Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory - Softcover

Lippard, Lucy R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565842383 ISBN 13: 9781565842380

Publisher: The New Press, 1995

Synopsis

Back in print, Overlay is Lucy Lippard’s classic book on contemporary art and its connection to prehistoric sites and symbols. Viewed by critics, artists, art historians, and students as the essential text on how prehistoric images have been “overlayed” onto contemporary art by today’s artists, Overlay is for anyone interested in the possibility of reintegrating art into the fabric of society as a whole, as in prehistoric times.

From megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge to Richard Long’s minimalism, from the earliest examples of cave drawings to Ana Mendieta’s Cuban site art, from the matriarchal fertility rituals of the ancient Celts to Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Lippard shows a continuum in the forms, materials, symbols, and imagery that artists have employed for thousands of years.

Lavishly illustrated with over 320 black-and-white photographs and 8 pages of color images, Overlay includes the work of artists Carl Andre, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Smithson, Robert Morris, Charles Simonds, Mary Beth Edelson, Anna Sofaer, Michelle Stuart, Sol LeWitt, Ad Reinhardt, Alice Aycock, Nancy Holt, Emily Carr, Dennis Oppenheim, and many others.

About this title

About the Author:

Lucy R. Lippard is an internationally known writer, activist, and curator. She has authored twenty-three books, has curated more than fifty major exhibitions, and holds nine honorary doctorates of fine arts. Her books include The Lure of the Local, Partial Recall, The Pink Glass Swan, Mixed Blessings, On the Beaten Track, and Overlay, all published by The New Press. Lippard is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the Carolyn Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library and grants from Creative Capital and the Lannan Foundation. She lives in New Mexico.

Review:

Lippard skillfully shows the 'primal urge' is a core issue in 'post-modernist' art. . . it is invaluable as an insider's synthesis capturing the consciousness of vanguard art in the recent past. -- Village Voice

Lucy Lippard has skillfully blended sun, moon, myth, and ritual in a search for the meaning and social function of art. -- Gerald Hawkins, author of Stonehenge Decoded and Mindsteps to the Cosmos

The book's strength lies in the depth of the author's commitment--her dual loyalty to tradition and modernity and her effort to restore the broken connection between the two. -- New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1565842383
• ISBN 13: 9781565842380
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272