Eccentric Objects: Rethinking Sculpture in 1960s America

by Jo Applin

In America during the 1960s, sculpture as an artistic practice underwent a series of radical transformations. Artists including Lee Bontecou, Claes Oldenburg, Lucas Samaras, H. C. Westermann, and Bruce Nauman offered alternative ways of imagining the three-dimensional object. The objects they created were variously described as erotic, soft, figurative, aggressive, bodily, or, in the words of the critic Lucy Lippard, "eccentric." Looking beyond the familiar and canonic artworks of the 1960s, the book challenges not only how we think about these artists, but how we learn to look at the more familiar narratives of 1960s sculpture, such as Pop and Minimalism. Ambivalent and disruptive, the work of this decade articulated a radical renegotiation—rejection, even—of contemporary paradigms of sculptural practice. This invigorating study explores that shift and the ways in which the kinds of work made in this period defied established categories and questioned the criteria for thinking about sculpture.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2012

Reviews

[The Art Book Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Perhaps we should re-populate our go-to list of minimalist artists and perhaps, even more so, we should think about what we have learned from our history lessons as at times inexact, unstable and maybe uncertain."
--Lia Trinka-Browner on "Eccentric Objects: Rethinking Sculpture in 1960's America"

Read the full review here:
http://theartbookreview.org/2013/08/2... — with Lia Cheyenne Trinka-Browner.