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"To read Schjeldahl is not to agree or disagree, but rather to enter the enchanting flow of a fertile imagination."
--Ken Johnson, Art in America
"Ranging from Manet to minimalism, these partisan, passionate writings . . . function as a savvy handbook on the current art scene."
--Publishers Weekly
"Here's art criticism that demonstrates the power of art to evoke art, in the form of some of the most lusciously written responses to visual beauty ever to hit print. . . . During a decade that defined art mostly through commerce, Schjeldahl consistently reminded readers of its necessary soul."
--Village Voice
"A shrewd and fluent critic, [Schjeldahl] has a masterly personal voice, flamboyant, witty, lyrical yet often precise; more important, he has an openhearted attentiveness to the subjects of his criticism and the imaginative spaces around them."
--Julian Bell, Times Literary Supplement
"Schjeldahl is the finest journalistic art critic at work today."
--Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction, by Robert Storr
The Hydrogen Jukebox: Terror, Narcissism, and Art
Rothko and Belief
Edvard Munch: The Missing Master
I Missed Punk
A Book by Larry Rivers
Warhol and Class Content
Dubuffet, 1980
First Voice Column
Clement Greenberg
Exxon Exhibition at the Guggenheim
Julian Schnabel and Susan Rothenberg
Arshile Gorky
L.A. Demystified! Art and Life in the Eternal Present
Affairs of the Heat
Disney Animators
Realism Again
H. C. Westermann
Only Connect: Bruce Nauman
"Les Drippings" in Paris: The Jackson Pollock Retrospective
Cindy Sherman
David Salle
Why New French Art Is Lousy
Willem de Kooning
Robert Smithson's Writings
Documenta 7
Howard Finster
Clemente to Marden to Kiefer
Leon Golub
Decade of Wonders
The Grant Wood Revival
On Art and Artists: Peter Schjeldahl
Edouard Manet
Balthus
In Defense of Artistic Fashion
Minimalism
Philip Guston
Eric Fischl
Ed Ruscha: Traffic and Laughter
To Pico
The Daemon and Sigmar Polke
Adrian Saxe and the Smart Pot
The Immigrant Strain
Welcome to Helgaland
A Visit to the Salon of Autumn 1986
Our Kiefer
Hopperesque
Mike Kelley
Paintings by Aborigines
Jeff Koons
Courbet
De K.ooning Alone
Treason of Clerks
Velazquez
Baselitz and Kippenberger
Bibliography of Peter Schjeldahl's Writings on Art
Index
About the author
Peter Schjeldahl is art critic for the Village Voice and contributing editor for Art in America. MaLin Wilson is an art critic, editor, and independent curator working in New Mexico. Robert Storr, an artist and writer, is currently a curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Summary
A collection of the essays of art critic and poet Peter Schjeldahl, which explores his thoughts on individual contemporary artists, their work, events and ethics in the art world and new, creative directions.
