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154th out of 167 books
—
109 voters
The Painted Word
by
Tom Wolfe
Wolfe debunks the great American myth of modern art from the Fifties to the Seventies, in an incandescent, hilarious, and devastating blast.
Paperback, 112 pages
Published
October 5th 1999
by Bantam
(first published 1975)
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Wonderful little witty book about a specific moment in art history. I'm normally not a great Tom Wolfe fan, but the book does ring true, even though it does simplify things greatly.
If one likes the art that Wolfe takes apart, you might find yourself inclined to dislike the book without giving what he's saying enough consideration. He makes some absolutely valid points and more importantly, he hints at a broader trend - the rift between the public viewer and the insular art world. Here, I think...more
If one likes the art that Wolfe takes apart, you might find yourself inclined to dislike the book without giving what he's saying enough consideration. He makes some absolutely valid points and more importantly, he hints at a broader trend - the rift between the public viewer and the insular art world. Here, I think...more
Liked it lots, but I always feel a little gypped when a publisher puffs up what amounts to a magazine feature’s worth of words with a big font, generous line-spacing and margins, and some illustrations, to make it just big enough to put legible text on the spine so they can sell it as a book.
Wolfe does have a zounds-slap-lightning way with phrases! I liked these: "the Uptown Museum-Gallery Complex," and, referring to deKooning and Pollack: "furious swipes of brush on canvas, ... splatters of unchained id."
You have to appreciate Wolfe for his bluster and charming if irritating and irascible ability to simplify everything to the level of the five-year-old, which is about the age of his persona as an essay writer, esp. circa 1974, when he wrote this. Nevertheless I was inspired to rea...more
You have to appreciate Wolfe for his bluster and charming if irritating and irascible ability to simplify everything to the level of the five-year-old, which is about the age of his persona as an essay writer, esp. circa 1974, when he wrote this. Nevertheless I was inspired to rea...more
I still sometimes think of what Wolff said here about theory and art. Still, the book veers sharply into Wolff's ingenuous 'everyman's' voice. Unlike Baldwin, whose anger seems true and instinctive, Wolff's seems like a posture intended to tittilate. There are still some nice moments, and there were a few moments in the Pompidou in Paris where I thought of this book, but in general, good modern art doesn't need theory, it needs people to discuss the work and be open to interpretation. The differ...more
A small gem of a book that serves up a provocative survey of the New York Modern Art scene, focusing on the post-War period when New York began its dominance of the art world. It's a fascinating work in terms of the social history of art given that Wolfe is a writer who takes no prisoners as he calls attention to the absurdities of the changing fashions in art and art theory.
Written in 1975, he makes the point that it was the powerful art critics, the three he dubbed the kings of "Cultureburg":...more
Written in 1975, he makes the point that it was the powerful art critics, the three he dubbed the kings of "Cultureburg":...more
Jan 29, 2011
DoctorM
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
art,
class-style-and-anglophilia
I'm never sure what to think about "The Painted Word"...or about Wolfe. Is it hilarious? Absolutely. Does he make some wonderfully cynical points as a social satirist? Yes. He always does. But just as with "Bauhaus To Our House", I just find that in the end, there's less than meets the eye. Had "Painted Word" been a novel...things would be different. There's wonderful material here for a comic novel about the art world and art criticism. But as a quasi-history...hmmm. No. Wolfe manages to attack...more
I'll need to hear other perspectives before I can decide whether I'm wholly convinced by Wolfe's argument. His main argument is that Modern Art sucks because it is fueled more by Art Theory than by the spirit of Art itself. He directs most of his satirical ammunition at the time period from Abstract Expressionism onward, arguing that during this epoch the Artists unwittingly became adjuncts of the Art Theorists, rather than the other way around (the way it should be).
Wolfe also tries to better d...more
Wolfe also tries to better d...more
Tom Wolfe rips the pish out of art critics using their own chosen weapon - the word.
This was probably about round 6 of a 12 rounder between painting and theory. Up to this pont Theory had been winning every round and it looked like painting was going to have to throw in the towel and abandon the title. Wolfe stepped into Painting's corner and this round was a decisive winner.
Nobody seems to know what the final outcome of the Championship bout was..... but Painting is still alive and going from...more
This was probably about round 6 of a 12 rounder between painting and theory. Up to this pont Theory had been winning every round and it looked like painting was going to have to throw in the towel and abandon the title. Wolfe stepped into Painting's corner and this round was a decisive winner.
Nobody seems to know what the final outcome of the Championship bout was..... but Painting is still alive and going from...more
2 likes · like · see review
Damn! Goodreads ate my review.... crapola.
This is a cynical and insightful description of some of the forces behind 'success' in art, mostly centered in mid-last-century. It was recommended to me by two friends who are both professional artists. One is a sculptor and my mentor, and the other a painter. In my subjective view, they should both be rich and famous, or at least a lot richer and a lot more famous. How is it that folks with mastery of their media never attain the absurd success of Jack...more
This is a cynical and insightful description of some of the forces behind 'success' in art, mostly centered in mid-last-century. It was recommended to me by two friends who are both professional artists. One is a sculptor and my mentor, and the other a painter. In my subjective view, they should both be rich and famous, or at least a lot richer and a lot more famous. How is it that folks with mastery of their media never attain the absurd success of Jack...more
I haven't read Tom Wolfe in quite awhile, and I forgot how razor sharp his prose could be. This particular book takes on the modern art world. Mr. Wolfe is not a fan of that world, but he describes how art theory started driving art creation in the twentieth century.
He did get me thinking, and feeling somewhat relieved. I've been to MoMA several times for specific exhibits, but sometimes left just shaking my head and thinking it was me. As usual, Mr. Wolfe attacks pretentiousness will full front...more
He did get me thinking, and feeling somewhat relieved. I've been to MoMA several times for specific exhibits, but sometimes left just shaking my head and thinking it was me. As usual, Mr. Wolfe attacks pretentiousness will full front...more
This was a very interesting read - Tom Wolfe talks about how modern art moved away from being a visual experience and started to be a reaction of what the critics were saying and it all culminated with conceptual art (I happen to like conceptual art, but I agree that it is less "artistic" in the classic sense of the word). Among the many artists he grills, Wolfe practically skewers Jackson Pollock and says that his art was a mere creation at the request of what the galleries wanted and that lead...more
2 likes · like · see review
This is more of an essay than a book, but it's very entertaining and has definitely informed my view of art. The thesis, as I remember it, is that for artists to succeed in the modern (read New York) art world, they must produce criticable art; that high art is one half of a dialogue with critics and if an artist isn't smart enough to talk back, there's not going to be a market for his or her work.
There's a bit of emperor-has-no-clothes snideness rolled into this essay with a lot of fun at the...more
There's a bit of emperor-has-no-clothes snideness rolled into this essay with a lot of fun at the...more
A scathing critique of modernist/postmodernist art during its heyday, Wolfe presents an in-depth examination of both the artists and (more intensely) the critics during the mid-twentieth-century art boom. An excellent review of the period and styles, as well as an interesting discussion of the meaning of art in relation to society in general. Wolfe makes a convincing point that art is often conditioned by critics to be whatever seems transgressive at the time of its release--but not too transgre...more
This was a great little book written in 1975 and is a very interesting time piece. Here Tom Wolfe blasts the outrageousness of the modern art world and the theories that preceded every movement of the movement. Often times scathingly hilarious Wolfe tips over a lot of the sacred cows of the art world of the time. It's interesting to read how he predicts people will view this period in the year 2000, and here we are in the year 2012. I have always enjoyed Tom Wolfe with The Electric Kool-Aid Acid...more
So I found this book a simple fun satirical novel that pointed out one aspect of the art community written by one man. If you remember all of that I think you will have a great time reading this book. I love hearing different ways of looking at things it opens my mind to thinking differently. Sometimes I think of the artist that become the museum accepted critically acclaimed ones have sort of a mystic around them. I was fun to have some one break it down into just a network. Has it changed my v...more
I am writing a much longer and more detailed review than usual because I plan to attend a local book club's upcoming meeting to discuss this nonfiction book.
Tom Wolfe's small but potent book charts the course of Modern Art. The stylistic writing is as witty and provocative as Wolfe's earlier book "Radical Chic."
The genesis of the book's title stems from a revelation that Wolfe obtained from an art exhibit's 1974 review in the New York Times. The critic had basically stated that to view art witho...more
Tom Wolfe's small but potent book charts the course of Modern Art. The stylistic writing is as witty and provocative as Wolfe's earlier book "Radical Chic."
The genesis of the book's title stems from a revelation that Wolfe obtained from an art exhibit's 1974 review in the New York Times. The critic had basically stated that to view art witho...more
1 like · like · see review
The Painted Word is primarily a book about the rise of modern art—and art theory. (It also feels as if it’s a little bit about Tom Wolfe, too, but then, what book of his doesn’t feel that way?) Still, it’s an engaging read, filled with Wolfe’s studied observations and dripping with a detached bemusement toward the twisted subculture of art. Fortunately, The Painted Word is also filled with fascinating character sketches of the artists themselves. One of the most compelling—and oft repeated—argum...more
A highly entertaining critique of the modern art world. It reads casual --like a conversation you'd have with an old, cranky (yet rather wise) New Yorker on a Sunday stroll through the villages, through Union Square and up Fifth avenue all the way to the Met. Lots of belly-laugh material along the way...but, it's ultimately quite sad and disturbing that art standards went off-the-radar in such an absurd manner and to such a great degree-- that such a book as this could written (and true to reali...more
Interesting explanation of how art changed during the 20th century. Wolfe is humorous and observant, and his prose is decent, even if his lists of examples can get a little carried away (for example, on p1, "slipping into that great public bath, that vat, that spa, that regional physiotherapy tank, that White Sulpher Springs, that Marienbad, that Ganges, that River Jordan for a million souls which is the Sunday Times").
Feb 11, 2008
James
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in art or writing
Recommended to James by:
random find in bookstore
If your interest is writing or art, you’ll enjoy The Painted Word by Tom Wolf. If you like both, then this irreverent, little book will make you laugh, nod in agreement, or cry out in protest. You definitely won’t be bored. This is Wolf at the top of his game and you’ll find yourself constantly reading passages aloud to anyone within earshot.
First published in 1975, Wolf decomposes modern art movements in a way that is both enlightening and entertaining. His clever style provides the reader wit...more
First published in 1975, Wolf decomposes modern art movements in a way that is both enlightening and entertaining. His clever style provides the reader wit...more
How is that I've worked all these years in art and educational institutions, and no one told me about this wonderful little essay? Wolfe's satire of art theory supplanting art could be applied to many human projects, no doubt. But I can't decide if it's a story about putting the cart before the horse or about the inmates running the asylum...
Tom Wolfe has mastered the art of being shocked and horrified at the mundane and obvious. This book has the character of a child that has discovered some new situation and, misconstruing it, lets forth a torrent of outrage without insight. His assault on 'theory' only demonstrates the necessity of substance to fill out style.
If you have ever stood in front of a modern painting and thought, "What the???", then you need to read this book! It's funny and witty, and although I really couldn't remember a lot of his references from my art history class in college, Wolfe explains everything enough that I could follow his reasoning.
A glorious hatchet job on modernist art. Wolfe's main point is that most schools of modernist art cannot be appreciated unless you first understand the theory behind them, which makes the art itself pretty much irrelevant. It's all about the theory. Wolfe is delightfully vicious and highly entertaining.
I agreed with everything in principle. Bittersweet for someone who likes shapes more than symbols. Loses one star on account of its terrible brevity (and I'm one for books getting to the point, but this is practically a magazine article) and because I didn't believe his tone 100%.
Tom Wolfe has written a short and funny book about the role of art theory, art critics and art buyers in the New York scene after World War II. Marketing this art appeared to be more about being popular with the community of people writing about art than it did with any intrinsic merit of the work itself. When an ordinary person looked at a work from this period, they saw it with naive eyes. They lacked the theoretical context of flatness, perceptual abstraction, action painting, etc., in which...more
A clever and sarcastic tour de force eviscerating artists and art critics from 1945 to 1975. In Wolfe's tracing of the line of art criticism in this period, the art object disappears entirely to become replaced by the conception.
Must read for anyone interested in art. People who view and comment on art depend on the verbal theory to give it meaning. It cannot stand alone, presumably because much contemporary art has no intrinsic meaning or value.
2nd reading, so I knew what I was in for: Wolfe's intense critique of contemporary/modern art is one jagged little pill coated in extraordinary cynicism and stylish disdain. Refreshing in his snakiness, even if the snark is decades old.
Hilarious, and truly American. He makes a razor sharp point of the problem with modern art which most erudite people shy away from. He made me almost believe that "flatness" was a conspiracy made by art institutions.
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Wolfe was educated at Washington and Lee Universities and also at Yale, where he received a PhD in American studies.
Tom Wolfe spent his early days as a Washington Post beat reporter, where his free-association, onomatopoetic style would later become the trademark of New Journalism. In books such as The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe delves into...more
More about Tom Wolfe...
Tom Wolfe spent his early days as a Washington Post beat reporter, where his free-association, onomatopoetic style would later become the trademark of New Journalism. In books such as The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe delves into...more
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May 09, 2013 07:32am