Customer Reviews

Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock (Bollingen)

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Three months before his untimely death from cancer, Kirk Varnedoe, former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, delivered the 2003 Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery in Washington. This beautifully designed book represents a careful transcription of the tapes and videos made during a bravura performance; it reads as if Varnedoe had actually had an opportunity to edit the material but sadly this was not to be the case. The highly readable finish of the text is entirely due to Varnedoe's extraordinary skill as a public speaker, a teacher who spoke in perfectly edited paragraphs with nothing but an outline and his slides before him. His love of art, his verbal wit, his lack of condescension to his audience all come through on the page; the voice that became so familiar to millions through his many televised appearances echoes as you read his words. His theme, the history of Abstract Art since Pollock, was chosen in specific response to the famous Mellon lectures on representational art delivered by EH Gombrich fifty years before. Varnedoe is never doctrinaire in his artistic choices or his angle of analysis; Pictures of Nothing is a wonderful introduction to a subject that often perplexes the general reader.

Varnedoe trained in an era when the importance of the art object and the personal response it evoked retained primacy over the gathering obfuscations of theory; his close reading of major works is never less than revelatory, in particular his encounters with the paintings of Jasper Johns and the sculptures of Richard Serra. His comparisons of objects from the hands of different artists is always apposite and sometimes surprising in an aha sort of way or "why didn't I think of that?"; for example, how Philip Taafe makes use of the Madame Torso motif in a Hans Arp relief. The six chapters follow the order of the six lectures. His chapter on the abstract elements in the work of Warhol and Lichtenstein is particularly good and he has many new things to say about Gerhard Richter. Varnedoe is best when discussing art that still falls under the umbrella of Modernism (c.1970); the closer he comes to the present era, the shakier his choices become. He is eager to point out how thin the line is between representation and absraction but does not discuss de Kooning much, nor does he quote his famous statement that every abstraction must have a resemblance. Varnedoe closes with a statement of faith in works of art and abstraction in particular; his last words are painfully apt, "And now, I am done."

The book is an excellent introduction to contemporary art for non-specialists. It's the best, least doctrinaire, most convincing case for abstract art that I've ever encountered. Varnedoe supports his case superbly with close readings of dozens of works illustrated throughout the book. He's a fine, sensitive, appreciative critic and just to read his appreciations and analyses of these works an education in contemporary art. Most authors who write about abstract art (or modern art, interchangeable terms for present purposes) direct their books either to its champions or its critics. Varnedoe has written a book about abstract art for the rest of us, who mostly are not sure what to think of it.

Varnedoe thinks it's good and important for several reasons. First, because it suits our restless, ever-changing reality, crossing every boundary seeking something new and better. Second, it offers individuals freedom not just to express themselves but to create new visual languages that expand expressive possibilities for everybody. Third, because it explores the "borderland around the opening into nothingness" by casting out already formulated images in favor of pure shape, color, texture reduced to their essence and presented for our unmediated perception. Last, and most fundamentally, because it persists: "It has been done. It is being done...and... it will be done." There must be something worthwhile here if so many talented people over so long a time spend their lives in the enterprise of abstract art.

If only he had had enough time to engage in a dialogue with skeptics. Varnedoe addresses realism briefly when he rejects the thesis that the conventions of realism developed in the West since the Renaissance (perspective, light and shade defining form,...) are somehow natural or hardwired in humans. What is hardwired, Varnedoe claims, is communication, negotiation, invention, but not any one visual code. Fair enough. But this one counter argument to but one rationale for realism hardly justifies dismissing a tradition that has spanned 500 years, dozens of cultures, and countless masterpieces.

Despite Varnedoe's spirited defence, I'm left still wondering. Are the new resources of visual expression created by, for instance, embalmed sheep and steel cubes, really that rich? Richer than art created by contemporary realists who depict people, scenes, and situations in highly meaningful ways, far beyond the veiled and arguable meanings of most abstract works, and are also beautiful as two-dimensional surfaces?

But I fear that the merits of the case do not matter. Realism is old fashioned, a fatal flaw in our novelty-seeking culture that Varnedoe rightly recognizes as the audience and market for abstract art. The rest of us will have to learn to like it. And there's much to like, as Varnedoe shows us in this book.

One should not be deterred by the silly title, for this book is about something important indeed. In my view the development of abstraction is the most significant development in the visual arts over the last 100 years. To be sure, Varnedoe deals only with the second half, the era since Pollock, but that is the portion that most of us have experienced. If you are still puzzled by abstract art, this inviting, accessible volume is the book for you. Also, in reading it one has the sense of participating in a tribute to its gifted author, who died of cancer three months after completing the lectures. His friends have done a remarkable job of editing.

I have two criticisms, though. 1) A pragmatist, Varnedoe eschewed grand theories, holding that the vital matter lay in the details. Yet he moves swiftly from one object to another. Anyone who has attempted to teach this subject (as I have) knows how important it is to avoid the habit of skipping from flower to flower. It would have been helpful if Varnedoe had devoted at least one lecture to only two or three objects, showing how they work in detail. 2) The text is mainly about American abstract art. Only a few Europeans get a look in, and that is because the remind the author of some American work. Many of us can remember a time when European artists like Soulages, Hartung, and Fautrier were spoken in the same breath as the American abstract expressionists. There are many other European abstractionists who are worthy of attention. But Varnedoe has reinforced the stereotype that the first fifty years of abstraction belong to Europe, the second fifty years to the US.

Still, this is a beautiful book and I expect to return to it often.

I'm married to a librarian and between the two of us, we have at least 8,000 books (we both love books just about more than anything), but if I could only have one book - this would definitely be it. The late Kirk Varnedoe, former Chief Curator of MoMA, has so clearly, easily and deliciously put into one gorgeous volume the whole picture of what I've been studying my you-know-what off to understand over the past 7 years. I've been The Menil Collection's Twombly Guard during those 7 years, so you can believe that I am especially enthusiastic with Varnedoe's illuminating explanations on Cy Twombly's art! Buy this book and I guarantee you will not be disappointed. The reproductions are also first-class. Varnedoe gave these lectures knowing that he was dying of cancer; his last sentence is "And now I am done." Three months later he did die and was never able to see them published. This book may be the best book that has ever been written about abstract art.

Pictures of Nothing is an important addition to my library. Currently completing my MFA, the lectures in this book have been both challenging and enlightening, broadening my understanding of contemporary abstract art. It is both a "cover to cover" read and a reference dipper. Written in an informed, passionate and sometimes humurous style Varnedoe's lectures are a joy to read. Well illustrated with wide-ranging coverage of art and artists within the field I can give this book 4 1/2 stars and a high recommendation.

A brilliant and thorough explication of contemporary abstract art. The lectures were not intended for
arts professionals but are a literate and enjoyable guide to the visual arts since Jackson Pollock.

Varnedoe's style of writing is educational and engaging. Having been baptised in the ocean of the New York art world his religion is true. He makes every attempt to explain abstraction and place in art history. It's a great read with excellent visual examples.

The eminent art historian, Kirk Varnedoe (1946-2003), the former chief curator of painting and sculptor at the Museum of Modern Art, wrote this intelligent and absorbing argument on the value of nonrepresentational art produced in the last fifty years. This book is his final lecture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in 2003, just months before his death from cancer. For me, he was the most scholarly, most brilliant and most passionate authority on the subject. I am absorbing everything this man has written. For more on Kirk Varnedoe, check out this link to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: www.en.wikipedia.org

Kirk Varnedoe was an inspiring speaker, and writer, and until his unfortunate early exit from this Earth probably the most articulate advocate for modern and contemporary art that we had. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, and plan to read all of his published material as I find it. I also recommend watching his appearances on Charlie Rose, which was my intro to Mr. Varnedoe, they are great.

This is unquestionably a brilliant book. In six consecutive lectures given at the National Gallery in 2003, the last one three months before his untimely death, Kirk Varnedoe manages to give a clear, erudite and broad view of abstract art over the last 50 years. Rather than dwelling exhaustively on one artist or on one work, he covers the whole range, from Pollock to Taafe, from Stella to Ryman, From Judd to Morris, from Johns to Marden, from Andre to Serra etc...True, as one other reviewer already pointed out, he tends to limit himself to American abstract art, or abstract art insofar as it is linked in some way or other to American art (as when he explains Richter's abstractions in relation to Stella and Pollock), but the text is so lively and insightful, that the reader readily forgives this slightly nationalistic bias.

Varnedoe's core idea is that abstraction , far from being the end of art, actually represents the constant renewal of it, offering endless possibilities of rebirth. It is the permanent creation of something new, that only exists on its own and does not stem from or bases itself upon anything that existed prior to its creation (a good example is a huge untitled 1970 Cy Twombly painting owned by MOMA).

Varnedoe's gift as a wonderful orator and storyteller, never pedantic, always to the point, transpires in every line of this book and shows us how great a loss to American culture his death was.

Highly recommended, also for the quality of the many illustrations of almost every single work alluded to in the text.