Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Public interest in modern art continues to grow, as witnessed by the spectacular success of the Tate Modern in London and the Bilbao Guggenheim. Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction engages general readers, offering them not only information and ideas about modern art, but also explaining its contemporary relevance and history. The book focuses on interrogating the idea of “modern” art by asking such questions as: What makes 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?” Cottingham 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). He also looks at the role of the dealer from the main Cubist art dealer Kahnweiler, to Charles Saatchi.
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(out of 2 reviews)
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Review by Odysseus for Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
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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+++++++
Review by Dr. Hugh C. Palfrey for Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
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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.