Customer Reviews

Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings (California Studies in the History of Art)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been searching for a book like this off and on for years, but just recently came accross it. What a great collection of essays and interviews from the artists! I am a teacher/artist myself, not a researcher, and it is so wonderful to have all this information at my finger tips. I hope the editors do more work like this. If you are interested in finding out about what a contemporary artist was thinking, check this book first!

I have used this text with grad. students and with advanced-level undergraduate art majors. In an era dominated by some pretty thick-headed critical writing, I value the relatively jargon-free essays by a good variety of contemporary artists. More photos, even B/W ones, would be a help however.

and not only can I not live without it, but I can feel comfortable recommending it to anyone interested in art (especially contemporary art). it is the kind of book I dream about. I want more like it. there are certain genres left out and some of the groupings are too tight, and some too loose, but the fact that the artists are the ones giving the information means that I can research them more accurately, instead of researching other peoples research. A wonderful compilation of essays and interviews.

I've purchased this book while beeing in New York in 2003, and my first impression was that I had aquired an excellent and almost encyclopedical resourse for research. However, when looking for references on familiar contemporary artists like Brazilian Lygia Clark (one of the most important and internationally renowed creators, having teached in Sorbonne, among other things) I've found her name misquoted as "Lydia Clark" while she's reffered as "Argentinian" in the index. The fact that I've found such a mistake concerning a familiar name raises doubts on the rigor of this interesting work.

Sérgio Basbaum (teacher at Universidade Cátólica, São Paulo, Brazil)

Although the list of artists is impressive, the entries by each are often so short that no coherent thought surfaces. It takes a very skilled interviewer or fantastic didactic vision on the part of the artist to arrive at a genuinely insightful piece of writing, like "On Art" by Rodin [excellent]. Also fairly good are David Sylvester's interviews of Bacon and others.

Many of the entries in this book are meant to actually BE THE ART. Such writings can be interesting, but often fail, falling into a category of minimalist authorship. I found this book did not aid my search for profundity and revelation with regard to the artistic process.

The critics always have alot to say about what the artists have created. Artists are not always as forthright. They can be indirect, weave tales or romance the past. But this book gives you a rare chance to hear it all first hand. The beauty of this book is you drop in with the artist of your choice.

This book is a good example of where "more would be less." The book is quite long but the quoted material for each artist is well selected and woven into a bigger picture. I have found it interesting to read what many different artists considered important at approximately the same time. If as some have mentioned here the editors had included more material for each individual artists this bigger picture could easily be lost. This book has become an important part of my art library as is.

This book has some great writings from both critics and artists. I would recommend this to an artist, especially if you're looking for some direction. Helpful information from some of the best.
Some of the articles are a bit hard to read but I found many of them to be excellent reads.

briefly - this is a great basic anthology if you want artist manifestos and excerpts from period art critics. my only complaint about this anthology is that it really doesn't have many of the writings/interivews that are well known from sources like artforum (e.g. smithson's yucatan mirror article) or partisan review (rauschenberg interview). but one can't have all things in one place - that said this is a great place to start.

I 'think' the book is great, i 'say' this because until today i still haven't receive it the book. What i'm so p*** off it is the shipping duration. I've paid a hefty sum to buy some of my books here, but i mean the service (shipping) is so crappy. It's high time Amazon stepped up their service! If any of the management tend to read this, please, please, please, please, please do something about this! Its about a month now but i still haven't received my first (book) order!!!!!!!