Of Masks, Mockery, and Modernism: Alexander Z. Kruse’s <i>Self-Portrait of an Art Critic</i>

Abstract

This essay explores Kruse’s use of humor in his art criticism and self-representation, considers how and why both aspects of his work relate to America's enthusiasm for caricature during the interwar years, and examines how an artist adept with mass media and speaking to broad audiences engaged caricature and publicity to combat his fraught status in the art world.

Keywords

• 5.2
• al hirschfeld
• alexander kruse
• arthur dove
• francisco goya
• henry fuseli
• john sloan
• joseph stella
• modernism
• paolo garretto
• peggy bacon
• samantha baskind
• twentieth-century art