their own names and house names. The cover art, like those of many other pulps of the era, focused on beautiful women in melodramatic action scenes. One regular cover artist was H.W. McCauley, whose glamorous "MacGirl" covers were popular with the readers, though the emphasis on depictions of attractive and often partly clothed women did draw some objections.

<i>Parents</i> (magazine) American parenting magazine

Parents was an American monthly magazine founded in 1926 that featured scientific information on child development geared to help parents in raising their children. Subscribers were notified of the magazine’s dissolution via a postcard mailing in March 2022.

Architecture criticism is the critique of architecture. Everyday criticism relates to published or broadcast critiques of buildings, whether completed or not, both in terms of news and other criteria. In many cases, criticism amounts to an assessment of the architect's success in meeting his or her own aims and objectives and those of others. The assessment may consider the subject from the perspective of some wider context, which may involve planning, social or aesthetic issues. It may also take a polemical position reflecting the critic's own values. At the most accessible extreme, architectural criticism is a branch of lifestyle journalism, especially in the case of high-end residential projects.

<i>Horizon</i> (U.S. magazine) Defunct literary magazine

Horizon was a magazine published in the United States from 1958 to 1989. Originally published by American Heritage as a bi-monthly hardback, Horizon was subtitled A Magazine of the Arts. In 1978, Boone Inc. bought the magazine, which continued to cover the arts. Publication ceased in March 1989. Recently, American Heritage announced its intention to digitize essays from past issues.

<i>Science Fiction Monthly</i> British science fiction magazine

Science Fiction Monthly was a British science fiction magazine published from 1974 to 1976 by New English Library. Launched in response to demand from readers for posters of the cover art of New English Library's science fiction paperbacks, it was initially very successful—its circulation had reached 150,000 by the third issue. It reprinted artwork by Chris Foss, Jim Burns, Bruce Pennington, Roger Dean, and many others. Well-known writers who appeared in its pages included Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Christopher Priest, and Harlan Ellison. High production costs meant that a large circulation was necessary to sustain profitability, and when circulation fell to about 20,000 after two years NEL ceased publication. A new magazine, S.F. Digest, was launched in its stead but lasted only one issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English-language press of the Communist Party USA</span> Press

During the ten decades since its establishment in 1919, the Communist Party USA produced or inspired a vast array of newspapers and magazines in the English language.

<i>Future Science Fiction</i> and <i>Science Fiction Stories</i> Two related US pulp science fiction magazines

Future Science Fiction and Science Fiction Stories were two American science fiction magazines that were published under various names between 1939 and 1943 and again from 1950 to 1960. Both publications were edited by Charles Hornig for the first few issues; Robert W. Lowndes took over in late 1941 and remained editor until the end. The initial launch of the magazines came as part of a boom in science fiction pulp magazine publishing at the end of the 1930s. In 1941 the two magazines were combined into one, titled Future Fiction combined with Science Fiction, but in 1943 wartime paper shortages ended the magazine's run, as Louis Silberkleit, the publisher, decided to focus his resources on his mystery and western magazine titles. In 1950, with the market improving again, Silberkleit relaunched Future Fiction, still in the pulp format. In the mid-1950s he also relaunched Science Fiction, this time under the title Science Fiction Stories. Silberkleit kept both magazines on very slim budgets throughout the 1950s. In 1960 both titles ceased publication when their distributor suddenly dropped all of Silberkleit's titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tania (artist)</span> American sculptor

Tania was a Polish-born Jewish American abstract painter, sculptor, collage artist and painter of city walls. Primarily working in New York City, she was known by several married names over the course of her career, but decided as of 1958 to use simply her first name, Tania. She was active in the New York art world from 1949 to 1982, but is perhaps best known for her 13-story geometric wall painting of 1970, which still stands at the corner of Mercer and Third Streets in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York. In 1966, she became a founding member of City Walls, Inc., a non-profit organization that commissioned abstract artists to paint walls around New York City, and which would later become the Public Art Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dore Ashton</span> American art historian

Dore Ashton was a writer, professor and critic on modern and contemporary art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tobi Kahn</span> American painter and sculptor (born 1952)

Tobi Kahn is an American painter and sculptor. Kahn lives and works in New York City and is on the faculty at the School of Visual Arts.

<i>Art Workers News and Art & Artists</i>

Art Workers News, also known as Art & Artists, was the highly influential artist-run publication of the Foundation for the Community of Artists (FCA), an organization that grew out of the National Art Workers Community. From 1971 to 1989, the publication was the paper of record for the world of working artists. Its circulation reached a high of 40,000 subscribers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Raymond science fiction magazines</span> American magazines published 1952 to 1954

Between 1952 and 1954, John Raymond published four digest-size science fiction and fantasy magazines. Raymond was an American publisher of men's magazines who knew little about science fiction, but the field's rapid growth and a distributor's recommendation prompted him to pursue the genre. Raymond consulted and then hired Lester del Rey to edit the first magazine, Space Science Fiction, which appeared in May 1952. Following a second distributor's suggestion that year, Raymond launched Science Fiction Adventures, which del Rey again edited, but under an alias. In 1953, Raymond gave del Rey two more magazines to edit: Rocket Stories, which targeted a younger audience, and Fantasy Magazine, which published fantasy rather than science fiction.

References

  1. The Art Digest Archived August 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Steiner Agency. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  2. "Arts digest". Arts Digest. 1954. ISSN   0277-9013. OCLC   4866559.
  3. Marshall, Jonathan (September 15, 1955). "Arts Digest": 5.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. "Arts magazine". Arts Magazine. 1961. ISSN   0004-4059. OCLC   1580772.
  5. Arts Magazine, WorldCat. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
  6. "Masthead". Arts Magazine. March 1992.
  7. "Arts Magazine". artsmagazine.com. Retrieved June 11, 2023.