MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04141pam a22004574a 4500
001 6032733
005 20221121225833.0
008 070104t20062006njua b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2006006621
020 $a069112678X (hardcover : alk. paper)
024 3 $a9780691126784
035 $a(OCoLC)OCM64510387
035 $a(NNC)6032733
035 $a6032733
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dBAKER$dC#P$dOrLoB-B
042 $apcc
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aN6512.5.A2$bV37 2006
082 00 $a709.04/052$222
100 1 $aVarnedoe, Kirk,$d1946-2003.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82097504
245 10 $aPictures of nothing :$babstract art since Pollock /$cKirk Varnedoe.
260 $aPrinceton, NJ :$bPrinceton University Press,$c[2006], ©2006.
300 $a297 pages :$billustrations (some color) ;$c25 cm.
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
490 1 $aThe A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ;$v2003
490 1 $aBollingen series ;$v48
505 00 $g1.$tWhy abstract art? --$g2.$tSurvivals and fresh starts --$g3.$tMinimalism --$g4.$tAfter minimalism --$g5.$tSatire, irony, and abstract art --$g6.$tAbstract art now.
500 $a"National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC."
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 1 $a""What is abstract art good for? What's the use - for us as individuals, or for any society - of pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves?" In this account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts the uncertainties we may have about the nonrepresentational art produced in the last five decades. He makes a compelling argument for its history and value, much as E.H. Gombrich tackled representation fifty years ago in Art and Illusion, another landmark A.W. Mellon Lectures volume. Realizing that these lectures might be his final work, Varnedoe conceived of them as a statement of his faith in modern art and as the culminating example of his lucidly pragmatic and philosophical approach to art history. He delivered the lectures, edited and reproduced here with their illustrations to overflowing crowds at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in the spring of 2003, just months before his death." "With brilliance, passion, and humor, Varnedoe addresses the skeptical attitudes and misunderstandings that we often bring to our experience of abstract art. Resisting grand generalizations, he makes a deliberate and scholarly case for abstraction - showing us that more than just pure looking is necessary to understand the self-made symbolic language of abstract art. Proceeding decade by decade, he brings alive the history and biography that inform the art while also challenging the received wisdom about distinctions between abstraction and representation, modernism and postmodernism, and minimalism and pop. The result is a fascinating and ultimately moving tour through a half a century of abstract art, concluding with an unforgettable description of one of Varnedoe's favorite works."--BOOK JACKET.
650 0 $aArt, Abstract$zUnited States.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85007523
650 0 $aArt, American$y20th century.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85007815
710 2 $aNational Gallery of Art (U.S.)$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79054426
830 0 $aA.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ;$v2003.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84735416
830 0 $aBollingen series ;$v48.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n42708592
856 41 $3Table of contents only$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip069/2006006621.html
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0654/2006006621-b.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0654/2006006621-d.html
852 80 $bfax$hN6512$iV425
852 00 $bbar$hN6512.5.A2$iV37 2006