Artists, Critics, Context Readings in and Around American Art since 1945

by Fabozzi, Paul F.

• ISBN13: 9780130908988
• ISBN10: 0130908983
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-15
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

An indispensable resource for any visual arts lover, this anthology of original writings covers modern American art and culture from mid-1940's abstract expressionism and the Cold War right through to the late 1990's with its proliferation of video and technological developments in telecommunications and biotechnologygiving readers a firm understanding of the evolution of artistic development within the context of major political, cultural, and sociological trends and ideas that have emerged in the United States since World War II.Presents writings from post WWII through the 1990's and organizes them around ten central areas of discussion (American avant-garde, the beat generation, objectivity/reduction/formalism, process and materials, sculpture, politics, the return of painting, image and identity, and the body and technology). Divides chapter writings into three categoriesartists, critics, and contextgiving readers clear insight into the major issues that the artists' work raises, and helping them connect the words of artists with criticisms about the art they created, exhibition reviews, and museum catalog essays. Includes selections from outside the visual arts to establish relationships between the issues and impulses raised by the work of these artists to trends and ideas that were gaining prominence within the broader culture at the time that the art was being created.For general readers of modern art history and theory and/or post-war American culture; ideal for museum bookstores.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The American Avant-Garde	p. 1
My Painting (1947-1948)	p. 2
The Romantics Were Prompted (1947-1948)	p. 3
What Abstract Art Means to Me (1951)	p. 5
Towards a Newer Laocoon (1940)	p. 10
The American Action Painters (1952)	p. 23
The New American Painting (1959)	p. 32
The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man (1933)	p. 37
Art and Materialism in the Beat Generation	p. 55
I am for an art ... (1961/1967)	p. 56
Happenings in the New York Scene (1961)	p. 60
The Artist Speaks (Interview with Dorothy Gees Seckler (1966)	p. 68
The New Art (1963)	p. 76
Howl (1955-1956)	p. 85
Dog (1955)	p. 94
Experimental Music (1957)	p. 96
Mass Culture, Mass Media, Pop Art	p. 101
What Is Pop Art? (Interviews by Gene Swenson) (1963 and 1964)	p. 102
The Arts and the Mass Media (1958)	p. 115
A Symposium on Pop Art (1963)	p. 119
Perspective from the Biltmore Balcony (1960)	p. 139
Television: The Timid Giant (1964)	p. 145
Objectivity, Reduction, and Formalism	p. 167
Excerpts from Painters Painting (1970)	p. 168
Specific Objects (1965)	p. 173
Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967)	p. 180
Reflections (1973)	p. 184
A B C Art (1965)	p. 186
Modernist Painting (1965)	p. 201
A Future for the Novel (1965)	p. 208
Process and Materials	p. 215
Anti Form (1968)	p. 216
An Interview with Eva Hesse (by Cindy Nemser) (1970)	p. 219
Nauman Interview (by Willoughby Sharp) (1970)	p. 225
Verb List (1972)	p. 234
Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials (1969)	p. 235
Music As a Gradual Process (1968)	p. 243
Sculpture in the Environment	p. 246
Cultural Confinement (1972)	p. 247
Sun Tunnels (1977)	p. 250
Interview by Barbaralee Diamonstein (1979)	p. 258
On the Periphery of Knowing (Interview by Jan Butterfield) (1976)	p. 269
Gordon Matta-Clark's Building Dissections (Interview by Donald Wall) (1976)	p. 274
Sculpture in the Expanded Field (1979)	p. 283
The Primacy of Perception and Its Philosophical Consequences (1964)	p. 292
Theory, Politics, and Performance	p. 307
Interview with Hans Haacke (by Robert C. Morgan) (1979)	p. 308
Excerpts from The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage (1979)	p. 318
Catalysis: An Interview with Adrian Piper (by Lucy Lippard) (1972)	p. 330
Untitled Statements (1975)	p. 334
Sexual Politics, Art Style (1971)	p. 339
Black Creativity in Quest of an Audience (1970)	p. 343
Hans Haacke's Cancelled Show at the Guggenheim (1971)	p. 346
I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)	p. 356
Linguistics and Politics (1969)	p. 364
The Return of Painting	p. 380
Statement (1980)	p. 381
Expressionism Today: An Artist Symposium (Interviews by Carter Ratcliff and Hayden Herrera) (1982)	p. 382
American Painting: The Eighties (1980)	p. 389
The Adversary Culture of Intellectuals (1979)	p. 404
Identity and Technology	p. 418
Talking Art with Carrie Mae Weems (Interview by bell hooks) (1995)	p. 419
Charles Ray: A Telephone Conversation (Interview by Francesco Bonami) (1992)	p. 430
A Diary of Fluids and Fears (Interview by Francesco Bonami) (1993)	p. 434
Interview with Gary Hill on Tall Ships (Interview by Regina Cornwell) (1997)	p. 437
Art at the End of the Optical Age (Interview by Virginia Rutledge) (1998)	p. 443
Art of the Living Dead (1992)	p. 452
Coming Together in Parts: Positive Power in the Art of the Nineties (1993)	p. 469
Video in Situ (1995)	p. 479
The Work of Art in the Electronic Age (Interview by La Sept) (1988)	p. 484
The Information War (1995)	p. 490
Bibliography	p. 500
Index	p. 504
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Artists, Critics, Contextis an anthology of readings on American art and culture that begins in the 1940s with Abstract Expressionism and the Cold War and ends in the 1990s with the ubiquity of video installations and the broad cultural changes arising from technological developments in telecommunications and biotechnology. Each chapter is divided into the three categories designated in the book's title: artists, critics, and context. This tripartite approach aims to connect the words of artists--from both their writings as well as the interviews they granted--with concurrent critical writings, exhibition reviews, and museum catalog essays. Readings from outside the visual arts have been added to connect the issues and impulses raised by the work of these artists to trends and ideas that were gaining prominence within the broader culture at the time that the art was being created. My goal was to place artistic development firmly within the context of the major political, cultural, and sociological trends and ideas that have emerged in the United States since World War II.Rather than being an exhaustive survey of post-World War II readings about art, this collection is designated to give a clear, concise, and historically rooted sense of some of the key developments in American avant-garde art. In order to achieve this goal, I was forced to make some tough decisions and leave out many compelling voices. The voices that are heard in this anthology are unedited, however. I have made every effort to maintain the integrity of the original writings and not pare them down to their essence--which seems to be the trend in recent anthologies. Only in rare instances when the length or the format of a given piece was too cumbersome to include did I select a representational sample of the reading.Current approaches to the study of contemporary art frequently place a tremendous amount of emphasis on criticism and theory. Although valuable, these methods tend to function outside historical analysis and, as such, can overshadow the specific historical connections between artists, art critics, galleries, and museums. Increasingly during the years following World War 11, artists attempted to engage with political or social issues that transcended the particulars of art making, yet paradoxically, many of the writings and teachings about this art have tended to treat it as an activity separate from the society as a whole.The readings and interviews in the Artists section are generally from the time period during which the artist was first acknowledged as a strong force in the art world. In a few instances I have used articles that are a bit later in the artist's career, primarily because of the quality of the writing or interview and its lack of representation in other books of this kind. These readings have been chosen because they give a clear insight into the major issues--both cultural and formal--that the artist's work raises. In addition to providing a glimpse into the creative process, the Artists section lays the groundwork for the formation of a critical dialog between the artists' writings and the criticism that was written about the art that they created. In certain instances artists such as Donald Judd and Allan Kaprow also wrote criticism. Such writings, even if they arguably function in the realm of criticism, have been placed in the Artists section.As with the readings in the Artists section, those in the Critics section are concurrent with the emergence of the artist or artistic trend into the cultural dialog. The readings in this section were selected based on how influential they were at the time in legitimizing the artist's work. In this section particular attention has been paid to writings for and about groundbreaking gallery and museum exhibitions, with emphasis placed decidedly on the latter. Because the history of exhibitions is an increasingly i