From Publishers Weekly
In his 15 years as art critic for the Nation, Danto has managed to negotiate that fine line between theorist and educator, an awkward but necessary combination putting sometimes conflicting demands upon a critic. This latest collection of his musings (whose title pulls a neat double entendre out of a Henry James short story) covers many of the major shows of the last several years: Vermeer, Picasso, John Heartfield, Robert Ryman, Lucien Freud, Willem de Kooning, Nan Goldin, Bruce Nauman, Jasper Johns, and Mark Rothko, among others. (The noteworthy lack of women artists on this list is symptomatic of the major venues in the art world of today.) Danto frames the collection of reviews with two essays: "The Work of Art in the Historical Future" and "Art and Meaning," which recaps Danto's thesis that art "ended" with WarholAmeaning that a certain kind of representational content has been exhaustedAwhich in turn leads to an interesting discussion of "aboutness" as the primary characteristic of contemporary art. The tone lightens for many of the reviews, including one of the recent "Sensation" show using a child's-eye perspective to shake prejudiced adults out of art snobbery. Among the reviews, Danto includes moving tributes to Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg, though one can't help wishing he would also engage the critical work of contemporaries like Dave Hickey, Lucy Lippard or John Yau, among others. Yet whether he is questioning the idea of "purely plastic motivation" relative to Picasso's portraiture, explaining Wittgenstein with reference to Bruce Nauman, musing over Delacroix's placement of tigers in a French landscape or pondering the achievements of a deteriorating de Kooning, Danto increases our awareness of the value of art in our lives. He might even make you wish you had his job, though few of us could do it as well.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Always one of the most remarkable critics writing, Danto (philosophy, Columbia Univ.) compiles articles that appeared in the Nation over the past decade in this fourth essay collection. Written for a large audience and composed primarily of reviews of exhibitions in various New York galleries and museums, the essays have an immediacy and a focus often missing from most exhibition reviews. The topics covered range from contemporary artists (Bruce Nauman, Lucien Freud) to 20th-century masters (Fernand LEger, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning) to Old Masters (Vermeer, Tiepolo). It is particularly interesting to read in hindsight and in proximity his reviews of the 1995 and 1997 Whitney Biennials. Lacking the benefit of illustrations, Danto is called upon to describe the works (some of which will be quite familiar to most readers, others less so), a task he performs in a manner that is pleasurable to read. With his clean style and always insightful observations, Danto!s work is an important contribution to contemporary art criticism. Recommended for collections with a focus on contemporary art."Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
