Raiding the Icebox: Reflections on Twentieth-Century Culture

by Peter Wollen

Raiding the Icebox presents an alternative history of 20th-century art and culture, focusing especially on the rise and fall of modernism.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Cultural, History, Cultural Studies

222 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Peter Wollen was an English film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's Signs and Meaning in the Cinema (1969) helped to transform the discipline of film studies by incorporating the methodology of structuralism and semiotics. He taught film at a number of universities and was Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, at the time of his retirement.

Reviews

[Nick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this a strange book. Seven essays about the visual arts through the Twentieth Century – that is, it covers the period from the beginnings of modernism to its dissolution. The essays are all works of enormous scholarship and erudition, moving from idea to idea with a calm ease. The first, for instance, considers the impact and role of ‘orientalism’ in the early Twentieth Century Parisian art world, but it doesn’t just cover painters, such as Matisse, who were influenced by an ‘orientalist’ imagination, but also the Ballets Russes, fashion and other cultural expressions that were notably influenced by the ‘orientalist’ trend. The essay is constantly fascinating, introducing ideas and histories that were unknown to me, but at the same time as being fascinated I was also thinking,"Yes, but what point are you making?" The longer essays seemed to be a series of mini essays on a theme, but I could never figure out what they were actually doing, what held them together. Maybe they don’t have to do anything, maybe the suggestiveness of the ideas should be enough, or maybe these essays do hold together in ways that I’m missing, but I found them frustrating. The more successful ones were the shorter ones, such as the one on Warhol, that seemed much more focussed. But I presume Wollen wasn’t trying to be focussed.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wollen. Whose bimbo was this guy? Probably a minister, or some other big wig in the government.

Wollen has the expressive skills of a 8th grader who was caught without homework and has to produce by Monday an essay. The long repetitions are broken by occasional displays of thesaurus. So party... party... fete. Wow! Judging by the cover I was expecting some pretentious fake doing his navel gazing, 20th century French philosopher style. I was so wrong! Navel gazing is an intellectual level that flies over the head of Wollen. And he is left with churning works and blending them over and over again to fill up the page quota. At times, even the barely literate constable writing his report seem a target too high for Wollen.

Simply unpleasant drivel.

[Elzira Rai · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Fordism to Warhol, a history of the first seven or eight decades of 20th-century art through the lens of the war against ornament and, subsequently, figuration, assailed by the ghosts of reason and efficiency on the one hand, and Freud and surrealism on the other. The chapter on the Situationists is rather disappointing, with little more than well-known historical notes. Anti-Stalinist rhetoric fills the spaces in between, leaving one to one wonder if this is not another Langley-meets-Rothko psy-op.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously not a true deep dive on any of its subjects, but Wollen knows this down to the title of the book. Instead, it's a stone skipping across the avant-garde aesthetic movements of the 20th century and their political motives. Enormously useful reading if just to fill in gaps in knowledge surrounding these movements and figures.

[Math Erao · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense and footnote-heavy read but a lot of intriguing concepts about modern culture and art. Would be interesting to read an update written post-9/11 as this analysis of the 20th century was penned in the early ‘90s.

[Neal McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A retelling of 20th-C art history that starts with a fashion show. Opened my eyes in several ways.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to dip into time to time. Peter Wollen is one of the great cultural critics of our time - and why he's not more famous is beyond me. I think because of his subject matter is probably too obscure for the masses. Hey that was a snob statement on my part!

Nevertheless he is a wonderful writer and I really trust his taste. If he says 'see this painting' or 'read this book,' I would do it in a flash of a second.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb survey of the tension between the antinomies that Wollen sees characterizing 20th century culture and art: the body/reason, West/East, Sombert/Weber, decadence/efficiency, etc. Wollen's criticism is excellent, and his conniption-inducingly-deep knowledge of modern film and fashion makes this study absolutely essential for anyone interested in the problems of modernism and beyond.

[Lyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fordism/post Fordism, robots, Brave New World, Gramsci, workers of the world unite.