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He addresses the scope of Modern Art, from its founding days as Abstract Expressionism through its transformations to Pop, Op, Minimal, and Conceptual. This is Tom Wolfe "at. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See The Painted Word Problem? Details if other :. The Painted Word for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published October 5th by Bantam first published More Details Original Title. Clement GreenbergAndy Warhol. Friend Reviews. The Painted Word see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Painted Wordplease sign up. What are some recent opinions if this book See 1 question about The Painted The Painted Word. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Painted Word. Aug 30, Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing. Oh, rats, Tom fumed, all my hours squinting and starring at unintelligible paintings and I never comprehended those massive cutting-edge, avant- garde canvases were based on ideas and philosophies outlined by hyper-perceptive, authoritative art theorists. For the Abstract Expressionists, Clement Greenberg was the first to expound the theory. It was time to clear the tracks at last of all the remaining rubble of the pre-Modern way of painting. And The Painted Word what was this destination? Then as Tom Wolfe points out, a second major theorist, Harold Rosenberg, added another dimension. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event. And what do I myself The Painted Word of Tom Wolfe on the subject of modern art? Permit me to answer by way of an experience: When I was years old I accompanied my mother when she took a summer workshop at a local college for Sunday school teachers. She took me to the college bookstore and told me I could pick out any book I wanted. Ah, my very first book, ever! I scanned the bookshelves; there was a series of small books on various types of art and I chose a book with a cover that fascinated me on two counts: first, the picture — a combination of colors and shapes arranged geometrically - orange circles, black half circles, purple and cream rectangles, large dark green squares and a black square in the middle; second, two words on the cover: Abstract Art. Back at the dormitory where The Painted Word was staying, I turned the pages, both fascinated and mesmerized by all the paintings. I remained in my room with paper and crayons doing my best copying the art in the book. By the end of the day, when The Painted Word of the Sunday school teachers returned to the dormitory, I proudly showed her my drawing and my book. She promptly belittled my efforts: "You don't have this black spot in the right place. My response to her fury was not to be upset, but to be pleased. I enjoyed The Painted Word transported to this special, new world of art and how this art could trigger such a violent emotional reaction in an adult. In retrospect, I can only smile at the encounter - a boy's entering into the world of abstract art and communicating his love to a Sunday school teacher. Now wonder she was The Painted Word mad! The Painted Word, predictably, she countered with all the judgment and outrage she could muster as spokeswoman for the conventional, average, bland, mundane world. View all 31 comments. Jeff to the Modern Museum of Art. I would bone up on modern art with this book, so I could dazzle my dates with shallow insight, The Painted Word forced humor; not unlike my reviews, except the reader has the option of clicking elsewhere, my dates unless they called security were a captive audience. Wolfe helped git me a woman. If you said the average pre-schooler could equal Jackson Pollock, I'd have to say you would be right. View all 9 comments. Feb 16, Herb rated it did not like it Shelves: non-fictionmalevisual-artcrit. Wolfe's The Painted Word in this short, entertaining, The Painted Word completely wrong-headed polemic is based on the idea that the non-representational art of the last or so years is a hoax because it can only be appreciated The Painted Word those who have learned and agree with various abstract theories. Wolfe is much more supportive of The Painted Word flavors of representational art of the same period and the preceding centuries because he thinks this art can be appreciated without depending on theories. The basic fallacy of this Wolfe's argument in this short, entertaining, and completely wrong-headed polemic is The Painted Word on the idea that the non-representational art of the last or so years is The Painted Word hoax because it can only be appreciated by those who have learned and agree with various abstract theories. The book is, as I mentioned earlier, entertaining. Wolfe is almost always fun to read. But that doesn't mean that he knows a lot about his subject here. View all 4 comments. Jan 15, John Orman rated it really liked it. I am writing a much longer and more detailed review than usual because I plan to attend a local book club's upcoming meeting to discuss this nonfiction book. Tom Wolfe's small but potent book charts the course of Modern Art. The stylistic writing is as witty and provocative as Wolfe's earlier book "Radical Chic. The critic had basically stated that to view art witho I am writing a much longer and more The Painted Word review than usual because I plan to attend a local book club's upcoming meeting to discuss this nonfiction book. The critic had basically stated that to view art without a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial for art appreciation. Wolfe restated the argument as "now The Painted Word is not 'seeing is believing', but 'believing is seeing,' for Modern Art has become The Painted Word literary: the paintings and other works exist only to illustrate the text. Again and again, Wolfe refers to the differences between the elitist Modernists with their hip followers, and the common folk perceived as the bourgeoisie: "Today there is a particularly modern reward that the avant-garde artist can bring his benefactors Rockefeller's living room. On into Pop Art, "a new order, but the same Mother Church. Even a skewering of Op Art, in which "real art is nothing but what happens in your brain. Finally, toward the end of the twentieth century, Wolfe believes that "Modern art was about to fulfill its destiny: to become nothing less than Literature pure and simple. I ran across this recent segment in an interview of Wolfe: "Chester Gould drawer of Dick Tracy comics had more skill than Roy Lichtenstein. He equips one for intellectual name-dropping, the very discourse of the upwardly mobile cocktail-party society of arrivistes for whom Wolfe reserves the greatest measure of his contempt. Quite a tour de force! View 1 comment. Tom Wolfe rips the pish out of art critics using their own chosen weapon - the word. This was probably about round 6 of a 12 rounder between painting and theory. Up to this pont Theory had been winning The Painted Word round and it looked like painting was going to have to throw in the towel The Painted Word abandon The Painted Word title. Wolfe stepped into Painting's corner and this round was a decisive winner. Nobody seems to know what the final The Painted Word of the Championship bout was And as for Theory and Critics? Well, they are still there underpinned and supported The Painted Word the whole government-supported Art establishment and Art School hegemony attempting still to usurp the work of art for the description of the work of art - that is to hijack the artist by intellectualising something that is not - fundamentally - an intellectual process. View all 3 comments. Feb 15, Jenna rated it liked it. I'll need to hear other perspectives before The Painted Word can decide whether I'm wholly convinced by Wolfe's argument. His main argument is that Modern Art sucks because it is fueled more by Art Theory The Painted Word by the spirit of Art itself. He directs most of his satirical ammunition at the time period from Abstract Expressionism onward, arguing that during this epoch the Artists unwittingly became adjuncts of the Art Theorists, rather than the other way around the way it should be. Wolfe also tries to better d I'll need to hear other perspectives before I can decide whether I'm wholly convinced by Wolfe's argument. Wolfe also tries to better delineate the The Painted Word relationship between Art and Literature. In other words, Wolfe thinks modern artists, in their self-loathing, began to worshipand to try to imitateliterature of a sort: what Wolfe calls "the Word. THE PAINTED WORD | Kirkus Reviews

No question The Painted Word it, Tom Wolfe is speaking for the yahoos in this little essay—it appeared in its entirety in Harper's Magazine, and though the Art World will no doubt assiduously ignore Wolfe's Bronx cheers, a lot of ordinary philistines will say "Right on! But the theories, I insist were beautiful. But Greenberg The Painted Word of all, since it was he who supplied The Word without which Abstract Expressionism the dominant postwar style is incomprehensible. The essential principal which has informed contemporary art, says Wolfe, is flatness. The Painted Word effects are pre-modern; in fact they've been around since The Painted Word Renaissance. How to preserve "the integrity of the picture plane" and the disputes it engendered among the culturati were worthy of the how-many-angels-can- dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin debates of medieval scholasticism. Tout le monde, that is to say, a handful of collectors, curators and critics, had a field day. The public the public? The appeal of Wolfe's essay, for all its distortions and simplifications, and they are legion, comes from his very just observation that contemporary art has, by and sadly large, been smugly elitist, its market and its value defined by a small clique. Less easy to accept is Wolfe's claim that the pictures illustrate the texts; or, that an actual conspiracy exists between artist and critic. Wolfe understands the motives of a Rothko or a Stella or even a Pollock The Painted Word. And yet, his Populist blast against the reductivism of contemporary art from Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism to Conceptual Art-a process of eliminating more and more elements from the painting—is a shaft well-aimed—especially if you think that what's lacking is visual reward and emotional impact. A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise. Readers of the first volume—and followers The Painted Word the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human The Painted Word folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear The Painted Word homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonlyand the children often provide the most often unintended humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us The Painted Word hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again. A fascinating, major work that will spark endless debates. An epic cradle-to-grave biography of the king of pop art from Gopnik co-author: Warhol Women, who served as chief art critic for the Washington Post and the art and design critic for Newsweek. Already have an account? Log in. Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials. Sign Up. Review Posted Online: Oct. No Comments Yet. More by Tom Wolfe. Pub Date: Oct. Page Count: Publisher: St. More by Brandon Stanton. Review Posted Online: Dec. Show The Painted Word comments. More About This Book. Please sign up to continue. Almost there! Reader Writer Industry Professional. Send me weekly book recommendations and inside scoop. Keep The Painted Word logged in. Sign in using The Painted Word Kirkus account Sign in Keep me logged in. Need Help? Contact us: or email customercare kirkus. Please select an existing bookshelf OR Create a new bookshelf Continue. The Painted Word - Wikipedia

The Painted Word is a The Painted Word of art criticism by Tom Wolfe. By the s Wolfe was, according to Douglas Davis of Newsweek magazine "more of a celebrity than the celebrities he describes. In the midst of working on stories about the space program for Rolling Stone — stories that would eventually grow into the book The Right Stuff —Wolfe became interested in writing a book about modern art. As a The Painted Word, Wolfe had devoted much of his writing career to pursuing realism ; Wolfe read in Hilton Kramer 's Times review of Seven Realists, that "to lack a persuasive theory is to lack something crucial". Wolfe summarized the review saying that it meant "without a theory to go with it, I can't see a painting". Wolfe's thesis in The Painted Word was that by the s, modern art had moved away from being a visual experience, and more often was an illustration of art critics' theories. The main target of Wolfe's book, however, was not so The Painted Word the artists, as the critics. In particular, Wolfe criticized three prominent art critics whom he dubbed the kings of "Cultureburg": Clement GreenbergHarold Rosenberg and Leo Steinberg. Wolfe argued that these three men were dominating the world of The Painted Word with their theories and that, unlike the world of literature in which anyone can buy a book, the art world was controlled by an insular circle of rich collectors, museums and critics with outsized influence. Wolfe provides his own history of what he sees as the devolution of The Painted Word art. He summarized that history: "In the beginning we got rid of nineteenth-century storybook realism. Then we The Painted Word rid of representational objects. Then we got rid The Painted Word the third dimension altogether and got really flat Abstract Expressionism. Then we got rid of airiness, brushstrokes, The Painted Word of the paint, and the last viruses of drawing and complicated designs". After providing examples of other techniques and the schools that abandoned them, Wolfe concluded with Conceptual Art: "…there, at last, it was! No more realism, no more representation objects, no more lines, colors, forms, and contours, no more pigments, no more brushstrokes. Krauss in Partisan Review. Many reviewers dismissed Wolfe as someone simply too ignorant of art to write about it. Other critics responded with such similar vitriol and hostility that Wolfe said their response demonstrated that the art community only talked to each other. Wolfe was particularly amused, however, by a series of criticisms that resorted to "X-rated insults. The reviewer viewed Wolfe's lack of a suggestion for what should replace modern art as similar in its obtuseness to statements Linda Lovelace made about Deep Throat being a "kind of goof. In defense of critics Rosenberg, Greenberg, and The Painted Word, Rosalind Krauss noted that each man wrote about art "in ways that are entirely diverse. Wolfe's other non-fiction, Davis wrote, was deeply reported, but here "Wolfe did not get away from the typewriter and out into the thick of his subject. Outside the art community, some The Painted Word noted that however unpopular Wolfe's book may have been in art circles, many of his observations were essentially correct, particularly about the de-objectification of art and the rise of art theory. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Painted Word Ragen, Brian Abel Tom Wolfe; A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press. The Critical Response to Tom Wolfe. In Shomette Retrieved American Journal of Sociology. Partisan Review. Works by Tom Wolfe. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit The Painted Word portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. First edition.