Farewell to an Idea by T J Clark
In this volume, art historian T.J. Clark offers a vision of the art of the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on moments when art responded directly, in extreme terms, to the ongoing disaster called "modernity".
"Farewell to an Idea is an undeniably brilliant and effective book"—Stephen F. Eisenman, Art in America
"A large and ambitious book, bountiful in opinions as it is in colorplates. . . . Farewell to an Idea is an undeniably brilliant and effective book. . . . Clark offers the reader very extensive, and sometimes very evocative, formal analyses of particular paintings—especially of the classic Pollock works from 1947-50."—Stephen F. Eisenman, Art in America
"[This] book contains stunning interpretive revelations. . . . Farewell to an Idea is an undeniably brilliant and effective book."—Stephen F. Eisenman, Art in America
"The most important book about art written this year."—Richard Dorment, Daily Telegraph
"[This] book offers a subtle exploration of the relation between politics and culture over the past two centuries, and in particular of the ways in which Modernism was sustained by its related fin-de-siecle casualty—socialism."—John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph
"An elegy to the complex movement that has dominated painting and sculpture for more than a century, and it is as passionate and provocative as any of his previous publications."—Frank Whitford, Sunday Times
"Farewell to an Idea is an art history like no other, both in terms of conception and the amazing quality of reproduction."—Tariq Ali, The Times
"A monumental slab, an embattled fortress of the mind, Farewell to an Idea is a book whose weight and scope seem to alter the whole geography of art writing."—Julian Bell, Times Literary Supplement
"[A] synthesis of three decades of Clark’s thinking and writing about modern art. . . . [This] thought-provoking work . . . is well worth the effort."—Library Journal
"The essays in this volume are always historically nuanced, aglow with Clark’s deep learning and masterful prose; they will doubtlessly elicit much praise and be the subject of much debate."—Publishers Weekly
"Brilliant and original."—Laurence Rainey, London Review of Books
"I can think of no recent book which has sustained at such a pitch an intricate yet vigorous argumentation, probing originality, the lyrical evocation of the canvas, and a historical meditation of extraordinary depth."—Lawrence Rainey, London Review of Books
"Professor T.J. Clark has come up with a book at once brilliant, maddening, obscure and elegant which proclaims not the end of history, but the end of modern art."—Martin Gayford, The Spectator
"Clark's subtle, meditative book has at times an anguished tone; he is writing about the failure of an idea which he loves . . . 400 pages of the greatest criticism of modern art I have ever read."—Howard Brenton, Prospect
"Ten years on from the Fall of the Wall, and on the brink of the Millennium, Clark's book has a suitably apocalyptic tone to it. Not for nothing does he invoke the name of that ealier two-initialled fire-breather, F. R. Leavis, who was at least as capable of dividing the world into those who loved him and those who hated him . . . What makes [Clark] really special, however, is his gift for explaining in compelling and accessible language what makes particular artists—and indeed individual works of art—stand out from the crowd."—Apollo, Book of the Year 1999
Chosen as an "Outstanding" Academic Title for 1999 Choice Magazine
"[O]ne of the most far-reaching and monumental studies of modernism in recent years."—Catherine Paul
"A large and ambitious book, bountiful in opinions as it is in colorplates. . . . Farewell to an Idea is an undeniably brilliant and effective book. . . . Clark offers the reader very extensive, and sometimes very evocative, formal analyses of particular paintings—especially of the classic Pollock works from 1947-50."—Stephen F. Eisenman, Art in America
"[This] book contains stunning interpretive revelations. . . . Farewell to an Idea is an undeniably brilliant and effective book."—Stephen F. Eisenman, Art in America
"The most important book about art written this year."—Richard Dorment, Daily Telegraph
"[This] book offers a subtle exploration of the relation between politics and culture over the past two centuries, and in particular of the ways in which Modernism was sustained by its related fin-de-siecle casualty—socialism."—John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph
"An elegy to the complex movement that has dominated painting and sculpture for more than a century, and it is as passionate and provocative as any of his previous publications."—Frank Whitford, Sunday Times
"Farewell to an Idea is an art history like no other, both in terms of conception and the amazing quality of reproduction."—Tariq Ali, The Times
"A monumental slab, an embattled fortress of the mind, Farewell to an Idea is a book whose weight and scope seem to alter the whole geography of art writing."—Julian Bell, Times Literary Supplement
"[A] synthesis of three decades of Clark’s thinking and writing about modern art. . . . [This] thought-provoking work . . . is well worth the effort."—Library Journal
"The essays in this volume are always historically nuanced, aglow with Clark’s deep learning and masterful prose; they will doubtlessly elicit much praise and be the subject of much debate."—Publishers Weekly
"Brilliant and original."—Laurence Rainey, London Review of Books
"I can think of no recent book which has sustained at such a pitch an intricate yet vigorous argumentation, probing originality, the lyrical evocation of the canvas, and a historical meditation of extraordinary depth."—Lawrence Rainey, London Review of Books
"Professor T.J. Clark has come up with a book at once brilliant, maddening, obscure and elegant which proclaims not the end of history, but the end of modern art."—Martin Gayford, The Spectator
"Clark's subtle, meditative book has at times an anguished tone; he is writing about the failure of an idea which he loves . . . 400 pages of the greatest criticism of modern art I have ever read."—Howard Brenton, Prospect
"Ten years on from the Fall of the Wall, and on the brink of the Millennium, Clark's book has a suitably apocalyptic tone to it. Not for nothing does he invoke the name of that ealier two-initialled fire-breather, F. R. Leavis, who was at least as capable of dividing the world into those who loved him and those who hated him . . . What makes [Clark] really special, however, is his gift for explaining in compelling and accessible language what makes particular artists—and indeed individual works of art—stand out from the crowd."—Apollo, Book of the Year 1999
Chosen as an "Outstanding" Academic Title for 1999 Choice Magazine
"[O]ne of the most far-reaching and monumental studies of modernism in recent years."—Catherine Paul
T. J. Clark is Chancellor’s Professor of Modern Art at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France, 1848–51; Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution; and The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780300089103 |
| ISBN 10 | 0300089104 |
| Title | Farewell to an Idea |
| Author | T J Clark |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
| Year published | 2001-02-08 |
| Number of pages | 460 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |