The De-Definition of Art

by Harold Rosenberg

"Like the great German critic Walter Benjamin, Rosenberg is a master of dialectics whose sense of art is continuous with his sense of society, and (also like Benjamin) bears no taint of compromised, out-of-work radicalism. Instead, his radicalism is very much at work, enabling him to spot and skewer fallacies, false logic and the camouflaged nudity that is a large part of the art emperor's new wardrobe. [The De-definition of Art] detects with great sensitivity the forces that are deflecting and pressuring art in the direction of esthetic and moral nullity."—Jack Kroll, Newsweek

Genres: Art

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Egor xS]

Unlike other critics, Rosenberg is no 'theorist', he employs no footnotes, and has no affinity for borrowing concepts from bordering disciplines. Still, he succeeds in building a consistent theoretical structure from which his analyses derive. Many of his insights are very illuminating. But the style of his prose, in my opinion, is just appalling. Can he be serious in his pretensions as a 'poet'? The New Yorker magazine, for being widely read and very influential in its reviews, should have long abandoned this 'belle-lettrist' tradition