TY  - BOOK
AU  - Varnedoe,Kirk
AU  - Gopnik,Adam
AU  - Metro,Judy
AU  - Powell,Earl A.
TI  - Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock 
T2  - The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts
SN  - 9780691252964
AV  - N6512.5.A2 V37 2006
U1  - 709.04/052 22
PY  - 2023///]
CY  - Princeton, NJ : 
PB  - Princeton University Press, 
KW  - Art, Abstract
KW  - United States
KW  - Art, American
KW  - 20th century
KW  - ART / History / Contemporary (1945-)
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Abstract art
KW  - Abstract expressionism
KW  - Adolf von Hildebrand
KW  - Aerial perspective
KW  - Aestheticism
KW  - Andy Warhol
KW  - Annie Hall
KW  - Anti-art
KW  - Art and Illusion
KW  - Art history
KW  - Barnett Newman
KW  - Brice Marden
KW  - Calligraphy
KW  - Carl Andre
KW  - Classicism
KW  - Clement Greenberg
KW  - Clyfford Still
KW  - Constantin Brâncu?i
KW  - Cubism
KW  - Cy Twombly
KW  - Dan Flavin
KW  - David Sylvester
KW  - Donald Judd
KW  - Drip painting
KW  - Edvard Munch
KW  - Ellsworth Kelly
KW  - Ernst Gombrich
KW  - Eva Hesse
KW  - Feminist art
KW  - Figurative art
KW  - Fine art
KW  - Frank Stella
KW  - Geometric abstraction
KW  - Gerhard Richter
KW  - Illusionism (art)
KW  - J. M. W. Turner
KW  - Jackson Pollock
KW  - Jasper Johns
KW  - Josef Albers
KW  - Kirk Varnedoe
KW  - Lacquer
KW  - Lecture
KW  - Marcel Duchamp
KW  - Mark Rothko
KW  - Max Bill
KW  - Michael Fried
KW  - Minimalism
KW  - Modern art
KW  - Modernism
KW  - National Gallery of Art
KW  - New Thought
KW  - Pablo Picasso
KW  - Peter Eisenman
KW  - Peter Halley
KW  - Pop art
KW  - Postmodernism
KW  - Rachel Lachowicz
KW  - Rachel Whiteread
KW  - Reductive art
KW  - Richard Serra
KW  - Robert Rauschenberg
KW  - Roy Lichtenstein
KW  - Satire
KW  - Sherrie Levine
KW  - Smithsonian Institution
KW  - Sol LeWitt
KW  - Terry Winters
KW  - Whitney Museum of American Art
KW  - Willem de Kooning
KW  - Work of art
N1  - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Foreword --; Preface --; Note to the Reader --; 1. Why Abstract Art? --; 2. Survivals and Fresh Starts --; 3. Minimalism --; 4. After Minimalism --; 5. Satire, Irony, and Abstract Art --; 6. Abstract Art Now --; Acknowledgments --; Index --; Photography and Copyright Credits; restricted access
N2  - An illuminating exploration of the meaning of abstract art by acclaimed art historian Kirk Varnedoe"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 invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent 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 past 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 century of abstract art, concluding with an unforgettable description of one of Varnedoe's favorite works.Please note: All images in this ebook are presented in black and white and have been reduced in size
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691252964?locatt=mode:legacy
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780691252964
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780691252964/original
ER  -