Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock

by Kirk Varnedoe, Earl A. Powell, Adam Gopnik (Preface)

"What is abstract art good for? What's the use--for us as individuals, or for any society--of pictures of nothing, of paintings and sculptures or prints or drawings that do not seem to show anything except themselves?" In this invigorating account of abstract art since Jackson Pollock, eminent art historian Kirk Varnedoe, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, asks these and other questions as he frankly confronts the uncertainties we may have about the nonrepresentational art produced in the last five decades. He makes a compelling argument for its history and value, much as E. H. Gombrich tackled representation fifty years ago in "Art and Illusion," another landmark A. W. Mellon Lectures volume. Realizing that these lectures might be his final work, Varnedoe conceived of them as a statement of his faith in modern art and as the culminating example of his lucidly pragmatic and philosophical approach to art history. He delivered the lectures, edited and reproduced here with their illustrations, to overflowing crowds at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in the spring of 2003, just months before his death.
With brilliance, passion, and humor, Varnedoe addresses the skeptical attitudes and misunderstandings that we often bring to our experience of abstract art. Resisting grand generalizations, he makes a deliberate and scholarly case for abstraction--showing us that more than just pure looking is necessary to understand the self-made symbolic language of abstract art. Proceeding decade by decade, he brings alive the history and biography that inform the art while also challenging the received wisdom about distinctions between abstraction and representation, modernism and postmodernism, and minimalism and pop. The result is a fascinating and ultimately moving tour through a half century of abstract art, concluding with an unforgettable description of one of Varnedoe's favorite works.

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, History, Reference, Cultural, Essays

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2006

About the author

John Kirk Train Varnedoe was an American art historian, the Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art from 1988 to 2001, Professor of the History of Art at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and Professor of Fine Arts at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.

Reviews

[robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly fun read the first time I found it-not so much the 2d and 3rd time I poked at it.

Warning: its not academic, hermetic, and self important, not adverse to the spirit of art, unlike alot of writing about art. Art is not for cops- art including minimalism can be outrageous, ludicrous, wry, and ironic and fun. This book does that- hooray!

Never mind. Take minimalist junk seriously, go ahead. Buy some for a million bucks. Put it in your bathroom and your lobby. Its good to employ staring minimalist artists. You'd be lost in the morning without your map and your bus ticket.

[JabJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book, lots of glossy colour photographs. Covers abstract art after the Pollock era for about the next 50 yrs. I particularly loved the journey through minimalism...why is a box made in New York different from a box made in West Texas? How can a pure white or a pure black canvas be art? How come bricks on the floor are considered sculpture? Somehow, Varnedoe makes me believe. He explains with a tender patience, his love for the art so true and apparent that it makes me love it too. The book is so gorgeous that I keep taking it out of the library again and again.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the best book on abstraction I have ever read. Varnedoe is an excellent writer and a pleasure to read.

[sam howie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book, I wish I knew about this book during art school as it really unpacks the ideas of an external reading of abstraction opposed to the internal reading which began and was at its strongest during the Abstract Expressionism era. The external reading is that nothing is actually really all that abstract, everything relates quite fluently to the wider world, even squiggles, splotches and lines, sometimes it just takes a more concentrated reading.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on Abstract Art. Only wish it was longer.

[Lada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most worthwhile book I've read this year (and it has taken me all of this year to read it). I wish I had read it years ago, over which I dutifully visited various (modern) art museums, but sped through the mid-to-late 20th century art because I didn't "get it." A lot of this book and the art therein is still over my head, but in between chapter 4 and 5 I visited the LACMA, and all of a sudden, instead of only recognizing the Mondrian, the Miro, the Picasso, the Pollock, I spotted even from afar the Judd, the Johns, the Twombly, etc. And while I can't say I exactly appreciate all of them, there is a certain satisfaction in the ID alone, just as I appreciate the forest more for recognizing the trees.
And I grudgingly admit that knowing how these pieces converse with one another, and what the artists' innovation was, does add something beyond mere recognition. As Varnedoe says in his concluding lecture: "This is why I have stressed during these lectures that the experiential dimensions of abstract art -- its scale, materials, method of fabrication, social context, and tradition -- are crucially important to our understanding of it."

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

These lectures must have been very emotional given that Varnedoe was known to be terminally ill and would die shortly thereafter. That said, I find the argument breaking down after midpoint as KV moves from painting to sculpture. In particular, there are connections drawn that are unsupported except by assertion. Because Andre put sculpture on the floor was he really like Pollock? Metal plates are not paint. The huge earth works of Smithson and de Maria are of another category to usual museum sized art. And does KV’s reading of the continued influence of Pollock (for and against) not validate Greenberg’s teleology, which KV is arguing against. Finally, the conclusion, however dramatic rhetorically, that art is in the making and will “get done” is a truism that swerves analysis.
Also: it’s weird that de Kooning is omitted (except for a few valedictory remarks). Perhaps because he was too strong an artist: you could do an interpretation subtitled “Abstract Art since De K.”

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous treatment of a very elusive topic. Thanks, Sarah, for the recommendation!

[3Arvizulz3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining.

[Charlie Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

a brief and broad history of abstraction. complex and digestible. a powerful case for uncertainty

[Walter Andersons · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great way to keep looking after most of the world would say painting was dead.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm overwhelmed by the erudition shown in this series of lectures. Being the text of lectures, it is quite accessible but so dense with ideas that I might have to go back and make a list of the main ideas and each artist evaluation to reinforce what I've learned. Varnedoe, in his last ever lectures -he died of cancer soon after- at the beginning of this century, recounts the history of abstract art by American artists from Pollock to the present. His arguments are convincing except I might question his evaluation of the pop art period a little. He seems to be misreading one canvas by Andy Warhol (Orange Car Crash 1963), and while he brings forward the ideas of satire and irony in art, he does not seem entirely comfortable with them.

Varnedoe's summary rejects the European spiritual idea that abstract art draws from ideal forms, but finds that in a modern, secular society art constructs symbols for the individual and familiar to make them strange and to "produce our fresh understanding of the world of culture as separate from nature, as separate from the clock of events in the rest of history...." yet eventually to bring us back to the traditions of the past.

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

151211: there is only one problem, of the limitations of media, not the work itself. this is that to really follow this, you need to see these works in person. alas, i do not live in these places, so must live with reproductions. this is unfortunately most apparent with sculpture, with light, with extremes of abstraction that can look too literally as pictures of nothing. but otherwise really enjoyed this, able to see why i like minimalism, sharp edged, sometimes geometric forms, more than other sorts. and mirrors, i really like mirrors...

[Lee Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to explore if you want to expand your knowledge (or tolerance) for abstraction in art. Varnedoe really spoke up for it.

I've always had an affinity for post ab-ex work, but Varnedoe made me like it even more.

If you Google his name you will see he was not without critics. They panned his High & Low exhibition, and one has to wonder whether their opinions would have been swayed after hearing his lectures.

You can follow along with the lectures here:

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's clear what a labor of love these lectures were. Varnedoe attempts to answer the question: what use is abstract art to a modern liberal society? his answer to the question valorizes the experience of surprise and the opportunity for projection and interpretation abstract art gives us. his lectures were generous and loving. i can only hope that at the end of my life, i will be able to say that i achieved the level of success in a lecture series that Varnedoe does here.

[Efrat]

I was so excited when this book came out earlier this year. I had always revered Kirk Varnadoe from a distance and was really sad when he passed away a few years ago. I wish I had been at the Mellon lectures (and perhaps I'll track down tapes of them at some point) but for now this is the next best thing.
Can't wait to start reading the lectures...

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disappointment, given the genius of the author (his insights on Pollock, while talking to Charlie Rose, were priceless). Some of these pieces were written while he was battling a/his fatal disease and this, I suspect, contributed to the slightly distracted/unfocused, less than pristine critical thinking one usually can expect from this intellectually nimble curator.

[Jasonlosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books on minimalism and abstract art out there. This is a must read! If you don't know about the Melon lecture series you should, Gombrich's "Art and Illusion" is directly from this series.

[Gnowzstxela · Rating 5 out of 5]

You gotta read this. Epic plot. Snappy dialog. Sweet ending.

Oh, and it'll teach you how to see. Pretty dang cool.

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extravagantly illustrated, amiable and erudite (practically rabbinical) tour through a half-century of abstract art.

[Orin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will be a great help for anyone who is trying to find a vocabulary to express his appreciation of modern art.

[M Wiegers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic overview of Abstract Expressionism and it's successors.

[Ayn · Rating 5 out of 5]

lots of conceptual minimal art.

[Mo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nice pictures. Shallow read.

[Caryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was based on a lecture at the National Gallery in DC in the 1990s and so is very relavant to my tours there. Hope to get back to it.

[Keith Climpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

[Nidhi Patel · Rating 3 out of 5]

i want to read this book

[Painting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abstract art. Yep. I guess that had to happen. I keep reading that this is so.

[Marcie]

Too erudite for me. Liked the prints though.