Customer Reviews

Art on the Edge and Over: Searching for Art's Meaning in Contemporary Society, 1970s-1990s

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I guess this book is meant as a real "intro" text, but if you do know something about this art, it seems pretty lite. Clearly, lots of people like it, but Weintraub seems to bend so far over to make complex work accessible that she really over-simplifines. And the "art" in the book is so scattered and uneven, you don't get any deeper sense of what is going on, what the historical context of any of this might be.

Granted, there aren't many intro texts on recent art. So if this is one of the "better" ones, it's mostly for lack of competition. I wish there was some accessible middle ground between pop/gossip texts and academic tomes. This feels like it's written from someone really distant to the work, who's not always that well-informed.

Anyone who wants to become familiar with intricacies of what can be the confusing world of post-modern art should read this book. The author does an excellent job of presenting an interesting cross-section of significant and fascinating collection of atypical artists. Pretty much every artist who is included has done their share of expanding the contemporary definition of Art in the Western and Non-western tradition. Over all, this compendium of essays does much to open the door to widen the reader's perspective on what art can do. The one aspect of this book that is troublesome is that the author often seems to focus on only one or two aspects of an artist's works, a habit that is frustrating at best and misleading at worst. While doing outside research on one of the artists included, Mel Chin, I was convinced there were two artists with the same name, as the perspective provided in the book did not prepare me for the artist's full range of activities. Still, this complaint should not stop an interested party from purchasing the book. I for one did not feel my money ill-spent.

A poor text. The author takes an uncritical and overly romantic stance on the various artist's work. While the artists included represent some of the very best examples of avante-garde practices spanning three decades, including several to whom I had would not have otherwise been exposed, the write ups read like publicity for their shows rather than critical analysis of the work. Most disappointing was the structure. Each artist is pigeon-holed into the demographic category they fall within, e.g. Felix Gonzales-Torres: A Latin, Homosexual Man. While I respect the effort to include a diverse range of artists, the demographics appear to be placed above the significance of their body of work. A difficult issue to address, and this book does so poorly.

I can't believe that there are so many positive reviews for this book. Aside from any personal preferences, did anyone else notice that the text is FULL of grammatical mistakes? Even the artists' names are not spelled consistently the same way throughout an article. If you don't believe me, count the number of times she uses Mesa-Bains and then the number of times she uses Mesa-Baines.

Aside from that, the writing style is simply awful, although I guess with this kind of subject matter, it's hard to do much better. This book, along with my Studio Art class, has helped me to develop a strong disliking for most of the contemporary art that is gaining attention. It is thoroughly disturbing and pointless. None of the artists manage to successfully convey their messages. I am very glad to never have to see this book again.

I have tried out a lot of books for teaching college courses about art of the '70s, '80s, '90s...this new book by Linda Weintraub...is the best for teaching I have found thus far...Weintraub is artist- and reader-friendly. She imagines intelligent readers outside the narrow borders of the art world...I find her emphasis on the artist's point of view a refreshing antidote to all those other "histories" in which the artists' voices have disappeared. Jean Robertson, New Art Examiner

I am a professor and I use this book for my 400 level content development class. It's always a challenge to explain postmodernism and conceptualism to undergraduates, but this book really helps. It gets them past the notion that all art should be "pretty" or a function as a demonstration of formalistic skills. Primarily, this book deals with concept based work that pushes past what the uninitiated consider to be art. If you are in the art world, this book will not offer anything new to you, but as an intro text (which I believe it is meant to be) or a companion text in a contemporary art history class, it's a real gem. My students really like it, and it helps them to understand complicated work that is not always accessible from just looking.

I just stayed up all night just trying to find this book again! I had to have it for an Art History course in college years ago, and out of all the textbooks I had and all the memorizing I had to do, the only art history I can remember today always traces back to this book. While other "art history" type books focus on bombarding you with a bunch of names with dates and titles of work (along with other insignificant information), this book focuses on the concept of the work from some of the most stand-out, atypical artists of this time period. Most importantly you really see the artists' work from the perspective of the creator and get a true sense of the artist's most intimate thoughts. If you're interested in sociology or psychology, this is especially the book for you.

If you're looking for in-depth artist biographies or need to do a research paper on the contemporary art movement, you can't rely on just this alone. But the author does an excellent job on getting straight to the point and providing you with just enough information and selected works that embody the overall essence of the artist (and the artists, collectively, give you a sense of what was going on during the 70s and 80s).

If there was a book like this for every art movement in history, I would buy all of them! Granted, some movements are more interesting than others, but this format is so easy to learn from. You remember works and artists first, then naturally remember the general time and movement, rather than memorizing and forgetting titles and dates with no real significance. I wouldn't call myself a history lover but I'm definitely interested more in people, and with this book, a connection is made between the art and the artist, and a deeper understanding is made about both. I'm so glad I found this and I'm definitely buying it to add back into my collection--my first "art history" book I actually like and WANT in my bookshelf!

The book is very informative on the artists,talks about their different pieces, I just wish it was in color instead of black and white because it takes away from the pieces meaning and depth

"...people are almost universally unprepared to respond to the vanguard art of our present age...This makes a guidebook indispensable...we have to encounter this art in terms the history of viewing has not prepared us for...Just as there is no art like it, there is no book like the present book...I am beyond measure grateful that Linda Weintraub has undertaken the immense labor that making this art available must have required. All of us who care about art...are greatly in her debt."
Arthur C. Danto, from the Foreword

"Art on the Edge and Over is an excellent educational tool for people who need an introduction to the latest trends and developments in the visual arts."

Robert C. Morgan, art critic