Adaline Kent The Click of Authenticity

The first major monograph in sixty years on the San Francisco modernist sculptor who developed a unique abstract style rooted in surrealism and inspired by nature.

This beautifully produced volume celebrates the life and career of Adaline Kent (1900–1957), a member of one of the Bay Area’s most productive and innovative midcentury artistic groups. Kent is linked to modernist artists Ruth Asawa, Mark Rothko, Isamu Noguchi, and Clyfford Still.

Texts by a diverse range of scholars cover such subjects as infinity and movement in Kent’s work; the influence of nature; and the diverse artistic milieu at the San Francisco Art Institute and beyond that surrounded Kent and her husband, artist Robert Howard.

With an extensive chronology and a wide selection of sculptures, photographs, and rarely seen works on paper and paintings on Hydrocal, the book substantiates Kent’s achievement as one of midcentury America’s most innovative sculptors, re-excavating her work for younger generations.

Apsara DiQuinzio is senior curator of contemporary art at the Nevada Museum of Art. Jeff Gunderson is the librarian and archivist at the San Francisco Art Institute. Alexander Nemerov is professor and chair of the department of art and art history at Stanford University. Elaine Yau, PhD, is associate curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.