Customer Reviews

Passages in Modern Sculpture

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This is Krauss's first book, and the one I like best. Her history of modern sculpture from Rodin to Robert Smithson is grounded in a sophisticated theoretical perspective, but it's not collapsing under the weight of theory like many later Krauss's texts. Her theoretical framework in this early book is phenomenological -- she made a transition to structuralist and poststructuralist theories later in the seventies. Phenomenology -- in particular, Merleau-Pontyan phenomenology -- allows for many thought-provoking readings of modern sculpture. However, the basic assumption of the book -- viz., that there have been some parallels between the development of modern sculpture and phenomenological thought -- is flawed. There is no evidence that the artists discussed by Krauss heard of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty and their theories. Many other authors beside Krauss make a similar unjustified assumption of various "parallelisms" and "influences." Basically, this is historicism -- a belief in some sort of Zeitgeist at work in all cultural forms of a particular age. Still, the book makes for a much more rewarding read that coutless superficial, merely descriptive histories of modern sculpture, or modern art in general.

THIS ITEM WAS GREAT IT HAS BEEN A GREAT HELP TO ME. I WOULD HIGLY RECOMMEND OTHERS TO PURCHASE THIS ITEM.

Horribly wordy, strangely organized, and with long analogies practically unrelated to sculpture. Maybe if you really REALLY love sculpture or art history this could be interesting to you, but as a required text for one of my classes it is a tedious and gag inducing read.