From Publishers Weekly
Loosely grouped under three intriguing categories ("Parents," "Autonomy" and "Collaborations"), Ambition & Love in Modern American Art tracks definitions of significant art as they changed over the 20th century. In looking for what shapes significance, artist Jonathan Weinberg (Speaking for Vice) focuses on the role of ambition, celebrity and desire, the forces of public life outside the artist's studio, and their inevitable encroachment on what happens within it. His nine loosely connected essays examine the works and lives of Whistler, Jackson Pollock, Sally Mann, Jean-Michel Basquiat and others. But rather than capturing and isolating some element of timeless significant form, Weinberg suggests that an artist's real talent "is a matter of convincing others that you are talented."
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Review
"An insightful survey…[Weinberg] lends retrospective clarity to the murky workings of artistic development." -- Jonathon Keats, Art and Auction
"Essential reading . . . . A powerful take on the meaning of artistic ambition and artistic success." -- Alan Wallach, College of William and Mary
"Essential reading for anyone concerned with the history of twentieth-century American art. Lucid, accessible, and studded with insights, Weinberg's essays add up to a powerful take on the meaning of artistic ambition and artistic success." -- Alan Wallach, College of William and Mary
"[An] engagingly written book. . . No matter whether the reader agrees or disacress with [Weinberg's] answers, they are guaranteed to provoke." -- Robert Atkins, Art News
One of the best books on American art of any period that I have ever read. . .An exemplary text. -- Linda Nochlin, Art in America
"Essential reading . . . . A powerful take on the meaning of artistic ambition and artistic success." -- Alan Wallach, College of William and Mary
"Essential reading for anyone concerned with the history of twentieth-century American art. Lucid, accessible, and studded with insights, Weinberg's essays add up to a powerful take on the meaning of artistic ambition and artistic success." -- Alan Wallach, College of William and Mary
"[An] engagingly written book. . . No matter whether the reader agrees or disacress with [Weinberg's] answers, they are guaranteed to provoke." -- Robert Atkins, Art News
One of the best books on American art of any period that I have ever read. . .An exemplary text. -- Linda Nochlin, Art in America
Book Description
Freud wrote that the artist "desires to win honour, power, wealth, fame, and the love of women". In this engrossing book, Jonathan Weinberg investigates how an artist's ambition interacts with his or her art, how wealth and celebrity play a role in the artistic process. He shows that anxiety about the relationship of an artwork to identity and the corrupting influence of fame plague modern artists of all genders and sexual orientations. Weinberg begins by discussing Whistler's famous portrait of his mother in terms of maternal metaphors for painting. He then looks at the familial relationships forged by artists like Jackson Pollock and Sally Mann with their imagined tradition. He next focuses on the role of love in photographs by Alfred Stieglitz as well as Georgia O'Keeffe's attempts to find autonomy from her partner Stieglitz. Weinberg also reveals that artistic fame is usually a matter of competition, and he examines the impulse of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol to work together. The book concludes with a rumination on the NAMES Project Quilt and the problem of what becomes of those who die in obscurity.
From the Publisher
Yale Publications in the History of Art
About the Author
Jonathan Weinberg is an art historian and painter with artworks in private and public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is the author of Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American Avant-Garde (ISBN 0 300 06254 0, pb), published by Yale University Press.
