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Description
The fourth and final installment in Irving Sandler’s series on contemporary art, Art of the Postmodern Era surveys the artists, works, movements, and ideas as well as the social and cultural context of this energetic and turbulent period in art. The book begins with the late 1960s, when new directions in art emerged, ranging from diverse postminimal styles to pattern and decoration painting and new image painting. In turn, the 1980s ushered in a second wave of new movements—neoexpressionism, media deconstruction, and commodity art. Sandler also discusses postmodernist art theory, the art market, and consumer society, providing an essential framework for understanding the art of this period. Unlike his previous books, Art of the Postmodern Era includes both American and European artists.
About the Author
Irving Sandler, professor of art history at the State University of New York at Purchase, was born in New York City and educated in Philadelphia. He is the author of a multivolume history of American art since 1945, books on Alex Katz, Al Held, Mark di Suvero, and numerous exhibition catalogs, articles, and reviews.
“The very real and rare strength of this book is that Sandler consistently presents multiple and often conflicting interpretations of the art, thus leading the reader to active engagement of the issues it represents. The bibliography is impressive and very useful, as are the notes for each chapter.… A splendid compendium of the art and ideas of the last thirty years.”
— Choice
“Comprehensive, fluent and invaluable.”
— The Booklist
“For the past five decades, Irving Sandler has served as our premier chronicler of postwar American art.… Sandler has rendered all those interested in contemporary art a great service by compiling a vast amount of information into a lively and readable format. Art of the Postmodern Era is the capstone of a prodigious achievement. Sandler has looked, listened and read well, and we are the richer for it.”
— Eleanor Heartney, Art in America
“His lengthy but informative new book charts the tremendous diversity of the counterculture decades, defining both the myriad art movements and the fascinating ups and downs of squabbling theoreticians.… This major survey is lucid, sympathetic, exhaustive, and generally objective, whether speaking of political correctness, money and fashion, or explicit sexual taboos as art. Endnotes are lengthy and important. Highly recommended.”
— Library Journal
“Sandler completes his four-volume history of art since 1945 with a brisk tour of recent American and European art that is admirable in its overview and detail. He treats not only the art but also the peculiarities of the art market and postmodern theory.”
— The Chicago Tribune
“His seminal series on contemporary art is also comprehensive, fluent, and invaluable. Sandler’s own experiences as a painter enable him to articulate the creative sensibility as well as explain the context and inspirations for the various aesthetic eruptions that define this cynical and contrary era.… As Sandler illuminates the work of such controversial figures as Bruce Naumann, Vito Acconci, Eric Fischl, and Judy Chicago, he ultimately clarifies the significance of the entire bewildering era.”
— Donna Seaman, The Booklist
“The Tacitus of postwar art.… The new volume has all the familiar Sandler trademarks: It is lucid, thorough and highly informative. Moreover, it rises above partisan interests.”
— The Wall Street Journal
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