Marsden Hartley

Hartley (1877-1943) worked in so many radically different styles as a painter that his full genius has yet to be appreciated. Fauvist color experiments, luminous landscapes inspired by Emersonian transcendentalism, semi-abstracts fusing geometry with German military symbols, Amerindian visionsall these were signposts in the spiritual quest of a self-exiled refugee from Maine who roamed Paris, Berlin, Taos and Mexico, only to return to his New England roots. Crisply written and splendidly illustrated, Scott's bright narrative lets us appreciate the varied facets of this ever-wandering artist. Editor of Hartley's essays and collected poems, she demonstrates how strikingly original he was, for example, in the ``magic mountain'' landscapes of New England, or the late portraits of gawky, square-shouldered men that propelled the human figure into the realm of religious painting. (Nov.)