L'informe. Istruzioni per l'uso

by Yve-Alain Bois, Rosalind E. Krauss, Elio Grazioli (Translator)

In queste pagine Bois e Krauss costruiscono la mappa della persistenza dell'informe nella storia del Modernismo, che ha sempre cercato di reprimerlo per privilegiare la supremazia della forma, e verificano il suo destino nella recente produzione artistica. Utilizzano e analizzano l'informe non come un tema, ma come uno strumento operazionale, strumento la cui capacita' strutturale e' sempre stata negata appunto a favore di un'interpretazione tematica dell'arte e della sua storia.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Philosophy, Theory, Essays, History

261 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1997

Reviews

[Lauren Klotz · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is basically my bible.

[Michael Braithwaite · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard enough to understand l'art informel when fucking Bataille talks about it, but it's even more difficult to get it here. I'm not convinced that Bois himself understands what the formless is. It's definition is everything thing that it is NOT, to the point that the formless seems to in fact be nothing other than a vague impression of the potentiality for some sort of subversion or declassification...

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, it's by Bois and Rosalind E. Krauss. Modern art reassessed thru Bataille. The book borrows the fake-dictionary form used in Bataille's avant-garde journal Documents: half of the entries are by Krauss, half are by Bois. I like Krauss's way better. Lots of overlap w/ Krauss's The Optical Unconscious, but not in a bad way.

[Sari]

Great for referencing in historical & critical studies essays to clear up argumentation, need to remember to look back into this one come dissertation time.

[Maegan McCoy]

"Furthermore, it is our position that the formless has its own legacy to fulfill, its own destiny — which is partly that of liberating our thinking from the semantic, the servitude to themataics, to which abject art seems so thoroughly indentured."

I'm still not entirely sure what the "formless" is, but it was an interesting read. It was recommended to me by one of my professors some time ago, and I can see how he was influenced by it, particularly the last chapter. The conclusion mentions Satre's "visqueux" (slimy), which my professor wrote a book on, as well as Mike Kelley, who was his professor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

I have tried to read this book before, but as a poorly scanned pdf, so I made no progress. I have not read Bataille, so this book is my only impression of him. I was intimidated at first, but beyond the philosophical language, it is mainly about shit, sex, and death, but isn't everything?

[Barry Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used this book a lot in my history of art dissertation, which was based around Bataille's theory of the formless but I applied it to Young British Art. You really cannot get any better than Bois and Krauss on this subject, even if at some points of this book you wonder whether even they fully understand what Bataille was talking about.

[Ami Furness · Rating 5 out of 5]

read 2 chapters this morning (liquid words and uncanny) in relation to eltit and errázuriz. really fantastic- want to go back and read more on salcedo, and just in general on the concepts explored to do with art & debunking of modernism etc. a la Bataille, post-exams.

[Lisetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per chi ama l'arte contemporanea, questo libro sar�� esemplare di una condizione artistica che procede verso l'informe, la forma non forma. In funzione di una messa in discussione delle sue stesse fondamenta radicate in una tradizione che non c'�� pi��......

[Jeremy Wineberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

bataille, the base, and the horizontal . . . oh, my. this is the most intriguing dictionary i own and a constant source of devious enlightenment.

[Garek Druss]

college book, still use it as a reference though.
totally dirt

[Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

used this book writing my BA thesis, it is very insightful. both authors are experts on both modern art and philosophy.

[Egor xS · Rating 5 out of 5]

You say tour de force, I say insane, hilarious, seditious. If the authors worked on this some fifteen years, they must have had a lot of fun.

[RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable text for rethinking modernism and the avant-garde. Highly recommended.