Synopses & Reviews
Newsweek calls him andldquo;exhilarating and deeply engaging.andrdquo;
Time Out New York calls him andldquo;smart, provocative, and a great writer.andrdquo; Critic Peter Schjeldahl, meanwhile, simply calls him andldquo;My hero.andrdquo; Thereandrsquo;s no one in the art world quite like Dave Hickeyandmdash;and a new book of his writing is an event.
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25 Women will not disappoint. The book collects Hickeyandrsquo;s best and most important writing about female artists from the past twenty years. But this is far more than a compilation: Hickey has revised each essay, bringing them up to date and drawing out common themes. Written in Hickeyandrsquo;s trademark styleandmdash;accessible, witty, and powerfully illuminatingandmdash;25 Women analyzes the work of Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley, Fiona Rae, Lynda Benglis, Karen Carson, and many others. Hickey discusses their work as work, bringing politics and gender into the discussion only where it seems warranted by the art itself. The resulting book is not only a deep engagement with some of the most influential and innovative contemporary artists, but also a reflection on the life and role of the critic: the decisions, judgments, politics, and ethics that critics negotiate throughout their careers in the art world.
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Always engaging, often controversial, and never dull, Dave Hickey is a writer who gets people excitedandmdash;and talkingandmdash;about art. 25 Women will thrill his many fans, and make him plenty of new ones.
Review
andquot;One of the most interesting books anyone has ever written about women artists. There is no bogus effort to find strained and#39;commonalitiesand#39; or and#39;shared sensibilities.and#39; Each artist is absolutely and#39;completeand#39; in and of herself. There is stunning and polymathic erudition, connoisseurship and theoretical nous here, but one must also cherish the book for the endless, morphing, sparking, sparkling ideas taking shape on every page. and#160;Itand#39;s as if someone were setting off exciting little squibs in almost every sentence--fun for sure, but often with an extraordinary pay-off: so many of them blossom into huge beautiful fireworks that then proceed to hang up there in the sky. The charmed voice never wearies or disappoints.andquot;
Review
andquot;It will raise a hackle or two,andnbsp; not least among hacks.andquot;
Synopsis
The 23 essays (or love songs) that make up the now classic volume Air Guitar trawl a vast, invisible underground empire of pleasure, through record stores, honky-tonks, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and hot-rod stores, as restlessly on the move as the America they depict. Air Guitar pioneered a kind of plain-talking in cultural criticism, willingly subjective and always candid and direct. A valuable reading tool for art lovers, neophytes, students and teachers alike, Hickey's book--now in its third edition--has galvanized a generation of art lovers, with new takes on Norman Rockwell, Robert Mapplethorpe, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol and Perry Mason. In June 2009, Newsweek voted Air Guitar one of the top 50 books that open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways, and described the book as a seamless blend of criticism, personal history, and a deep appreciation for the sheer nuttiness of American life.
Dave Hickey (born 1939) is one of today's most revered and widely read art writers. He has written for Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum and Vanity Fair among many others.
About the Author
Dave Hickeyand#160;writes cultural criticism. He is former executive editor ofand#160;Art in America and the author of Air Guitar. He has served as a contributing editor for the Village Voiceand#160;and as the arts editor of theand#160;Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is now a professor of English at the University of Nevadaand#8211;Las Vegas.
Table of Contents
A Ladiesandrsquo; Man Introduction
Alexis Smith My Pal Alex
Joan Mitchell Epigramata
Lynda Benglis Fire on the Water
Vija Celmins The Path Itself
Pia Fries The Remains of Today
Fiona Banner The Beauty of Our Weapons
Sarah Charlesworth Embracing the Beast
Mary Heilman Surfing on Acid
Jennifer Steinkamp Breathing in the World
Michelle Fierro Beauty Marks
Bridget Riley Not Knowing
Bridget Riley II For Americans
Elizabeth Murray Dancing in the Dark
Karen Carson Sophisticate
Ann Hamilton Thinking Things Through
Vanessa Beecroft Painted Ladies
Roni Horn She Resembles Herself
Fiona Rae Good after the Good Is Gone
Barbara Bloom Barbara Blooms
Sharon Ellis Modest Ecstasy
Hung Liu The Polity of Immigrants
Teresita Fernandaacute;ndez Tropical Scholarship
Nancy Rubins The Rapture and the Tsunami
Elizabeth Peyton At the Princeandrsquo;s Chateau