Post- to Neo-, The Art World of the 1980s

by Calvin Tomkins

Art Studies, History

Genres: Art

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 1989

About the author

Calvin Tomkins has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1960. He wrote his first fiction piece for the magazine in 1958, and his first fact piece in 1962. His many Profile subjects have included Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, Julia Child, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leo Castelli, Frank Stella, Carmel Snow, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Frank Gehry, Damien Hirst, Richard Serra, Matthew Barney, and Jasper Johns. He wrote the Art World column from 1980 to 1988. Before joining The New Yorker, he was a general editor of Newsweek, a post he held from 1957 through 1959. In 1955, he joined Newsweek as an associate editor. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including “The Bride and the Bachelors,” “Merchants and Masterpieces,” “Living Well Is the Best Revenge,” “Off the Wall,” “Duchamp: A Biography,” and “Lives of the Artists.” A revised edition of his Duchamp biography came out in 2014.

Reviews

[David Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite authors when it comes to the arts, and this collection of reviews written on the contemporary art scene for the New Yorker is as good as it gets! Thirty reviews, all extremely perceptive and engaging. Tomkins covers all the artistic styles and movements of the decade, critiquing most of those who led the pack as well as the leading galleries and the most significant exhibitions. It’s a book one can return to often for a comprehensive art survey of the decade.

[Giovanni García-Fenech · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book might be an accurate account of what was happening in the New York art world of the '80s, the "Post- to Neo-" part is misleading--most of the essays deal with figures from earlier eras, including Noguchi, Picasso, Frank Stella, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Leo Castelli; maybe three articles deal with young artists who emerged that decade. It's a little like calling a book Punk and New Wave and having it deal mostly with the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin. That said, Tomkins is a good writer: smart, thorough, and amusing.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomkins says at the beginning of the book that when he was hired to write his first art columns, the editor made clear that his job was reportage, not criticism. These essays are very good reportage of the art scene of the 1980s. They give you an insider's feel of what it was like when some of our now-famous artists were either not-yet-famous or just becoming so. I found it fascinating to "watch" as art movements got named and renamed with names we now take for granted. I especially liked his long essay on the career of Leo Castelli the dealer and the growth of his influence on artists and the collecting world. It speaks for Tomkins reportage that it doesn't feel dated--even while he discusses the still ongoing (at the time) career of now-deceased artists. Instead, I felt transported back as if I was in the midst of it.

First read 1991

[Earl Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy writes excellently about the art world. I've not read a book yet from him that I didn't really enjoy.