Posted on 05/01/2006 1:44:59 PM PDT by Republicanprofessor
The scene is an evening at Peggy Guggenheim's apartment in 1947. One of the guests is Clement Greenberg, art critic and champion of Abstract Expressionism, particularly of the artist Jackson Pollock, who is on the cusp of national fame. (Life magazine will come calling two years later.) The predominantly American-led movement is threatening to usurp Europe's longstanding domination of the art world, and as it happens a European Surrealist, the German Max Ernst, is also at Guggenheim's gathering. Apparently provoked by Greenberg's preaching on art (it didn't help that the critic had it in for the Surrealists), Ernst dumps an ashtray over Greenberg's head.
In "Art Czar," her bracing biography of Greenberg, Alice Goldfarb Marquis describes how "the critic leaped up to throttle Ernst." But a young Surrealist, Nicolas Calas, "took a roundhouse swing" and knocked Greenberg to the floor. His date for the evening, writes Ms. Marquis, "rushed to press two aspirins and water on Greenberg, who gratefully swallowed the pills. However, seconds later, he remembered his aspirin allergy and roared that he had been poisoned."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree, Woofie, or me know if you want on or off this art ping list.
I thought some of you might be interested in this book and the review of it.
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree, Woofie, or me know if you want on or off this art ping list.
I thought some of you might be interested in this book and the review of it.
Thanks ...looks good
Any alive and ticking art critics you respect?
Robert Hughes is the first name that comes to mind. I used to like his reviews in Time (when my husband "let" me read it; we only subscribed decades ago). He's also written some very good books: American Visions on American Art that I use as a textbook for that class. He's also written a recent book on Goya that I haven't read yet.
There are some blogs with some interesting writing about art; John Haber isn't bad. I'll have to keep my eye out and share other critics' names with you as they come to me.
This looks like something right up my literary alley.
I may just buy it for perusal on the capitalistic freeper cruise.
Leni
LOL
Not in my life time - and I'm a great grandmother.
The only thing I saw at the Guggenheim that I liked was the Guggenheim - Frank Lloyd Wright's laugh on NYC.
From the time they, in essence, buried Bougeureau and his contemporaries for the modern "artists" - things were bad for the realist/traditionalist. The critics reigned supreme and the people didn't know if they like a piece until they got the aye or nay from the critic.
Norman Rockwell's unpublished fine art paintings could hang with the best of the Old Master's but it was the wrong era - so he "illustrated."
Things are slowly turning and once again the traditional is coming back. That's good for me - I could never paint bad enough for the modern field. ;o)
I am confessin' that I occasionally feel in over my head on this ping--but, hey, why not live life at full throttle. I am learning a lot and thanks.
McVey
Does Tom Wolfe count? I thoroughly enjoyed The Painted Word.
My problem with this oft-quoted aphorism of his is that "ugly" then becomes the standard for great art, rather than beauty.
Tom doesnt count because he is undestandable
It's a non-fiction account of the New York art world in the mid-to-late twentieth century. A fun read nevertheless.
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