About this item
"'Mort Ku'?nstler adds depth to our understanding of American history. We have many things to learn from his art'--From the foreword by David Hackett Fischer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Washington's Crossing; Celebrate the creation of the United States, which is brought to vivid life through the work of acclaimed artist Mort Ku'?nstler. In 2011, Ku'?nstler ignited a media firestorm when he painted a version of Washington crossing the Delaware that many believe is a more factual representation of the momentous scene than Emanuel Leutze's iconic work, Washington Crossing the Delaware--the most popular painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Spurred by that fierce debate, which was covered everywhere from the New York Times to ABC News, this beautiful volume presents Ku'?nstler's artistic vision of America's birth.
About the Author
Mort Künstler is regarded by many as the leading contemporary painter of Civil War scenes. His work is esteemed for its dramatic intensity and for an extraordinary level of authenticity that results from intensive research. Dr. James I. Robertson Jr., the noted Civil War historian and author of the biography, Stonewall Jackson, says, "Mort Künstler is the foremost Civil War artist of our time - if not of all time." Harold Holzer, a senior official at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the nation's leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the political culture of the Civil War era, says of Künstler: "His art is terrific, and he's attracted thousands of people to Civil War art." Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson agrees, "Of all the artists working in the Civil War field, none captures the human element, the aura of leadership, the sense of being there and sharing in the drama quite like Mort Künstler."A resident of Oyster Bay, NY, Mort Künstler studied art at Brooklyn College, UCLA and Pratt Institute. He became a highly successful illustrator, working on assignments for Newsweek, Saturday Evening Post, Mad Magazine and Boy's Life. Accuracy became firmly imbued into Künstler's art beginning with assignments of historical topics from National Geographic; these assignments also taught him the value of working with noted historians. A commission from CBS-TV to do the paintings for the mini-series, The Blue and The Gray, was the beginning of the artist's close association with the Civil War. The High Water Mark, a painting executed for that series, is considered a highly accurate and moving depiction of the battle at Gettysburg. It was unveiled at Gettysburg National Military Park Museum in 1988 in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the battle. Probably no other artist in our nation's history has recorded so many events in American history and certainly no one has painted them with the extraordinary authenticity and drama as Mort Künstler. Mort Künstler is America's artist.
