Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock » (New Edition)

Kirk Varnedoe(1946-2003) was Professor of Art History at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 2001 until his death. From 1989 to 2001 he was chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For many years he taught at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. His many books and exhibition catalogues include "A Fine Disregard: What Makes Modern Art Modern" and, with Adam Gopnik, "High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture".

"Varnedoe was an especially distinguished and influential curator and interpreter of modern art, and this book, in effect, is his last testament. It is in the analysis of specific works of art or bodies of work by a specific artist that Varnedoe shines, reflecting his long career of intimate study of art objects. He is commenting on some of the most challenging of artists, the likes of Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and other innovators in abstraction of various kinds. There are some truly refreshing moments where Varnedoe has the courage of his convictions and explains why one artist of merit should receive more of our attention than another artist of merit-in effect, distinguishing between greater and lesser merit, rather than just good or bad."--Richard Shiff, University of Texas

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Pictures of Nothing examines how, while names like Pollock, Mondrian and de Kooning are immediately recognized for their significance in modern culture, the importance of depicting squares or splattered paint is not as widely understood. With humor and candor, Varnedoe illuminates the meaning behind nonrepresentational works of the past 50 years—the contradictory intentions of Josef Albers's and Carl Andre's shared geometry or the minute artistic details of Robert Smithson's massive Spiral Jetty.

Foreword by Earl A. Powell III vii Preface by Adam Gopnik ix Note to the Reader by Judy Metro xvii Chapter 1: Why Abstract Art? 1
Chapter 2: Survivals and Fresh Starts 47
Chapter 3: Minimalism 91
Chapter 4: After Minimalism 145
Chapter 5: Satire, Irony, and Abstract Art 191
Chapter 6: Abstract Art Now 239
Acknowledgments 275
Index 277
Photography and Copyright Credits 287