Ad Reinhardt

by Corris, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781861893567
• ISBN10: 1861893566
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Reaktion Books

Summary

Diego Rivera, Dorothea Lange, Adolfo Perez Esquivel: Art and activism have long been intertwined, and the political fallout has resulted in an artistic canon riddled with historical holes. One of the most glaring omissions from most listings of American art masters is Ad Reinhardt (191367). An artist who had significant ties to the American Communist movement and leftist political organizations, Reinhardt and his contributions to modern art have been largely pushed out of the spotlight for political reasons. But in this unprecedented in-depth study of Reinhardt's life and work, Michael Corris returns the artist to his rightful place in the history of modern art and culture. A pioneering avant-garde artist with fierce political beliefs, Reinhardt immersed himself in the vibrant left-wing political and cultural circles of the 1930s and '40s, only to be marginalized by the social and cultural conservatism that arose in postwar America. Corris examines Reinhardt's work against this historical background, charting the development of his entire oeuvre, ranging from his abstract paintings to his popular graphic artwork, illustrations and cartoons.Ad Reinhardtalso re-evaluates Reinhardt's role and influence in the art world, chronicling his time as an artist and educator at the California School of Fine Arts, University of Wyoming, Yale University, and Hunter College, and examining his influence on younger artists who created successive avant-garde movements such as minimal and conceptual art. A long-awaited examination of a less-heralded American master,Ad Reinhardtis a fascinating portrait of an artist whose political radicalism infused his art with a poignant resonance that stretches, through this rediscovery, into the present.

Author Biography

Michael Corris is professor and head of art and photography at the University of Wales. He is editor of Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice and coauthor of David Diao: Works, 1969–2005. He was a member of the conceptual art group Art & Language in New York in the 1970s.

 

 

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction: 'Starting over at the beginning'

'Every person is a special kind of artist'

Cartoons and Communists'Hack'Public Art and Public MediaComrade CubistThe Origins of 'Art-as-Art'Comrade Ad

'Painting-Reason' and 'Picture-Purpose'Abstract Art for Society's Sake

The Inconsolable Polymath

Collage as Destruction'Painting is more than the scum of its pots': Beyond Formalism

The Intellectual Gift of the Post-Historic Artist'Blue in art is blue

Red in art is red

Yellow in art is yellow

Dark gray in art is not dark gray': Aesthetics and Indeterminacy

'How to make Modern Art in America: Fifteen Years Later

'Perfection and the End of Art

Neither Secular nor Sacred

Systems of Strife

'An Invasion of the Ultimate'Jamming

Rules

Convictions

Realignment

'Every Dogma has its Day'

'The re-reformation of formalism'

'A dark flame, fog forming in the unformed': Responsive Eyes

Unfinished Business

The Success of Failure

Reinhardt and the Art of the Sixties

Empty Devices, Dead Diagrams and Invisible Spectacles

Trailer

Political Art and Political Power

Scepticism

The Artist as Citizen

Art and Resistance

Reinhardt's Difficult Freedom Appendix

References

Bibliography

Artist's Chronology

Acknowledgements

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.