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Reflections on diversity and inclusion issues from one of the most influential American art criticsPreviously published by the Andy Warhol Foundation of the Visual Arts in 1994,
Between a Rock and a Hard Place is the focus of the third volume of Robert Storr's
Focal Points series. In this two-part essay, Storr examines the lack of diversity among the highest levels of the museum world: drawing on situations he encountered in his own career as a curator at MoMA as well as enumerating the "aesthetic, political and practical" obstacles on the path toward inclusion both in the museum world and society at large. The work is presented with new introductory text by the author and the book's editor, art historian Francesca Pietropaolo. These fresh contributions add more context to Storr's view on the crucial subject of race division in American culture and society. Storr illustrates his arguments by addressing the work of a great breadth of American artists, including David Hammons, Byron Kim, Glenn Ligon and Adrian Piper, among others.
About the author
Robert Storr is an art critic, curator and artist. He has written widely on art and has interviewed some of the world's leading artists. Storr's writing has appeared in countless books and exhibition catalogues as well as in Art in America, Artforum, Parkett and ARTnews. He has curated exhibitions internationally and was the first North American curator of the Venice Biennale in 2007. His bestselling Interviews on Art (2017), Writings on Art 1980-2005 (2020) and Writings on Art 2006-2021 (2021) were published by HENI.
Francesca Pietropaolo is an Italian art historian of modern and contemporary art, and an independent curator. She has worked at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. As an art critic, she has written widely, including for Flash Art International, ARTnews, Art in America and Arte e Critica.
