The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society [BARGAIN PRICE] (Paperback)

A discursive look at the ongoing transformation of the American landscape. Art critic Lippard (Mixed Blessings, not reviewed, etc.) posits that Americans are rapidly losing their sense of place and their local loyalties as a result of the country's fin-de-siŠcle homogenization, courtesy of look-alike Walmarts and McDonald's, strip malls and housing developments, and thanks as well to hybrid cultural styles that see a new Trump luxury hotel in downtown New York augured in by practitioners of the Chinese art of feng shui, or geomancy. Lippard writes with undisguised nostalgia for a different, more historically aware America; at the top of each text page runs a journal of her life in the little town of Georgetown, Me., where such virtues presumably still obtain. Recognizing that regionalism is a cultural invention and as such somewhat artificial, she explores the possibilities for place-based public art that ``has both roots and reach'' and that honors local history and mores. She also looks into the prospects for preserving that older, idiomatic, vernacular America while allowing that, given their druthers, most people would often rather build for the future than maintain the past. (Only lack of money keeps them from doing so, she writes, quoting a colleague who observes that ``poverty is a wonderful preservative of the past.'') Some of her themes--for instance, ``alienated displacement'' and ``the possibility of a multicentered society,'' whatever that is--grow a little wearisome as they are repeated throughout the text. But on the whole Lippard's narrative is interesting and thoughtful, and her critiques are often delightfully acidic, especially when she deals with enervating planned suburbs and gated communities and the monstrosities that pass for public art today. The more than 150 illustrations in color and black-and-white complement and extend her discussion very nicely. A solid contribution to popular geography. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

An excellent reference guide to recent and historical place-oriented art and activism. -- Preservation

Lippard has signaled the highest political hopes of art, from her early embrace of '60s conceptual art to her '70s support of feminism to her careful documentation in the '80s of the art of America's ethnic communities. . . [The Lure of the Local] arrives at an auspicious time, as interest in community history is on the rise throughout the country. . . An encyclopedic study of the art of community. -- Portland Oregonian

Lippard overwhelms us with the breadth of her reading and the comprehensiveness with which she considers the things that define place. . . [The Lure of the Local] could equally well turn up in areas like environment, planning, women's studies, geography, and current affairs. -- New York Times Book Review

In The Lure of the Local, Lucy R. Lippard, one of America's most influential art writers, weaves together cultural studies, history, geography, and contemporary art to provide a fascinating exploration of our multiple senses of place. Expanding her reach far beyond the confines of the art world, she discusses community, land use, perceptions of nature, how we produce the landscape, and how the landscape affects our lives. In this extensively illustrated, beautifully produced volume, she consistently makes unexpected connections between contemporary art and its political, social, and cultural contexts.

Lucy R. Lippard's books include Mixed Blessings, Overlay, Partial Recall, and The Pink Glass Swan (all available from The New Press). She has been a columnist for the Village Voice, In These Times, and Z Magazine and was the cofounder of Printed Matter. She lives in Galisteo, New Mexico, and spends summers in Georgetown, Maine.