Modern Art in the Common Culture [Hardcover]

Professor Thomas Crow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1996

Must avant-garde art hold itself apart from the values and beliefs widely held in the common culture? Must advanced artists always be symbolic adversaries of the ordinary citizen? These questions have dominated, even paralyzed the modern art world, particularly in recent years when perceived elitism and imposed canons of taste have come under fire from all sides. This book shows that the links between advanced art and modern mass culture have always been robust, indeed necessary to both. Thomas Crow focuses on the continual interdependence between the two phenomena, providing examples that range from Paris in the mid-19th century to the latest revivals of Conceptual art in the 1990s. Crow's argument proceeds through a series of episodes: Jackson Pollock being enlisted into the realm of fashion by his first patron; Andy Warhol keeping one foot in a small-town sentiment through his work of the 1960s; an artist, Sturtevant, confronting incomprehension and hostility when she turned Pop Art tactics against the Pop painters themselves (and being vindicated 20 years later by an entirely new generation of artists); Gerhard Richter's painting converging with amateur production in its uses of photography; Gordon Matta-Clark raiding derelict buildings to find the raw material of his sculpture; Ross Bleckner redefining his painting of the 1980s through the decayed, funerary kitsch of Victorian America; and Christopher Williams remaking a high Conceptual art with mental maps provided by the tourist industry.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this collection of essays, British art historian Crow examines the relationship of avant-garde art to popular culture. Opening with an insightful examination of Manet's relationship to 19th-century Parisian mass culture, Crow segues into a scathingly apt portrayal of the alliance of certain members of the New York School with the commercial world of kitsch journalism. Exploring the relationship of pop art, conceptual art, and other modern movements to common culture, Crow questions the adversarial relationship that has arisen between art and the common citizen. He writes in a clear style and has a generally strong argument (though he is a bit strained in his discussion of Richard Serra's controversial "Tilted Arc" sculpture). Inquiring into what creates the distinction between "high" and "low" art in critical and popular conception, he envisions a symbiotic rather than a competitive relationship. Recommended for larger collections with an interest in modern and contemporary art.?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (April 24, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300064381
• ISBN-13: 978-0300064384
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,369,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Forbiddingly Difficult, March 16, 2001

By 

T. Reid (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Modern Art in the Common Culture (Paperback)

This book consists of a collection of eleven essays on modern art in the common culture. Chapters touch on Warhol, the New York School, Hank Herron, Artforum, pastoralism in recent art, and comparable subjects.

On page 185, Crow refers to the increasing "tendency of critics to assert their prerogatives by cultivating a forbiddingly difficult language." Crow himself is a learned critic of modern art and its relations to the common culture. However, his book unfortunately is an exemplar of the depressingly difficult language he mentioned above. For example, on page 78 he writes of artists "asserting a condition of non-difference between high art and the general economy of sign production, art being increasingly distinguished as an extraordinary and privileged marker by the actual behavior of that economy."

If coping with this type of writing comes readily to you, there are several worthwhile insights that can be gleaned from the book. For this reader, however, the game was not worth the candle, and try as I might, after ten chapters, I could not bring myself to finish the eleventh and concluding chapter. Caveat emptor.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope for art, February 8, 2001

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"tksc" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modern Art in the Common Culture (Paperback)

Is contemporary art dead? Amidst the onslaught of all the -isms and in a life-world in which art and life seem so removed: is art dead today?

Crow doesn't think so and he offers a selection of observations of specific artistic practices that illuminate the vitality of art in our culture today: yes, it still speaks and it still responds. There is still hope.

There is a great reading of Warhol's "Disasters" in its social and historical context. You might just take another look at a Warhol after reading this piece. And against Peter Burger's declaration that the avant-garde is dead, Crow responds that engaged avant-garde practices still exist, if not flourish today: Bleuker and Matta Clark, to name a few. As an art historian of 18th century France, Crow proves to be a deft observer and critic of contemporary art practices.

Beautiful picture plates alongside brilliantly written essays. This is art criticism and art history at its best. What is criticism? The best, I think, are the ones that appreciate and demonstrate value without the pretenses and the cliches. This book is such an effort.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good guide through treacherous territory, April 14, 2003

By 

Uyvsdi "Uyvsdi" (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Modern Art in the Common Culture (Paperback)

I personally hate modernist art theory with a passion *BUT* since there is a need to navigate this terrain, Thomas Crow's book provides an excellent overview. He cuts through the BS and explains how we got to where we are in the art world - including why art criticism seems less and less interested in any actual art. Or being understood by the general public. Difficult reading nonetheless.