Stuff: Instead of a Memoir

by Lucy R. Lippard

Colorfully written and illustrated memoir of the activist art writer Lucy Lippard

Instead of a Memoir is a short, abundantly illustrated autobiography of the American art writer, activist, and sometime curator Lucy R. Lippard. Describing tchotchkes, photographs, and art in her unpretentious New Mexico home, the author informally narrates key events and relationships in her 86-year-long, highly creative life, starting with her family roots and her childhood in New York, Louisiana, Virginia, and Maine. Through anecdotal and often humorous memories, we follow the author through her youth, adulthood, relationships, and her thirty-five years in New York City, where she organized dozens of exhibitions, authored hundreds of articles, and co-founded A Feminist Journal of Art and Politics , the artist's-book center Printed Matter, and activist artists group PAD/D. Lippard touches on the roles she played in Conceptual Art and the Feminist Art movement in the 1960s through the 1980s. Her accounts of more recent years focus on the art, landscape, culture, and communities of the American Southwest, where she moved in the early 1990s. This “anti-memoir” also mentions Lippard’s twenty-five books, but few of her many honors.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir

144 pages, Hardcover

Published September 12, 2023

About the author

Since 1966, Lippard has published 20 books on feminism, art, politics and place and has received numerous awards and accolades from literary critics and art associations. A 2012 exhibition on her seminal book, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object at the Brooklyn Museum, titled "Six Years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art", cites Lippard's scholarship as its point of entry into a discussion about conceptual art during its era of emergence, demonstrating her crucial role in the contemporary understanding of this period of art production and criticism. Her research on the move toward dematerialization in art making has formed a cornerstone of contemporary art scholarship and discourse.

Co-founder of Printed matter (an art bookstore in New York City centered around artist's books), the Heresies Collective, Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D), Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, and other artists' organizations, she has also curated over 50 exhibitions, done performances, comics, guerrilla theater, and edited several independent publications the latest of which is the decidedly local La Puente de Galisteo in her home community in Galisteo, New Mexico. She has infused aesthetics with politics, and disdained disinterestedness for ethical activism.

Reviews

[Tara Cignarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Format Read: Ebook from NetGalley (Available 9/12/23)
Review: This was very much also a history book or a memoir with a lot of great photos. A very person account of the authors life that I enjoyed but will be enjoyed more by those who know her or are closer in age to her and may have lived similar experiences.
Recommended For: Those who want a historical memoir… also this will be a way more beautiful book in print then ebook.

[Sarah Fishburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. From the title ~ Stuff: Instead of a Memoir ~ I imagined a book filled to its margins with detailed photos of the author’s collections, objects, arrangements, decor. I hoped for a feast of a book to relish; light on captions, heavy on eye candy. There are certainly a number of photographs scattered throughout but most are small, and generally totally overwhelmed by verbiage heavy pages, verbiage that smacks of memoir. For those close to the author, her stories are probably meaningful and memorable but they did not capture my interest. Because I initially read on Net Galley I decided to give it a second look ~ an actual physical copy at my library in case I was missing out on some publishing nuance that would change my opinion. My opinion is the same. However, if you prefer traditional memoirs with a plenitude of names and dates and chronological event sequencing, you may like it. Three stars because I do appreciate big square books.

[Rhiannon Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the publisher



Imagine walking through your home and telling the stories behind all of your belongings. I love hearing about people's special connections with different items and I found this "anti-memoir" so interesting. I read this on my color tablet so was able to see the photos and illustrations, but this book really should be experienced in its physical form.


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[Belle]

I think I must have misunderstood what this book was meant to be. I really thought this was going to be a unique take on a normal memoir, with tonnes of pictures and little text, with the pictures of "stuff" telling the story... It's actually just a normal, short autobiography with photos added and still plenty to read. I didn't read it as it's not for me but I did appreciate how each image was numbered and you could easily find it within the story.

[Alix · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a treasure this book is! A ramble through someone's life and memories - all punctuated with the pictures of objects (and art) that comprise a life. Lippard's narrative is easy to read. It's like you're sitting in her living room while she tells you the stories of her life. (Her grandsons, and their children, will appreciate this later!)

It's funny how many people in this world collect rocks from their life's adventures.

[Rhonda Lomazow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true gem of a book by the artist Lucy R.Lippard.Sharing with us her memories opening her home featuring Thecutest objects in it her collections as someone who loves to peek in to people’s private possessions read about their histories this was a unique fantastic read.#netgalley #stuff

[Joni Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this whole book fascinating! The author’s even most ordinary item/story had me entranced. What an extraordinary person and life well lived! Great concept for a non-memoir memoir.

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book was like listening to a favorite aunt tell stories about their life.

[Gabe Kalmuss-Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s like sitting down for a slideshow about Lucy Lippard’s life, which i will always be down for