Abstraction

Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art

by Maria Lind (Editor)

An examination of contemporary art's engagement with three modes of abstraction. This anthology reconsiders crucial aspects of abstraction's resurgence in contemporary art, exploring three equally significant strategies explored in current formal abstraction, economic abstraction, and social abstraction. In the 1960s, movements as diverse as Latin American neo-concretism, op art and “eccentric abstraction” disrupted the homogeneity, universality, and rationality associated with abstraction. These modes of abstraction opened up new forms of engagement with the phenomenal world as well as the possibility of diverse readings of the same forms, ranging from formalist and transcendental to socio-economic and conceptual. In the 1980s, the writings of Peter Halley, Fredric Jameson, and others considered an increasingly abstracted world in terms of its economic, social, and political conditions—all of which were increasingly manifested through abstract codes or sites of style. Such economic abstraction is primarily addressed in art through subject or theme, but Deleuze and Guattari's notion of art as abstract machine opens up possibilities for art's role in the construction of a new kind of social reality. In more recent art, a third strand of abstraction a form of social abstraction centered on the strategy of withdrawal. Social abstraction implies stepping aside, a movement away from the mainstream, suggesting the possibilities for art to maneuver within self-organized, withdrawn initiatives in the field of cultural production. Artists surveyed
Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Amilcar de Castro, Paul Cézanne, Lygia Clark, Kajsa Dahlberg, Stephan Dillemuth, Marcel Duchamp, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Günther Förg, Liam Gillick, Ferreira Gullar, Jean Hélion, Eva Hesse, Jakob Jakobsen, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Wassily Kandinsky, Sol LeWitt, Piet Mondrian, Bruce Nauman, Hélio Oiticica, Blinky Palermo, Lygia Pape, Mai-Thu Perret, Jackson Pollock, Tobias Rehberger, Bridget Riley, Emily Roysden, Lucas Samaras, Julian Stanczak, Frank Stella, Hito Steyerl, Theo van Doesburg Writers
Alfred H. Barr Jr., Ina Blom, Lynne Cooke, Anthony Davies, Judi Freeman, Peter Halley, Brian Holmes, Joe Houston, Fredric Jameson, Lucy R. Lippard, Sven Lütticken, Nina Möntmann, Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, Catherine Quéloz, Gerald Raunig, Irit Rogoff, Meyer Schapiro, Kirk Varnedoe, Stephan Zepke

Genres: Art

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2013

Reviews

[sam howie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great and a lot gained despite it seeming to have a few fillers, however, I must admit, having read a bunch of others from this series, I did have extremely high hopes as this is my field and the book I was waiting for. Regardless, still plenty in there I hadn't read before which were well worth the read.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very glad to have read a couple of the essays but, as with any anthology, many I did not appreciate or did not really understand. But the collection has led me to some other worthwhile reading.

[D.W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most important for the Brazilian texts; read them if nothing else. Deft genealogy scramble by Meyer Schapiro; Blinky Palermo gets his due - a generous overview of his short, zig-zagging career & his criics' deficits; a magic show by Fredric Jameson smack in the middle. Also glad to have Irit Rogoff's essay "Smuggling" in hard copy somewhere I can find it.

But if it don't feel right (sentences read as lists of adjectives, Deleuze is mentioned, the words "psychedelic-pastoral" appear) you can allow yourself to skim or skip; that's the good thing about collections.

Whitechapel Doc paperback covers are just barely pliable so you need to work them gently into submission over time (they do get there). Heavyweight, extra-glossy pages make for a good snap but writing on them is strangely unsatisfying.

[Mills College Library]

709.04052 A1646 2013