From Library Journal
Ratcliff, an art critic and contributing editor of Art in America, has produced an incisive and well-researched study of American art from 1965 to 1975. The text covers the entire spectrum of art activities of this time, including sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, earthworks, and photography. The usual suspects are discussed, including Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Dan Graham, Bruce Nauman, and the like, but Ratcliff also brings to light lesser-known artists, such as Mac Adams and Bill Beckley. Out of the Box chronicles the evolution of art from the severe minimalist object to a time of pluralism, when anything became possible. Ratcliff utilizes statements and writings by artists to substantiate his position rather than relying on critics from the period. The design is stylish but at times inordinate, detracting from the images, which are literally placed "out of the box." Recommended for academic and public libraries with substantial art collections. Krista Ivy, Bryn Mawr Coll., PA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Carter Ratcliff is a leading art critic and contributing editor of Art in America. His writings have appeared widely, in European and American journals and in the publications of museums here and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Royal Academy, London. Recently, his essay on Francis Bacon was published in the catalog of a retrospective of that artist’s paintings at the Louisiana Museum for Modern Kunst, in Denmark. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College and lectured at a variety of institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His most recent book is The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Postwar American Art (Westview Press, 1998). Among his other books are studies of Andy Warhol, Gilbert and George, John Singer Sargent, and Robert Longo. A selection of his essays, entitled The Figure of the Artist, is to be publishe! d this year by Cambridge University Press. He lives in New York City. Allworth Press Books by Carter Ratcliff: Out of the Box, The Reinvention of Art.
Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art, 1965-1975 SYNOPSIS
Ranging from earthworks to conceptual art, this illuminating read for artists, art historians, and students at both undergraduate and graduate levels surveys the most innovative and influential period of recent American art.
This volume is not limited to a single genre, but offers an integrated view of all the significant artistic developments of one crucial decade, the extraordinary explosion that occurred between 1965 and 1975. The author, a leading art critic, focuses a new lens on this radical movement, showing the nuances that defined Minimalism in its various phases, as characterized by the inflected object, the disintegrated object, the ironic object-then the transition from the object to architecture, space, landscape, cityscape, body, performance, and concept art. No other account has documented in such detail the scope and impact of this artistic revolution, which the author argues spanned all mediums and pushed every aesthetic possibility of Minimalism to an extreme.
Shown and discussed are works by dozens of major artists of the period, including Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Rosemarie Castoro, Jackie Winsor, Rafael Ferrer, Richard Artschwager, Bruce Nauman, Joel Shapiro, Alice Aycock, Will Isley, Nancy Holt, Vito Acconci, Chris Burden, William Wegman, Adrian Piper, and many others.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Ratcliff, an art critic and contributing editor of Art in America, has produced an incisive and well-researched study of American art from 1965 to 1975. The text covers the entire spectrum of art activities of this time, including sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, earthworks, and photography. The usual suspects are discussed, including Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Dan Graham, Bruce Nauman, and the like, but Ratcliff also brings to light lesser-known artists, such as Mac Adams and Bill Beckley. Out of the Box chronicles the evolution of art from the severe minimalist object to a time of pluralism, when anything became possible. Ratcliff utilizes statements and writings by artists to substantiate his position rather than relying on critics from the period. The design is stylish but at times inordinate, detracting from the images, which are literally placed "out of the box." Recommended for academic and public libraries with substantial art collections. Krista Ivy, Bryn Mawr Coll., PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
Almost nothing remains of the explosion of artistic innovation that followed Minimalism, says Ratcliff, art critic and contributing editor of . He discusses artists, media, and genres of the period, and the connections between them. The illustrations are in black and white. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
ACCREDITATION
Carter Ratcliff is a leading art critic and contributing editor of Art in America. His writings have appeared widely, in European and American journals and in the publications of museums here and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Royal Academy, London. Recently, his essay on Francis Bacon was published in the catalog of a retrospective of that artist's paintings at the Louisiana Museum for Modern Kunst, in Denmark. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College and lectured at a variety of institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His most recent book is The Fate of a Gesture: Jackson Pollock and Postwar American Art (Westview Press, 1998). Among his other books are studies of Andy Warhol, Gilbert and George, John Singer Sargent, and Robert Longo. A selection of his essays, entitled The Figure of the Artist, is to be published this year by Cambridge University Press. He lives in New York City.
Art & Photography
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