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Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg

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This is the second biography of the (in)famous Clement Greenberg, the brilliant art critic who cut his teeth at Partisan Review in the 1930s and 40s, and provided an elegant and convincing (albeit deeply problematic) historical trajectory of modern art.

This biography follows on the heels of Florence Rubenfeld's Clement Greenberg: A Life (1997), which came in for a great deal of criticism, on the one side from Greenbergers who didnt want to be reminded of what an arrogant and deeply unpleasant man Greenberg could be if you didn't suck up to him and take his word as gospel, and on the other hand, by academics who felt that Rubenfeld lacked the academic clout to write a suffiently meaty tome. Both criticisms were wide of the mark; Rubenfeld did an admirable job, bringing to light lots of interesting information about Greenberg's early life, and providing a judicious balance between dealing sensitively with Greenberg's intellectual development while providing plenty of juicy and salacious gossip (let's face it, that's what we read biographies for, right?)

I mention Rubenfeld because her biography poses problems for Marquis. Its clear that Marquis' biography suffers for being released after Rubenfeld. (And interestingly, Marquis never cites Rubenfeld directly- her study is simply referred to as "another biography"). It seems that Marquis did not get access to Greenberg himself, as Rubenfeld did; she offers little in the way of new information, although she does offer a different slant on events here and there (for instance, it turns out that Greenberg did not punch Max Ernst at a party in the late forties, as Rubenfeld recounts; rather, it seems that Greenberg accosted Ernst before being punched by Nicolas Calas). However, such information doesnt really warrant another biography, even though its an enjoyable enough read, especially the account of Greenberg's time at PR in the 30s, (and it could hardly be otherwise, being such a fascinating period of intellectual history). However, without doubt it lacks something of the vividness of Rubenfeld's study, which dealt with Greenberg's Jewishness, the influences on his criticism, and his undergoing quack psychoanalysis in the 50s/60s, an issue which Marquis completely skates over. And further, Marquis is a journalist like Rubenfeld, so she certainly doesnt offer any of the academic punch which was felt to be lacking in the first bio.

Perhaps the biggest weakness of this bio is the lack of respect Marquis demonstrates towards Greenberg's writing. He may well have been an arrogant and deeply unpleasant man, but he was and remains one of the great art critics in English, notwithstanding the drastic drop-off in quality characteristic of his late criticism. But Marquis can't resist making snide comments everywhere. She even insinuates that the essay 'Avant-Garde and Kitsch' (1939) was more or less co-authored with Dwight Macdonald, which struck me as a bit ungenerous.

Overall, this is an interesting read, but we're still waiting for a biography of Greenberg which will offer a satisfactory engagement with his criticism, as well as providing the necessary colour of his mesy private life.

This is another biography letting us know what a thoroughly bad person Clement Greenberg was with little evaluation of what the man accomplished, how he accomplished it or why he is acknowledged as perhaps the greatest art critic who ever lived. Where Rubenfeld went after him with hammer and tongs, Marquis does it with innuendo, spin and an incessant stream of disparaging adjectival phrases. Every paragraph, every account, every anecdote is worked over to make him look cruel, thoughtless, short-sighted, careless, nasty, pathetic, dogmatic, passive, neurotic and on and on. She gets facts wrong, talks constantly about his "theories" (he was not a theorist), leaps into supposition and speculation at every opportunity, lards the text with quotes from bitter associates, and demonstrates in several places that she does not understand anything about art or the simple esthetic approach he used unwaveringly during his whole career.

How and why Clement Greenberg continuously draws this kind of pathologically virulent hostility is something for a social psychologist to figure out. He himself said "I have an argument with my reputation". I knew the man for 35 years, saw him often, ate with him, drank with him, argued with him, looked at at art with him - the man in this book and the man in the Rubenfeld book is not the man I knew. We need a book that sets the record straight. But then I guess the question would be, who would read it?

If one could rinse out all the arbitrary negativity in this book there would be a residue of simple biographical history. There is certainly some value in that.

While Marquis seems to cover all the surface facts, she fails to give us a look into the theories that made Greenberg so important. And her concern with Greenberg's reputation appears slanted; for example, the controversy surrounding Greenberg's stripping the paint off the late David Smith's sculpture is defended and his detractors are summarily dismissed. It made me curious to read Rubenfeld's biography, though better yet would be to get Greenberg's Art and Culture and read what the man himself had to say.

A amateurish and useless read. Reads like a undergraduate paper and has the tone of a rank outsider peering into the grown up intellectual world. Pass on it.

I read this book from cover to cover with great interest. Although you could feel author's finding Greenberg not quite agreeable as person, and who would completely accept him based upon his biography, but Marquis' judgments were always deeply grounded in factual material. And there were plenty of material available. Greenberg meticulously documented every day of his life and Marquis did not overlook any scrap of available information. She is very serious researcher who attempted to analyze and present summary of most important Greenberg's works. Her analysis, albeit imperfect, broad enough for a sort of book she produced. As an author, she has to balance what to include and what to omit. I think she succeeded.

I like her work very much and learned quite a bit from her. I recommend her book to anyone interested in twentieth century American art.

Award-winning journalist and historian Alice Marquis presents Art Czar: The Rise and Fall of Clement Greenberg, a balanced biography of the man who was arguably the most influential American art critic of the twentieth century. Drawing from unpublished and previously unavailable documents, interviews, and archives, Art Czar portrays the tangled elements of Greenberg's life, including his relationship with family, friends, lovers, and rivals. Art Czar also reveals how Greenberg's tastes and gift for rhetoric spoke to the American art scene from 1940 to the 1980s. A painstakingly accurate evaluation of the nuances of Greenberg's lasting influence as surely as it is a chronicle of the events of his life.

This book may be enjoyed by those deeply interested in modern art as practiced in New York in the 1940s through 60s. However, if you have only time to read one recent book on this era, buy Jed Perl's New Art City.

Art Czar is about Clement Greenberg's life. Which in sum was a pathetic mess from childhood to death. He is not a noble person to read about and the fact he was a noted art critic fifty years ago does not vault him into the status of being interesting. At least not for me, and I would wager most people.

The writing style of the author is basic. It certainly does not save the book from its subject.