Synopses & Reviews
In
What We Made, Tom Finkelpearl examines the activist, participatory, coauthored aesthetic experiences being created in contemporary art. He suggests social cooperation as a meaningful way to think about this work and provides a framework for understanding its emergence and acceptance. In a series of fifteen conversations, artists comment on their experiences working cooperatively, joined at times by colleagues from related fields, including social policy, architecture, art history, urban planning, and new media. Issues discussed include the experiences of working in public and of working with museums and libraries, opportunities for social change, the lines between education and art, spirituality, collaborative opportunities made available by new media, and the elusive criteria for evaluating cooperative art. Finkelpearl engages the art historians Grant Kester and Claire Bishop in conversation on the challenges of writing critically about this work and the aesthetic status of the dialogical encounter. He also interviews the often overlooked co-creators of cooperative art, andquot;expert participantsandquot; who have worked with artists. In his conclusion, Finkelpearl argues that pragmatism offers a useful critical platform for understanding the experiential nature of social cooperation, and he brings pragmatism to bear in a discussion of Houston's
Project Row Houses.
Interviewees. Naomi Beckwith, Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Brett Cook, Teddy Cruz, Jay Dykeman, Wendy Ewald, Sondra Farganis, Harrell Fletcher, David Henry, Gregg Horowitz, Grant Kester, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Pedro Lasch, Rick Lowe, Daniel Martinez, Lee Mingwei, Jonah Peretti, Ernesto Pujol, Evan Roth, Ethan Seltzer, and Mark Stern
Review
andquot;What We Made is a dialogical thick description of cooperative art practices from the point of view of practitioners and many insightful interlocutors. It will be an extremely valuable resource for artists, art historians, and museum professionals.andquot;
Review
andquot;In between histories, current art practices, and theories lies the conundrum: how to describe relational and public art and the many intentions of those involved. Tom Finkelpearl gives us perspectives from artistsand#39; on-the-ground experiences and a welcome revisiting of Dewey, contextualized by a sweeping introduction that alone is worth the price of the book.andquot;
Review
andldquo;These conversations by key practitioners and thinkers are a snapshot of thinking around the emergence of social and collaborative art, which seeks to improve society and address social issues. Finkelpearl ably situates collaborative and participatory art within the chronology of American art history.andrdquo;
Review
“This book gracefully dives headfirst into a seriously murky topic, using accessible language that, thankfully, doesn’t read like a textbook.” - Kirstin Wiegmann, What We Made
Review
andquot;What What We Made does, perhaps better than anything Iandrsquo;ve read so far about this particular kind of art, is utterly refrain from arriving at singular summaries or judgments. Instead, the conversations foreground the nuanced and complex social relations tied up in any artwork, but particularly collaborative artwork that draws on communities operating largely outside of the arts marketplace. And the projects Finkelpearl has chosen to discuss and feature by and large demonstrate real possibilities for genuine exchange across networks and communities.andquot;
Review
andldquo;What We Made is a good sourcebook of art that tackles and#160;politics through participation and collaboration. The and#160;authorandrsquo;s introduction provides a useful overview of the situation in contemporary America. . . .andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;What We Made brings together the stars of the social practice world Rick Lowe, Tania Bruguera, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Harrell Fletcher, and more in conversations with urban planners, educators, and each other, to create a fluid and interdisciplinary dialogue about social practice and its complicated, beautiful and necessary implications in the world.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Finkelpearl has provided his readers with a rich description of a particular, influential movement in the art museum world. This book illustrates his own commitment to social collaboration. By presenting the conversations that make up the core of this volume, he brings this aspect of the art museum world to a larger public.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Written in a lucid and readable style appropriate even for the novice student of surrealism, Tiny Surrealism excavates a different side to Dalandiacute;: that of the empathetic, stunningly perspicacious, and vulnerable man, who is always favoring the underdog. . . . Tiny Surrealism has great potential to serve as an introduction to Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s complex oeuvre.andrdquo;andmdash;Abigail Susik, Modernism/Modernity
Review
andquot;Tiny Surrealismand#160;is a solid, nuanced piece of scholarly inquiry. . . . Rothman offers a fresher perspective and a richer vocabulary to rethink Dalandiacute;and#39;s place in the surrealist universe.and#160;Tiny Surrealismand#160;successfully rescues Dalandiacute; from such unfair critical isolation and sheds overdue light on the intricacies of such a multidimensional artist.andquot;andmdash;Pablo Baler,and#160;Hispania
Review
andquot;Undergraduates and general audiences will find distinct new approaches to the well-known but inadequately analyzed artist Dalandiacute;. Rothmanand#39;s book opens pathways to insert Dalandiacute; into the scholarly discourses surrounding modern art.andquot;andmdash;Choice
Review
andldquo;Rothmanandrsquo;s book is a creative, readable, and invigorating reevaluation of the early career of Salvador Dalandiacute;, one of the most recognizable figures in twentieth century art and intellectual history, yet also one of the most vexing and misunderstood. . . . Rothmanandrsquo;s discussions of Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s texts and paintings are consistently enlightening and provocative, and the book promises to make a substantive impact in the fields of modernism and surrealism.andrdquo;andmdash;Jonathan Eburne, author ofand#160;Surrealism and the Art of Crime
Review
andldquo;The strength of this studyandmdash;in fact, its undeniable contribution to our knowledge of Dalandiacute;andmdash;lies in its very detailed and comprehensive expositionandmdash;indeed the close and quite perceptive analysis of the andlsquo;little things,andrsquo; as they emerge in Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s early works. . . .and#160;Tiny Surrealism is a valuable contribution to a more comprehensive understanding of Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s art and aesthetics.andrdquo;andmdash;Haim Finkelstein, author ofand#160;Salvador Dalandiacute;and#39;s Art and Writing, 1927andndash;1942
Synopsis
What We Made presents a series of fifteen conversations in which contemporary artists who create activist, participatory work discuss the cooperative process. Colleagues from fields including architecture, art history, urban planning, and new media join the conversations.
Synopsis
Though one of the most popular artists of the twentieth century, Salvador Dalandiacute; is typically seen as peripheral to the dominant practices of modernist painting. Roger Rothmanandrsquo;s Tiny Surrealism argues that this marginal position is itself a coherent response to modernism. It demonstrates how Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s practice was organized around the logic of the inconsequential by focusing on Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s identification with things that are literally tiny (ants, sewing needles, breadcrumbs, blackheads, etc.) as well as those that are metaphorically small (the trivial, the weak, the superficial, and the anachronistic). In addition to addressing the imagery of Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s paintings, Tiny Surrealism demonstrates that the logic of the small was a fundamental factor in Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s adherence to the techniques of miniaturist illusionism. Long derided as antimodernist and kitsch, Rothman demonstrates that Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s style was itself a strategy of the small aimed at subverting the dominant values of modern painting.
Tiny Surrealismand#160;does not only examine Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s pictorial work; it also probes the artistandrsquo;s many public pronouncements and private correspondences. By attending to the peculiarities of Dalandiacute;andrsquo;s technique and examining overlooked aspects of his writings, Tiny Surrealism is the first study to detail his deliberate subversion of modernist orthodoxies.
About the Author
Tom Finkelpearl is Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art. He is the author of Dialogues in Public Art.