The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society

by Lucy R. Lippard

In the Lure of the Local, Lucy R. Lippard, one of America's most influential art writers, weaves together cultural studies, history, geography, photography, and contemporary public art to provide a fascinating exploration of our multiple senses of place. Expanding her reach far beyond the confines of the art world, she discusses community, land use, perceptions of natures, how we produce the landscape, and how the landscape affects our lives.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Essays, Geography, Architecture, Space

328 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

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

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this bad boy up at the museumstore at SF Moma. It is a handsome, weighty book, with a beautiful, interesting cover. The book made a good impression on me.
My wife and I decided to buy this book because we have been interested in the theme of "landscape as witness". This is a concept we read about in Nancy Spector's accompanying essay in the Cremaster Cycle Guggeinheim museum catalog. Basically, the idea as it is expressed in Barney interpreted by Spector is that the landscape is a character in the narrative created by art.

As a brief survey of Amazon.com will reveal, Lippard is a well regarded writer on art. Honestly, I'd never heard of her before. This could have something to do with me not being intimately familiar with the New York City art scene or otherwise involved with the art world except as an occasional museum goer. Art is sort of at the periphery of my set of interests.

None the less, I found this a comprehensive, at times brilliant, survey of both artistic theories about the concept of place as well as a thorough documentation of the specific expressions of these theories in art work. Lippard's scope of reading and breadth of knowledge about art all over the United States (this book is entirely about the U.S.) is nothing short of stunning.

The actual form of the book is a little difficult to explain, The book has a five part structure, each part with a title: Around Here, Manipulating Memory, Down to Earth: Land Use, The Last Frontiers: City and Suburbs and Looking Around. Each of these parts contains sub-chapters that are titled with various aspects of the five parts. Lippard's style is basically to situate each chapter with a brief survey of what other writers have said about the "subject", followed by a description of different acts of arts intermingled with commentary. Each of the pages also contains images with substantive critical passages. Along the top of each page, there is a running essay about the author's experiences growing up in Maine.

I found her work to be fairly comprehensive: Although she has end notes and a thorough bibliography, I found myself doubting that any of them so totally nailed the relationship between art and the concept of place.

If the author or her representatives are reading this, I would recommend updating this book in another couple of years.

Lippard is a self-declared liberal. Although I did not always agree with her analysis, I admired the manner in which she was able to outline her bias in a non-intrusive way. She could be more forceful with her arguments. I don't think anybody could begrudge her opinions.

[kate harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The lure of the local is not always about home as an expressive place, a place of origin and return. Sometimes it is about the illusion of home, as a memory. If place is defined by memory, but no one who remembers is left to bring these memories to the surface, does a place become a noplace, or only a landscape? What if there are people with memories but no-one to transmit them to? Are their memories invalidated by being unspoken? Are they still valuable to others with a less personal connection?"

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Lucy

[PJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

How could I have forgotten this one, one of my all-time favorites, it's surely helped to steer my life and my worldview since first reading it in college.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Place
More Senses
More Fun

[Makayla Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read! This is a book I selected to read for my thesis. Lippard paints a beautiful narrative that blends together personal story, scholarship, and photography. This is a braided narrative about space and place and what it means to experience and engage with the landscapes that become places and spaces we visit and exist within. A lovely read that has left me with many things—thoughts and questions about what it means to be in the local and be lured by it.

[Shauna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible!!!!! If you have any interest in place this is a top read.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I feel smarter reading Lucy Lippard. She is a force and source of so much.

[Rhea]

Lucy Lippard mentions FAWI, Franco-American Women's Institute, in this volume.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library and I plan to have it on my to buy list.
The author...Lucy Lipppard... writes theory in an accessible way. She also wrote a nice book I have lit=stedd about the work of artist Eva Hesse.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enlightening exploration on the idea of 'place' using cartography, identity and nomadism as (some of the) points of reference. Written with an art-critical standpoint, this book is as enjoyable as it is nicely laid out - punctuated with good imagery and great formatting.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Key concepts that can be applied wherever.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

After all the reviews, I was so disappointed.
Just too dated, and too American-centric.