Modern Art in the Common Culture

by Thomas E. Crow

In this illuminating book, a prominent art historian explores the links between avant-garde art and modern mass culture, showing that the connections between the two have always been strong, and even necessary to both. The author recounts vivid episodes involving Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Christopher Williams, and many others, arriving at fresh and original insights into modern art and its place in late twentieth-century culture.

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Patrick McIntyre]

This book is so good that somebody stole it from me. No foolin'! I left it at work one day last summer and haven't seen it since. Highlights include the opening essay on very early modernist views on the emerging 'mass' culture of the city (i.e. Stéphan Mallarmé and Paul Signac on post-Haussmannized Paris) and an essay on the 'sentimental' conceptualisms of Bas Jan Ader and the little-known Christopher D'Arcangelo. It's worth a read for these two essays alone.

[Colleen]

Okay. I liked the anecdotes about Sarah Jessica Parker's perfume, but all of the chemical compounds with names like axnoandadoafaoxide and anonaornaeocnalyne really dragged down the writing. (Or maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate it.)

[Ava D]

difficult to read on vacation, especially w chatty family members.

regardless, appreciated the jeff wall section after seeing his retrospective at maat & the reference to the blaschka glass flowers

[Avery Liu]

Thesis - while the Warhol essay is always a great read, no essay has ever confused me more than the first essay in this book

[Eana]

Truely eye-opening and mind-blowing book. When you follow his extensive case studies on contemporary art, you will get dazzling insights from their rich embodiments of art-historical references, especially from the 18th, 19th-century French art that the author intuitively links with based on his expertise. They are indeed all iluminating art-historical arguments.

[Terence]

"Handmade Photographs and Homeless Representation" is one of the great essays in this book. Yet another author I put in all of my syllabi.