Art's Prospect: The Challenge of Tradition in an Age of Celebrity

by Roger Kimball

Overview

Observing our contemporary culture, the distinguished critic Roger Kimball sees that the avant-garde assault on tradition has long since degenerated into a sclerotic orthodoxy. He finds that the "cutting edge," as defined by the established tastemakers, turns out time and again to be a stale remainder of past impotence. And he locates a pretense that the traditional is the enemy rather than a springboard to originality. In Art's Prospect, Mr. Kimball observes that most of the really invigorating action in the art world today is a quiet affair. It takes place not at the Tate Modern in London or at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, not in the Chelsea or TriBeCa galleries but off to one side, out of the limelight. It usually involves not the latest thing but permanent things—they can be new or old, but their relevance is measured not by the buzz they create but by silences they inspire. With reviews and essays composed over the last twenty years and revised for this book, Art's Prospect illuminates some of the chief spiritual itineraries of modern art. It provides, in Mr. Kimball's words, "a collage whose elements, when seen from one perspective, add up to a diagnosis of a malady, and, when seen from another perspective, offer hints of where effective remedies can be found."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566635097
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	07/28/2003
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 8.66(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

Roger Kimball is managing editor of the New Criterion and an art critic for the London Spectator. His other books include Lives of the Mind, Experiments Against Reality, The Long March, and Tenured Radicals. He lives in South Norwalk, Connecticut.

What People are Saying About This

John Gross

A trenchant and courageous critic...his positive values and his historical grasp make him far more than a mere polemicist.

Gertrude Himmelfarb

One of the most candid and perceptive critics of American culture.

Editorial Reviews

An approach that, in many ways, I very much enjoy.

Artschuttlebutt.Com - Keith Russell

Kimball's art reviews are lucid mini-educations in the exercise of taste.

The Tennessean

Roger Kimball of the New Criterion is at it again, for which throughtful readers should be grateful.

First Things

A trenchant and courageous critic...his positive values and his historical grasp make him far more than a mere polemicist.

John Gross

In a penetrating and often hilarious series of articles he takes on what he considers the 'hucksterism' of both artists and museum directors....Kimbell never tries to hide his stripes. The result is lively and informative.

Kliatt - Nancy Chaplin

A scathing critic but one whose tirades are usually justified...his intellectual rigor is refreshing.

The New York Times - Catherine Saint Louis

His positions are not always predictable but are consistently well argued.

Cybereditions Critics Series

There is much to be learned and enjoyed in these stimulating, provocative, and elegant essays.

Paul Johnson

One of the ablest and most philosophically skilled critics on the current scene.

Frederick Morgan

One of the most candid and perceptive critics of American culture.

Gertrude Himmelfarb

Witty, insightful, and inciting compilation of twenty years of art reviews.... Kimball's opinions have an appealing candor, and, delivered in a lively colloquial style, make for engaging, intelligent reading.

Art Scope

Kimball knows his business.... His reviews make me hungry to see what I've missed.

The Weekly Standard

An approach that, in many ways, I very much enjoy.
— Keith Russell

Artschuttlebutt.com

A scathing critic but one whose tirades are usually justified...his intellectual rigor is refreshing.
— Catherine Saint Louis

The New York Times

An approach that, in many ways, I very much enjoy.
— Keith Russell

Artschuttlebutt.Com

A scathing critic but one whose tirades are usually justified...his intellectual rigor is refreshing.
— Catherine Saint Louis

New York Times

Kimball knows his business.... His reviews make me hungry to see what I've missed.

Weekly Standard

A scathing critic but one whose tirades are usually justified...his intellectual rigor is refreshing.
— Catherine Saint Louis

New York Times Book Review

There is much to be learned and enjoyed in these stimulating, provocative, and elegant essays.

Paul Michael Johnson

Roger Kimball addresses a host of artistic topics in this collection of short pieces; he reviews specific shows, discusses major critics, and explores major artists. He is strongest when praising or informing; when he attacks those he disagrees with, he depends too heavily on arch sarcasm. However, whether Kimball is lauding or slicing, Christopher Lane always shapes his narration to fit. In fact, Lane seems to take particular pleasure in performing the more conversational style Kimball uses in the negative pieces, pausing to let choice words sink in and hammering home selected ridiculous quotations from contemporary theory. The resulting synthesis of narrator and text is highly entertaining. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

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