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Product Description
Product Description
As public interest in modern art continues to grow, as witnessed by the spectacular success of Tate Modern and the Bilbao Guggenheim, there is a real need for a book that will engage general readers, offering them not only information and ideas about modern art, but also explaining its contemporary relevance and history. This book achieves all this and focuses on interrogating the idea of 'modern' art by asking such questions as: What has made a work of art qualify as modern (or fail to)? How has this selection been made? What is the relationship between modern and contemporary art? Is 'postmodernist' art no longer modern, or just no longer modernist - in either case, why, and what does this claim mean, both for art and the idea of 'the modern'? Cottington examines many key aspects of this subject, including the issue of controversy in modern art, from Manet's Dejeuner sur L'Herbe (1863) to Picasso's Les Demoiselles, and Tracey Emin's Bed, (1999); and the role of the dealer from the main Cubist art dealer Kahnweiler to Charles Saatchi.
About the Author
David Cottington is Professor of History of Art at Falmouth College of Art. His previous publications include: Cubism ('Movements in Modern Art' series), (Tate Publishing, 1998), and Cubism in the Shadow of War, (Yale University Press, 1998).
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This introduction does not provide the reader with the linear, ie. chronological, survey of modern art from the late 20th century onwards, as one would expect to find when reading Honour & Fleming or Gombrich, for instance.
However, Cottington has filled his very short introduction with plenty of factual information and thought-provoking propositions which can be of value for readers in their undergraduate course or anyone who wants to make sense of modern and contemporary art.
The argumentation usually starts from a specific case study of a work of art to fuel the discussion of a specific topic/problematic, and moves on to include further works, which are illustrated within the book either in black and white in the body of the text, or as black and white plates in between chapters.
Whereas the titles of the chapters could give the impression of a thematic approach, and considering that not all works discussed appear in chronological order (the first work under scrutiny is 'Monument', by Rachel Whiteread, for the Fourth Plinth), the book is nonetheless broadly chronological, and the themes elicited by the chapters' titles and sub-headings only reflect major issues tackled by artists at various points of the last decades.
However, Cottington has filled his very short introduction with plenty of factual information and thought-provoking propositions which can be of value for readers in their undergraduate course or anyone who wants to make sense of modern and contemporary art.
The argumentation usually starts from a specific case study of a work of art to fuel the discussion of a specific topic/problematic, and moves on to include further works, which are illustrated within the book either in black and white in the body of the text, or as black and white plates in between chapters.
Whereas the titles of the chapters could give the impression of a thematic approach, and considering that not all works discussed appear in chronological order (the first work under scrutiny is 'Monument', by Rachel Whiteread, for the Fourth Plinth), the book is nonetheless broadly chronological, and the themes elicited by the chapters' titles and sub-headings only reflect major issues tackled by artists at various points of the last decades.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
An Excellent Introduction!
18 April 2006
Format:Paperback
Despite the harsh critique given this tome by a previous reviewer, this work is a splendid introduction to the field of modern art. Cottington nicely surveys the central movements, ideas, and controversies within the field -- and sprinkles his treatment with numerous examples/artists. This book is not comprehensive, yet like all the books in Oxford's VSI Series, its not MEANT to be. Duh! However, it IS a compact, incisive, and intelligent prefatory work for readers new to the field -- and a delicious read to boot! A+++++++
Content is mostly fine, but...
15 Sep 2011
Format:Paperback
It is a tad difficult to read. I got what I could out of it as this is a required text for school, but I had a very hard time getting through it. The author writes the most run on sentences ever, using far too much punctuation and going on for sometimes almost whole paragraphs before stopping to take a breath. The content was alright, although as another reviewer mentioned a tad more political than I expected from an art text. As I said I've gotten what I had to out of it, however It wouldn't have been my first choice.
9 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Some art but mostly culture and politics
15 July 2005
Format:Paperback
This is a rather lopsided introduction to modern art that focusses more on the political and social aspects of art culture than on the artists themselves and their development. What can one say about a book on this topic that has eleven (11!) references to the puerile poseur Tracey Emin and only one each for major figures like Kandinsky or Kiefer, and none for Magritte! The author seems smitten with the new wave of British artists, mostly mindless pikers like Hirst whose central goal is to make money (the sooner he is steeped in formaldehyde the better). The author also indulges in extensive discussions about the differences between modernism and postmodernism, concepts that most artists (let alone the general public) couldn't give a shriveled fig about, at the expense of discussing the emergence of abstraction or the development of individual key figures like Picasso or Kandinsky. While he makes a meal of it, only academic historians care much about these semantic issues. On the bright side, it must be said that the author does quite a good job of summarizing the main points of cultural theory and relating them to art movements; the book is readable. I have read a couple of the other "VSI"s and they have been excellent, but this book falls short in its most basic task of giving us the essential information about modern art and its key artists. Unfortunately, the illustrations are in B+W which renders them useless.
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