Stardumb [Hardcover]

Dave Hickey (Author), Michael Mack (Editor), John de Fazio (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2000

Edited by Michael Mack. Contributions by John de Fazio. Text by Dave Hickey.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Hickey has written for most major American cultural publications. Formerly executive editor at Art in America, Hickey's publications include Prior Convictions (1989), The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), and Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997). Hickey received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism in 1994. He is currently associate professor of art criticism and theory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 60 pages
• Publisher: Artspace Books (January 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891273019
• ISBN-13: 978-1891273018
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,774,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Kid's Book for Grown-ups, April 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Stardumb (Hardcover)

A perfect balance of story, illustration, and book design. It takes as much time to read these hilarious, melancholy, knowing portraits as it does to contemplate the intricate and cynical drawings that accompany them, each based on the twelve signs of the zodiac. The pleasures of this 88 page book come too soon to their end. Characters are vivid and may or may not be based on real art world figures, and they conform to astrological stereotypes in a surprisingly humane way--the performance artist who cheats on his check, the art dealer who can sell art to anybody-- but actors-- and the museum head whose father hid birds in his jacket. To quote from the delicious send up of the radical academic, a "fifty-something version of Ali McGraw in 'Love Story,'" Stardumb just might restore astrology as "a pre-enlightenment practice, totally untainted by its hegemony."

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny book, by Village Voice contributor, November 2, 2009

By 

Mad Max (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Stardumb (Hardcover)

This book is by Dave Hickey, freelance writer who is a frequent contributor to Village Voice, Artnews, and ArtForum. He writes fiction and cultural criticism, with a twist.

If you've enjoyed his previous two books - The Invisible Dragon, and Air Guitar - you're sure to enjoy Stardumb (also a collection of stories, largely poking fun at mainstream culture, and with lots of great illustrations by independent artists).