Clement Greenberg, Late Writings - Hardcover

Greenberg, Clement; Morgan, Robert C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816639388 ISBN 13: 9780816639380

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2003

Synopsis

The posthumous collection of writings by the seminal American art critic features his observations of Jackson Pollock, Hans Hofmann, Barnett Newman, Willem de Kooning, and others. (Fine Arts)

About this title

About the Author:

Clement Greenberg (1909-1994), champion of abstract expressionism and modernism--of Pollock, Miró, and Matisse--has been esteemed by many as the greatest art critic of the second half of the twentieth century, and possibly the greatest art critic of all time. On radio and in print, Greenberg was the voice of "the new American painting," and a central figure in the postwar cultural history of the United States. Greenberg first established his reputation writing for the Partisan Review, which he joined as an editor in 1940. He became art critic for The Nation in 1942, and was associate editor of Commentary from 1945 until 1957. His seminal essay, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch" set the terms for the ongoing debate about the relationship of modern high art to popular culture. Though many of his ideas have been challenged, Greenberg has influenced generations of critics, historians, and artists, and he remains influential to this day.

From Publishers Weekly:

The outsized reputation of formalist art critic Greenberg, sometimes called the most influential art critic of the 20th century, rests largely on a body of mid-century writings around the work of Abstract Expressionism and the rise of hard-edge minimalism. This collection of essays brings to light the prolific work Greenberg produced after that time, in the 1970s and 80s, when the art world had begun moving away from his powerful, if proscriptive and tendentious, ideals. Among other topics, Greenberg deals with the rise of multimedia art, the state of the avant-garde and the standing of old favorites like Clyfford Still and Picasso. Also included are a handful of interviews he gave. For the most part, the essays and conversations show the critic staying the course on issues of taste and distinction, tinkering out his generally Kantian theory of aesthetic development, with its residually Marxist sense of dialectical improvement, phrased in dense, but always lucid, American prose. "Taste develops as a context of expectations based on experiences of previously surprised expectations"-that's not such a difficult idea, but it's full of big implications. Always assured, sometimes rebarbative, Greenberg's oeuvre has fallen on hard times in the wake of more semiotic models of visual interpretation. But perhaps this collection, with its sensitive and intelligent introduction by writer and curator Morgan, will go some ways in repairing it.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0816639388
• ISBN 13: 9780816639380
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280