The Painted Word
OCLC 39164533 | |
The Painted Word is a 1975 book of art criticism by Tom Wolfe.
Background
By the 1970s Wolfe was, according to
Prior to publication in book form, The Painted Word was excerpted in
Themes
Wolfe's thesis in The Painted Word was that by the 1970s,
Wolfe provided his own history of what he saw as the devolution of modern art. He summarized that history: "In the beginning we got rid of nineteenth-century storybook realism. Then we got rid of representational objects. Then we got rid of the third dimension altogether and got really flat (
Critical reception
"The Painted Word hit the art world like a really bad, MSG-headache-producing, Chinese lunch," wrote Rosalind E. Krauss in Partisan Review.[5] By ridiculing the most respected members of the art world establishment, Wolfe had ensured that the reaction to his book would be negative. Many reviewers dismissed Wolfe as someone simply too ignorant of art to write about it.[6][7]
Other critics responded with such similar vitriol and hostility that Wolfe said their response demonstrated that the art community only talked to each other. A review in
In defense of critics Rosenberg, Greenberg, and Steinberg, Rosalind Krauss noted that each man wrote about art "in ways that are entirely diverse."[5] Writing in Newsweek, Douglas Davis wrote that The Painted Word fails because of how it departed from Wolfe's previous works. 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."[1]
Outside the art community, some reviewers 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.[9]
References
- General
- Ragen, Brian Abel (2002). Tom Wolfe; A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-31383-0.
- Shomette, Doug (1992). The Critical Response to Tom Wolfe. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-27784-2.
- Specific
- ^ a b c Davis, Douglas (June 9, 1975). "Crying Wolfe". Newsweek. Vol. 88. In Shomette 1992.
- ^ Ragen 2002, pp. 22–23
- ^ "The Painted Word". tomwolfe.com. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
- doi:10.1086/226884. In Shomette 1992.
- ^ a b c Krauss, Rosalind (1975). "Café Criticism". Partisan Review. 42 (4): 629–33. In Shomette 1992.
- ^ Ragen 2002, pp. 23
- ^ Leder, Dennis (August 30, 1975). "The Painted Word". America. 133: 98–99. In Shomette 1992.
- ^ Ragen 2002, pp. 23–24
- ^ Shomette 1992, pp. xix–xx
External links
- Harper's excerpt of The Painted Word.