Joselit traces and analyzes the diversity and complexity of postwar American art from Abstract Expressionism to the present clearly and succinctly in this groundbreaking survey. 183 illustrations.
A Companion to Contemporary Art is a major survey covering the major works and movements, the most important theoretical developments, and the historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues in contemporary art since 1945, primarily in the Euro-American context. Collects 27 original essays by expert scholars describing the current state of scholarship in art history and visual studies, and pointing to future directions in the field. Contains dual chronological and thematic coverage of the major themes in the art of our time: politics, culture wars, public space, diaspora, the artist, identity politics, the body, and visual culture. Offers synthetic analysis, as well as new approaches to, debates central to the visual arts since 1945 such as those addressing formalism, the avant-garde, the role of the artist, technology and art, and the society of the spectacle.
Traces the origins of Abstract Expressionism in all its early revolutionary impact, and reconstructs subsequent transitions into other forms of abstraction, to minimal and conceptual art, to Pop art, to various anti-art forms, and back to most recent traditional realistic styles.
Contemporary art can be baffling and beautiful, provocative and disturbing. This pioneering book presents a new look at the controversial period between 1945 and 2000, when art and its traditional forms were called into question. It focuses on the relationship between American and European art, and challenges previously held views about the origins of some of the most innovative ideas in art of this time. Major artists such as Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, and Damien Hirst are all discussed, as is the art world of the last fifty years. Important trends are also covered including Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Postmodernism, and the art of the nineties.
"Artists, Critics, Context is an anthology of readings on American art and culture that begins in the 1940s with Abstract Expressionism and the Cold War and ends in the 1990s with the ubiquity of video installations and the broad cultural changes arising from technological developments in telecommunications and biotechnology."--Preface pg. ix.
The emergence of the powerful work - until recently considered 'peripheral' - of African-American and regional American artists, and new trends in Latin American, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, modern African, Caribbean and Aboriginal art are all introduced and discussed, providing a world panorama of art at the end of the century.