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The De-Definition of Art

"Like the great German critic Walter Benjamin, Rosenberg is a master of dialectics whose sense of art is continuous with his sense of society, and (also like Benjamin) bears no taint of compromised, out-of-work radicalism. Instead, his radicalism is very much at work, enabling him to spot and skewer fallacies, false logic and the camouflaged nudity that is a large part of the art emperor’s new wardrobe. [The De-definition of Art] detects with great sensitivity the forces that are deflecting and pressuring art in the direction of esthetic and moral nullity."—Jack Kroll, Newsweek

256 pages | 53 halftones | 5.25 x 8.00 | © 1983

Art: Art Criticism

Table of Contents

On the De-definition of Art
Part One - Art and Words
1. Redmen to Earthworks
2. De-aestheticization
3. Educating Artists
4. Surrealism in the Streets
5. Art and Words
Part Two - Artists
6. Pro-Art Dada
Jean Arp
7. Primitive à la Mode
Jean Dubuffet
8. Icon Maker
Barnett Newman
9. Rothko
10. Marilyn Mondrian
Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg
11. Young Masters, New Critics
Frank Stella
12. Liberation from Detachment
Philip Guston
Part Three - America and Europe
13. Europe en Route
14. Past Machines, Future Art
15. Paris Annexed
16. The Thirties
17. Ècole de New York
Part Four - The De-definition of Art
18. Confrontation
19. D.M.Z. Vanguardism
20. Keeping Up
21. The Museum Today
22. Set Out for Clayton!

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