Understanding Installation Art: From Drchamp to Holzer

by Mark Rosenthal

96 pages with 58 illustrations 14 in color. Stiff Illustrated wraps. Notes and References.

Genres: Art

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[CM · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good art book is hard to find...

The attempt to categorise installation art into 4 subgroups (Enchantment, Impersonation, Intervention, Rapprochement) may appear useful at first glance but then it struck me as a fancy way to say whether the piece is surreal or functional or site-specific. It's even less appealing when you realise most pieces will have elements from all these categories. Then, sometimes we are given awkward examples ("Seedbed", of Vito Acconci, as intervention?)

The text here is very much extracts from various catalogues of exhibitions with practically no transition whatsoever between paragraphs. If you look beyond the text(and you should), you will find the majority of photographs here are actually in B&W and they are not really doing justice to the artwork.
(Presenting the work of James Turrell in B&W feels like misrepresentation of the worst kind)

[Sarah Grebinoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great examples and a history of when installation art began, as well as the different types. It was exactly what I was looking for.