High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture [Hardcover]

Kirk Varnedoe (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Narrower in scope than its title suggests, this sprawling, visually riveting catalogue of a traveling exhibition traces the "dialogue" between "high" art (Picasso, Miro, Seurat, etc.) and the streetwise or commercial "low" media of graffiti, caricature, comics and advertising. Picasso transformed sly notebook caricatures into the "high" paintings of his primitive/archaic phase. Claes Oldenburg turned a lipstick tube into a colossal, totemic monument. From cubist newspaper collages to Jenny Holzer's electric-message installations, popular culture has served such modern artists as Jeff Koons, Joseph Cornell and Cy Twombly as a means of recovery of certain high-art traditions. Although the text may be swollen with hype, artspeak and farfetched comparisons, this tome entertains as it informs. Varnedoe is director of paintings and sculpture at New York's Museum of Modern Art; Gopnik is a New Yorker staff writer.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Museum of Modern Art; First edition (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810960028
• ISBN-13: 978-0810960022
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 9.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,526,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Of some interest, perhaps, May 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: High & Low: Modern Art Popular Culture (Paperback)

I picked this book up for a laugh, having found Adam Gopnik's New Yorker articles on art shows to be lightweight and none-to-brilliant, especially considering how clueless he is when looking at paintings by women. You'll get the same clever jabbering here, and even the rare insight (perhaps thanks to his collaborator, who knows?), but I still think gopnik should stick to food (perhaps he normally sticks to food!!) Overall, this isn't a scholarly effort, and Gopnik is entirely clueless when it comes to post-modern feminist discourse, but at least I warned ya, right?