Signifying Art: Essays on Art after 1960

Contemporary Artists and Their Critics

by Marjorie Welish

Signifying Essays on Art after 1960 considers the work of a generation of "respondants" to the New York School, including Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Cy Twombly, who reintroduced pictorialism and verbal content in their paintings and assemblages. Their work, Marjorie Welish argues, often alludes to the history of art and culture. Also examined are the works of Minimal and Conceptual artists, particularly Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt, who sought to make objective and theoretical artifacts in response to the subjectivity that Abstract Expressionism had promoted. By interpreting the work of these artists in light of contemporary issues, Welish offers a fresh reevaluation of some of the major trends and production of postwar American painting.

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Marjorie Welish is a poet, artist, and art critic.

Welish is a graduate of Columbia University and received her M.F.A. degree from Vermont College and Norwich University. She is also a painter and is represented by Baumgartner Gallery (New York City) and Aaron Galleries (Chicago).