Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy [Paperback]

Dave Hickey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 1997

The 23 essays (or "love songs") that make up the now classic volume Air Guitar trawl a "vast, invisible underground empire" of pleasure, through record stores, honky-tonks, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and hot-rod stores, as restlessly on the move as the America they depict. Air Guitar pioneered a kind of plain-talking in cultural criticism, willingly subjective and always candid and direct. A valuable reading tool for art lovers, neophytes, students and teachers alike, Hickey's book--now in its third edition--has galvanized a generation of art lovers, with new takes on Norman Rockwell, Robert Mapplethorpe, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol and Perry Mason. In June 2009, Newsweek voted Air Guitar one of the top 50 books that "open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways," and described the book as "a seamless blend of criticism, personal history, and a deep appreciation for the sheer nuttiness of American life."
Dave Hickey (born 1939) is one of today's most revered and widely read art writers. He has written for Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum and Vanity Fair among many others.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Dave Hickey's twenty-three "love songs," which make up Air Guitar, fly off the page to offer the reader a vista beyond the wasteland. In Hickey's "vast, invisible underground empire" of pleasure--record stores, honky-tonks, hot-rod shops, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and the like--joy abounds and truth speaks. -- The Nation, Margaret Juhae Lee

Finally obliged to theorize his impolite tastes, judgments and ideas, Hickey lays his prejudices a little barer than altogether becomes them. Even caught in that old trap, however, he's as good as it gets, starting with his prose. Although his diction is often highfalutin (he was doing a doctoral thesis about Foucault and Derrida way back in 1967), his rhythms aren't, and he's more than fluent in colloquial English--I mean, the guy can flat-out write. -- Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Robert Christgau

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Art Issues Press; 1st edition (August 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963726455
• ISBN-13: 978-0963726452
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bible for the intellect,virtuoso,and hipster!, September 27, 1999

By 

G. Scranton "savvy20" (Philly) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy (Paperback)

Dave Hickey, cuts loose and speaks to the reader in vibrant tones and tempos in his collection of essays on life,drugs,art, and an ideal democracy. Be it a recollection of his childhood growing up with Jazz and joints, his academic years, with Brakhage and Warhol flicks, or his "dealing" days trading a piece of paper with a signature on it for another, Hickey somehow relates the residue of everyday life to Art and Democracy. At times his seductive writing can become so subconciously numbing, that one may want to pinch themselves once in a while to make sure they are not simply ingesting his information as fact...yes his writing is that good, but beware, and be critical!

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Guest for the Ideal Dinner Party, May 15, 2005

By 

John Michael Albert "John-Michael Albert" (Portsmouth NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy (Paperback)

"Air Guitar" is Hickey's characterization of critical writing, it's direct relationship to its subject(s) being of approximately equal import as a person playing air guitar in his living room is to a rock concert. In the words of Vladimir Horowitz, the concert pianist, it is "the words without the music." That being said, it's damned interesting, all the same, especially when approached this way. Hickey's favorite technique is to take two seemingly disparate things and to discuss the way in which they inform each other, all the while examining the net effect on his life as your basic, educated, ambitious Joe trying to fill the "great gap of time" between birth and death with a mind boggling array of interesting experiences. In this way, they're more 'think pieces' than academic essays. I'll admit, there were moments when my brain hurt; but most of the time, I was enjoying his company and his facility for mental gymnastics -- and the obvious pleasure he took in it personally. I heard of this book on a radio interview (Fresh Air? Diane Rehm Show?) and bought it specifically so that I could have my own personal copy of "My Weimar" -- a spectacular, 'where am I in the grand sceme of things now' type touchstone. Reading the whole book as a part of a recent essay jag, I found it all equally challenging, equally enjoyable.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It relates art to American culture from an everyday view., October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy (Paperback)

This book is a collection of essays which demonstrate how art functions in American society on a day to day, experience to experience way. Each essay is written in a conversational tone, as to invite the reader into the story through personnal experience and avoid the frequent erudite, elitist, and exclusionist text commonly associated with art theory. Each story is easy to relate to and encourages one to think about everyday incidences as a form of art and its relation to formal art. This book represents the thoughts of an artist both in what it says and how it says it. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read and educational tool for artists.