A Decade of Negative Thinking
Essays on Art, Politics, and Daily Life
Published on 25. January 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-0-8223-4602-9 (ISBN)
Description
A Decade of Negative Thinking brings together writings on contemporary art and culture by the painter and feminist art theorist Mira Schor. Mixing theory and practice, the personal and the political, she tackles questions about the place of feminism in art and political discourse, the aesthetics and values of contemporary painting, and the influence of the market on the creation of art. Schor writes across disciplines and is committed to the fluid interrelationship between a formalist aesthetic, a literary sensibility, and a strongly political viewpoint. Her critical views are expressed with poetry and humor in the accessible language that has been her hallmark, and her perspective is informed by her dual practice as a painter and writer and by her experience as a teacher of art.In essays such as "The ism that dare not speak its name," "Generation 2.5," "Like a Veneer," "Modest Painting," "Blurring Richter," and "Trite Tropes, ClichEs, or the Persistence of Styles," Schor considers how artists relate to and represent the past and how the art market influences their choices: whether or not to disavow a social movement, to explicitly compare their work to that of a canonical artist, or to take up an exhausted style. She places her writings in the rich transitory space between the near past and the "nextmodern." Witty, brave, rigorous, and heartfelt, Schor's essays are impassioned reflections on art, politics, and criticism.
Reviews / Votes
"Mira Schor reminds us that some of the best, and most eye-opening, writing on art has always been made by artists themselves. The essays in A Decade of Negative Thinking demolish countless widely held assumptions about contemporary art, and do so with a compelling blend of skepticism and passion."-Raphael Rubinstein, author of Polychrome Profusion: Selected Art Criticism, 1990-2002 "This collection of essays by one of the most engaging writers of contemporary art critically excavates and redefines the enduring questions in aesthetics and politics with extraordinary verve and urgency."-Gunalan Nadarajan, Vice Provost for Research, Maryland Institute College of Art "An excellent new book. . . ." - Holland Cotter (New York Times) "Witty and lucid, showing that she's a believer in art's power, despite all the naysaying." - David O'Neill (Bookforum) "Schor is both an artist and a writer, maybe the perfect person to consider in this search for uncorrupt, valuable criticism. In her excellent book A Decade of Negative Thinking, she describes anonymous online commenting as the worst possible type of criticism, because it almost always falls into what she calls the 'sucks/bullshit' mode. (Ah, yup.) If you're looking for the opposite of that, pick up the book." - Jen Graves (The Stranger) "Schor stakes out her own distinctive critical territory at the intersections of imagination and practice, concept and craft, anger and hope, humor and gravity. . . . It's refreshing to accompany Schor as she look sat and opines on the state of culture. As she concludes in the book's final essay, two qualities an artist can use to escape the trap of recipe art are 'necessity , and having something to say with an investment in the formal means you use to say it.' Schor has both." - Kathleen Rooney (Bitch) "The essays collected in A Decade of Negative Thinking present lucid, highly engaged and engaging reflections on the politics, rhetoric and political economy of artistic practice." - Matt Davies (Visual Studies)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
53 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
839 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8223-4602-9 (9780822346029)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2010
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€208.99
Available for download
Person
Mira Schor is a painter, writer, and teacher living in New York. She is the author of Wet: On Painting, Feminism, and Art Culture and an editor of The Extreme of the Middle: The Writings of Jack Tworkov (forthcoming) and M/E/A/N/I/N/G: An Anthology of Artists' Writings, Theory, and Criticism, also published by Duke University Press. Schor is a recipient of the College Art Association's Frank Jewett Mather Award in Art Criticism.
Content
Preface
Introduction
Part 1:She Said, She Said: Feminist Debates, 1971-2009
The ism that dare not speak its name
Anonymity as a Political Tactic: Art Blogs, Feminism, Writing, and Politics
Generation 2.5
Email to a Young Woman Artist
The Womanhouse Films
Miss Elizabeth Bennett Goes to Feminist Boot Camp
Part 2:Painting
Some Notes on Women and Abstraction and a Curious Case History: Alice Neel as a Great Abstract Painter
Like a Veneer
Modest Painting
Blurring Richter
Off the Grid: Weather Conditions in Lower Manhattan, September 11, 2001 to October 2, 2001
Part 3:Trite Tropes
Trite Tropes, ClichEs, or the Persistence of Styles
Recipe Art
Work and Play
New Tales of Scheherazade
Appendix: Work document: Grey
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Part 1:She Said, She Said: Feminist Debates, 1971-2009
The ism that dare not speak its name
Anonymity as a Political Tactic: Art Blogs, Feminism, Writing, and Politics
Generation 2.5
Email to a Young Woman Artist
The Womanhouse Films
Miss Elizabeth Bennett Goes to Feminist Boot Camp
Part 2:Painting
Some Notes on Women and Abstraction and a Curious Case History: Alice Neel as a Great Abstract Painter
Like a Veneer
Modest Painting
Blurring Richter
Off the Grid: Weather Conditions in Lower Manhattan, September 11, 2001 to October 2, 2001
Part 3:Trite Tropes
Trite Tropes, ClichEs, or the Persistence of Styles
Recipe Art
Work and Play
New Tales of Scheherazade
Appendix: Work document: Grey
Notes
Bibliography
Index