About this title: In this collection of satiric essays, Tom Wolfe slings mud at the masters of the 1990s avante-garde scene. He burlesques famous critiques of various works and deems renowned art theorists, such as Harold Rosenberg and Leo Steinberg, to be charlatans who are more influential than the artists themselves.
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Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1982-02-01
ISBN-13:9780553273793ISBN:0553273795
Description: Very Good. Text is clean, bright and unmarked. Binding is tight and square. Has some light edge and corner wear. We recommend EXPEDITED MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780553273793ISBN:0553273795
Description: Good. No Jacket. Size: 4 1/4" x 7"; Good Minus Mass Market Paperback showing some wear, chipping to edges and spine. Some cover creases. Soiling age/toning to page edges and cover. Binding does have a small crack, with several pages out of binding, but present with book, and placed in binding. Text free of notes. Confirmation on all Domestic Orders! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780553380651ISBN:0553380656
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Just a bit of corner wear, else fine. Nice clean book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 112 p. read more
Description: Very Good. 0553025023 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please email us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam, Toronto: London
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780553025026ISBN:0553025023
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. [4], 120, [1]p. : ill., ports.; 18 cm. Includes: Illustrations, Portraits. Originally published: New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975. read more
"This is more of an essay than a book, but it's very entertaining and has definitely informed my view of art. The thesis, as I remember it, is that for artists to succeed in the modern (read New York) art world, they must produce criticable art; that high art is one half of a dialogue with critics and if an artist isn't smart enough to talk back, there's not going to be a market for his or her work.
There's a bit of emperor-has-no-clothes snideness rolled into this essay with a lot of fun at the expense of rich morons who would buy a white unpainted canvas if a critic ranted about the genius behind calling a blank canvas art. Those elements are a bit too easy, but Wolfe is a good writer and makes it fun."
"How is that I've worked all these years in art and educational institutions, and no one told me about this wonderful little essay? Wolfe's satire of art theory supplanting art could be applied to many human projects, no doubt. But I can't decide if it's a story about putting the cart before the horse or about the inmates running the asylum..."
"The Painted Word is primarily a book about the rise of modern art-and art theory. (It also feels as if it's a little bit about Tom Wolfe, too, but then, what book of his doesn't feel that way?) Still, it's an engaging read, filled with Wolfe's studied observations and dripping with a detached bemusement toward the twisted subculture of art. Fortunately, The Painted Word is also filled with fascinating character sketches of the artists themselves. One of the most compelling-and oft repeated-arguments in the book is the notion that there are two key components necessary for the artist to attain lasting greatness: 1) The Boho Dance, in which the artist exhibits innovative work and struts his stuff amongst his peers all while showing utter disdain for the culture beyond the doors of his studio and 2) The Consummation, in which the culturati actually select the chosen artists to carry forth the standard of the movement-du-jour and the artist (albeit after some discreet hesitation) accepts the accolades and attention.
Wolfe argues that the artist who gets stuck in a crippling disdain for his audience, who cannot accept the offer to dance when it is made, is doomed to stagnation and will not be revered by history. Picasso, he argues, became Picasso, largely because he navigated the transition from one artistic stage to the other with ease. Perhaps, one is left to surmise, the secret to greatness lies not solely in talent, but in the ability to be gracious and accept the patron's hand when proffered.
The only frustration for this reader-which may simply reflect my own ignorance of the book's history-lay in having to wait until the end of the book to discover that I was reading a reissue of a book that was first published in 1975 (copyright page notwithstanding). As a result, no art or movement that has occurred since 1975 is mentioned. No discussion of the ways that the technological revolution will change the face of art history in the decades to come. No theorizing as to the Internet's effects on broadening the horizons of the cloistered art scene. I kept hoping for that to be addressed, and was disappointed when it was not. Something as simple as Picador putting "Anniversary Edition" or "Heritage Printing" (or some other indicator of its age) on the cover would have saved me the pain of unrequited hope that turning that final page delivered. (Made worse by the fact that the "Epilogue"-hope, oh hope!-speaks about a time twenty-five years hence, in the year 2000. Oy! Give a poor reader some warning would you? An Epilogue, particularly if the edition is a new release and the writer is still alive, should not itself be 34 years out of date. At the very least, Picador should grant its readers this concession: Epilogue, 1975.)
Still the prose is sharp and lively and the vignettes featuring Pollock, Warhol, and Picasso and their benefactors are priceless. The clever chapter titles (would we expect any less from the man who penned The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby?) and Wolfe's pen-and-ink drawings round out the entire package in an ironic art-meets-artist-meets-critic-meets-reader-meets-public sort of way."
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