Attached to the Mouse: Disney and Contemporary Art [Paperback]

Holly Crawford (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0761834745 | ISBN-13: 978-0761834748 | Publication Date: August 2, 2006

The Mouse and the Duck are celebrities created by Disney through its new art form, the animated cartoon. Using various outlets including mass-media, television, and theme parks, Disney made the Mouse an icon of corporate success and American culture. From Pop art to the present day, more than a hundred artists have incorporated the Mouse's image, humor, and nostalgia into their work. HOW AND WHY?

Attached to the Mouse is the first art history analyzing use of Disney imagery by such contemporary artists as Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Warhol, Chagoya, Thiebaud, Helnwein, Boltanski, Dion, and Pensato. This book explores the impact of Disney, including artists' economic and psychological motivations, on contemporary art.
Links to: Author's Website and Author's Blog for Attached to the Mouse

Editorial Reviews

Review

For at least a half-century Mickey Mouse, ears and all, has served as one of the most potent icons in contemporary visual culture.…But however much that (deceptively) ingenuous face and unique silhouette turn up in Pop paintings, social-commentary cartoons, and even abstract sculpture, writers and historians have let Mickey's ubiquity pass without substantial comment. Until now. Defying the perils of post-modernist close reading, pop-culture fetishism, and the fabled wrath of Disney Corp., Holly Crawford proffers an exhaustive documentation, classification, and analysis of Mickey's many appearances in the visual art of our time. Her study fills a gap in the critical history of recent art, not to mention in Mouseology. (Peter Frank )

Enjoyable, brilliant, readable, and enormously informative. The seminal study of how mass media institutions-Disney and Art-function in our culture, written with flashes of humor. It's likely to be a premier resource for years to come. (Manuel Alvarado )

Attached to the Mouse is a result of painstaking research into this history and penetrating analysis of the psychology behind the phenomenon.... For the first time, an art historian has chronicled the artists' use of Mickey as a personal language....Remaining impartial with the issues she raises in order to embrace the tension contained in this holistic vision, Crawford tackles the present-day crisis of art criticism at its core....Attached to the Mouse will prove to be an essential resource underpinning the foundation by which this search for holism comes into form. (Streitfeld, Lisa Paul Ny Arts Magazine )

In her innovative book Attached to the Mouse Holly Crawford examines the appropriation of the iconic images of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck with thoughtful scholarship and spirited humor. (Peter Selz )

From the Publisher

Featured in Harper's Magazine, February 2007 article "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism" by Jonathan Lethem

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Product Details

• Paperback: 194 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of America (August 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761834745
• ISBN-13: 978-0761834748
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,365,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!!!, December 29, 2006

By 

Todd M Shissler (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Attached to the Mouse: Disney and Contemporary Art (Paperback)

I would highly recomend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of Disney and Mickey Mouse and their influence on art today!!!! It is a great read and the author is very insightful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, informative and a good read., May 6, 2008

By 

J. Hong (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Attached to the Mouse: Disney and Contemporary Art (Paperback)

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of Mickey Mouse and Disney and their roles in pop culture and art. This book is an important work for anyone interested in examining the role of Mickey and Disney and their impact on the development of contemporary art.