History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime (Aesthetics Today)

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An intriguing coverage on the role of beauty in our culture.

Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime (Aesthetics Today)
Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1581150377

Book Description

Refuting established views, this book questions today's ideas of beauty, including those applied to contemporary art, and proposes a secular theory of beauty as being glamorous rather than good, frivolous rather than serious.

Customer Reviews:

An intriguing coverage on the role of beauty in our culture........2000-07-03

Art critic Gilbert-Rolfe explores beauty's changing role and aesthetics in society in Beauty and the Contemporary Sublime, a survey which blends philosophy and discussions of modern art and perceptions of beauty. An intriguing coverage which enters the debate about the role of beauty in our culture.

Average customer rating:

awsome book!
Gorgeous, all color photo large-format review
Amazing book for anyone passionate about Architecture
Comprehensive Overview Of Contemporary Architecture
This book display Steele's architectual knowledge.

Architecture Today
James Steele
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0714840971

Amazon.com

This lushly illustrated, 500-page compendium is indispensable for any student of architecture, and many professional architects should find it a handy, although heavy, reference guide. James Steele covers the world of contemporary architecture with style, insight, historical perspective, and--perhaps most helpful--a powerful sense of organization. In his capable hands, a vast amount of information falls neatly into place under sixteen chapter headings: The Modernist Legacy, European Rationalism, High Tech, Minimalism, The Classical Revival, Post-Modernism, Deconstructivism, Contemporary Vernacular, The New Expressionists, Ecological Architecture, The New Moderns, Populist Architecture, Megastructures, The Los Angeles Avant-Garde, Experimentation in Japan, and World Cities. The balanced text is multi-faceted. Steele can list the sources of Post-Modernist architecture (correcting the popular view that the movement was an attempt to do away with Modernism) or suggestively draw a correspondence between the roofscape of Gustav Peichl's Federal Art Gallery in Bonn and the use of nature in David Lynch's film Blue Velvet.

As with so many architecture books from Phaidon Press, the picture editors and book designers have carefully matched the photographs to the text, and have given precisely the right kind of caption information for each one. The back of the book includes brief architect's biographies, chapter notes, a lengthy bibliography, and a chronology from 1945 to 1997. This beautifully produced book is a one-volume course on postwar architecture and the social and political milieu in which it exists. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

With the collapse of Modernism in the 1960s, architecture has fragmented and evolved in many different directions, each driven by its own ideologies and theories. This book sets out a clear and comprehensive guide to the prominent styles and movements, tracing the work of the main protagonists of contemporary architecture. Architecture Today is divided thematically into sixteen chapters, offering an incisive critique of the predominant trends, stylistic and regional, of the last twenty-five years. These include the Los Angeles Avant-Garde and Experimentation in Japan, as well as the stylistic upheavals of Post-Modernism and Deconstructivism and the global development of Ecological Architecture and the Contemporary Vernacular. Biographies of the architects featured are also included in the book. Free from the jargon that often characterizes architectural criticism, Architecture Today is essential reading for all those interested in architecture, the visual arts and modern culture.

Customer Reviews:

awsome book!.......2007-03-13

this book is great, it takes you through all the big moments in architecture and explains why it happened and how it happened. Great pictures and its easy and fun to read.

Gorgeous, all color photo large-format review.......2006-10-06

This book is 5+ years old now, but it doesn't show it, besides possibly missing some of the most recent developments in the field - the book starts with a brief introduction to modernism, and moves quickly to the iconic photo of the felling of the Pruit Housing project in St. Louis- symbolizing the end of modernism. Post-modern examples quickly give way to the best of contemporary architecture around the world. As other reviewers have mentioned, gorgeous, ALL COLOR photographs in large format dominate this book, as any book about the visual and contextual aspects of architecture should. As another reviewer also points out, the writing is more critical art-historical than typical coffee-table book banter, and makes for a coherent review of architecture, who's size and strenth make it a piece of architecture itself. 5 stars - surprised I'm only the 10th reviewer.

Amazing book for anyone passionate about Architecture.......2005-04-02

I read this book cover to cover during my first year as an architecture student... I can honestly say that Architecture Today increased my knowledge and appreciation of contemporary architecture by leaps and bounds.

James Steele was an English major before switching to architecture; his writing style is simple, coherent, and to the point. The pictures beautifully complement the intelligent essays, and unlike the other eye candy and banal coffee table books out there, Architecture Today will give you an in depth understanding of contemporary architectural styles and theories.

It was a pleasure reading this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone passionate about architecture.

Comprehensive Overview Of Contemporary Architecture.......2004-09-22

James Steele's mammoth compendium of modern architecture is as definitive as can be imagined. The book combines fascinating text, highlighting his years of professional knowledge, with amazing color photographs, to yield one of the most breathtaking large-format architectural books I have ever seen.

Most stunning in this book is the photography. The breadth of buildings photographed is amazing, and all developments in modern architecture including minimalism, post-modernism, European rationalism, and deconstructivism are well covered. I particularly enjoyed the sections on megastructures, world cities, and populist architecture. I noted that London seemed a tad over-represented, but I didn't mind as the examples showcased (The Ark and The Circle, for instance) were so interesting. Also displayed heavily is the deconstructivist Bernard Tschumi, whose Parc de la Villette is modestly interesting, but who otherwise seems a bit more conventional than his reputation would tend to indicate.

My favorites in the book include all the works by Michael Graves, particularly the Benacerraf House Addition, and Ken Yeang's Menara Mesiniaga Tower in Kuala Lumpur, which is a peculiarly skeletal, yet overstated building. Of course there are many other wonders in this book, and I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in contemporary architecture buy it today.

This book display Steele's architectual knowledge........2003-12-07

I had James Steele for many of my architectural professional classes at the University of Southern California. He has a monochromatic voice, funny cold humor and is very knowledgeable as a professor. This book is set up very similar to some of the subjects he teaches at USC and in somewhat the in same chronological order. This book is complementary to Trachenberg's "Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernism." which was also a very thick and insightful book. As an architectural student I had to get Trachenberg for a class, but flipping through Steele I knew they were both on the same highly written quality. Where Trachenberg left off describing architecture of the past, Steele brings us up to speed with the architecture in the modern era.

Steele explored many of the architectural style architects fall into today like: Deconstructivism, Vernacular, Expressionists, Minimalism, etc. He smoothly stratifies how architectural ideology emerges from evolving from on another and sometime on its own. The project he uses for his reference are many well-known and some less popular, but all bench mark in architectural innovation and important. Steele's descriptions of architecture are helped from outside references. He cross-references architecture with the community, pop culture, people, philosophies that shapes, influences and constitutes architecture over time. The photos are of high qualities with good angles. Some are small and some fill up a whole page.

Customer Reviews:

Clear summary and pictures of contemporary art.......2001-08-03

Better than a coffee table book(but works for that too), ARTODAY contains several features that make it desirable. The first of these being nice large clear examples - pictures. The representations of work are varied and important, the "who's who" and "must know" of the art world from 1960 on. Secondly, the writings on the work are, like the pictures, clear and to the point; expressing the concept and/or contexts of the artists or works susinctly. Finally, the artist/works/concepts have been organized into 18 catagories from "Land Art, Light and Space, Body Art" and "The Survival of Abstraction" to "The Far East". This ordering tends to contain the great variety of works by themes thus making very clear developments and interests of contemporary artists. Having clear images, text, and catagories together in this way make for a table book that is actually interesting to look at and read.

This would be a very good book for those who are interested in a general overview of contemporary art, but don't have time or resources to go in depth. For example, I personally am considering this to be one of several texts for a upper level studio art class; believing the students lacking art history credits will greatly benefit from its overview. While I feel some important artists were overlooked and it is heavily "western" it does a significantly better job than most books of its kind.

necessary for todays artist.......2000-08-11

Artoday is so well organized and complete. it covers modern art history, artists and includes so many pictures! its insparational and innovating

the master work on modern art........2000-04-02

I am a big fan of mordern art. There are many books on modern arts around the world. But my favorit book on modern art is the ARTODAY. This is book is extremely well made and fun to read(well written reviews on each artists and their works). It contains so many interesting works of modern art on many different medias. Modern arts are usually hard to be seen from museums or galleries. but If you have this this book, you wouldn't have to worry about that. It is amazing how many and different art works and artists are covered in this book. I am totally in love with this book. if you think you like modern art, this is the book that you must buy.......trust me....

Redeeming Art: Critical Reveries (Asthetics Today)

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Redeeming Art: Critical Reveries (Asthetics Today)
Donald Kuspit
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1581150555

Book Description

This choice collection of essays scrutinizes the aesthetic developments of the last twenty-five years, from Abstract Expressionism to the most recent permutation of Postmodernism.

Amazon.com

What ever happened to beauty? Since the late 1960s she seems to have been in exile. Postmodern artists traded her in for flirtations with truth, strength, and purity of form. It was then that women started stripping off their heavy makeup and Barbie doll clothing in an effort to gain equal footing with men. And men, anxious too to break some of society's molds, shed their business suits and leisurewear--then the paragons of male beauty. But as art critic Dave Hickey unwittingly predicted during the '80s, that quality--which Plato believed to be eternal and absolute--is the "issue of the '90s."

After three decades of playing wallflower because she was thought by many artists to be frivolous, easy, tired, and even shallow, beauty is dancing again. Uncontrollable Beauty is filled with exciting essays by artists, critics, curators, and philosophers whose definitions of this elusive quality are often at odds with the Platonic ideal. When beauty besets critic Peter Schjeldahl, his mind is "hyperalert," his body eases, and he is often aware of his "shoulders coming down as unconscious muscular tension lets go." Renowned sculptor Louise Bourgeois also experiences beauty as opposed to encountering it: "Beauty is a series of experiences. It is not a noun ... beauty in and of itself does not exist." Artist and coeditor Bill Beckley blames beauty's banishment on Wittgenstein--who, in a 1938 lecture at Cambridge, said that beauty is most often meant as an interjection "similar to Wow! or rubbing one's stomach"--and his undue influence on conceptual artists of the '60s and '70s. Each essay collected here is rigorous in its definition of this elusive yet powerful force in art and aesthetics. Taken together, the writings are an invigorating read for artists and viewers alike.

Book Description

The notion of beauty and its relationship to contemporary art is once again arousing passionate discussion and wide-spread debate among artists, writers, critics, and curators. Uncontrollable Beauty is the first anthology to capture this new wave of critical discourse, examining the role of beauty in twentieth-century art and culture in order to redefine it for a new generation of artists and writers.

Encompassing three central themes: Theory, Ownership, and Practice, the thirty essays, writings, and poems explore how we define beauty, where we locate it in art, and its complex links to issues of gender, morality, and universalism. Included are works by John Ashbery, Agnes Martin, and Carter Ratcliff, as well as a conversation with Julia Kristeva and an exclusive interview with Louise Bourgeois. Anyone wanting to stay current with contemporary art criticism will find this book a stimulating selection of dialogue, debate, and philosophical insight.

Contributors: John Ashbery; Louise Bourgeois; Hubert Damisch; Arthur Danto; Max Fierst; David Freedberg; Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe; John Hejduk; Dave Hickey; James Hillman; Ariane Lopez-Huici; Kenneth Koch; Julia Kristeva; Donald Kuspit; Jaqueline Lichtenstein; Agnes Martin; Thomas McEvilley; Robert Morgan; Frank O'Hara; Carter Ratcliff; William Rubin; Meyer Schapiro; Peter Schjeldahl; David Shapiro; Robert Farris Thompson; Kirk Varnedoe; Marjorie Welish; John Yau.

Uncontrollable Beauty is co-published with the School of Visual Arts as part of the Aesthetics Today series.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent book.......2005-07-25

The role of beauty in contemporary art has become a hot topic and this compilation of writings and interviews presents a group of well written and well considered perspectives. I've just finished it and am re-reading many of the essays, as I consider them cogent and inspirational.

A refreshing antidote to the dilemna of today.......2001-05-02

UNCONTROLLABLE BEAUTY: Toward a New Aesthetic is easily some of the most beautiful writing I've ever encountered. Editor Beckley ( who also writes well) has selected poets, critics, painters, sculptors, philosophers to write about where we place Beauty on the scale of art importance in the past thirty years. The very fact that this issue is being addressed bodes well for those of us who have been concerned about recent past trends in art of all forms. Being ugly, controversial, in your face, violent, frivolous, mocking, sadistic has been the criteria for what gets press and thus what the public is spoon-fed as what is "in". So many of us tire of these stale and selfish agendas which don't seem to have a life much past the opening of the show that features them. But why did we get that way? Is there a possibility that we have become so overinformed as to how to see that that most sacred aspect of creativity - beauty - has become a dinosaur? Accordingly to lyrically beautiful essays the answer is a decided "No!". Almost every way of describing beauty, feeling beauty, thinking beauty, seeking beauty is given in this eloquent book. This is not always easy reading.....but there is beauty in making the effort, too. Bravo and welcome back to the age of hope!

The End of the Art World (Aesthetics Today Series)

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Insightful
Do It For Kicks

The End of the Art World (Aesthetics Today Series)
Robert Morgan
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1581150105

Book Description

The most significant change in the art world over the past two decades has not been the evolution of a new style or movement but in how art is promoted and marketed. After prices accelerated in the 1980s, today's art world is beginning to look more like a multi-national corporation than a cultural institution.

Acclaimed critic, poet, and historian Robert C. Morgan presents a stimulating collection of writings on the separation of the "art world" from the realities of the artist community, arguing for a new qualitative standard in art, not only in painting and sculpture, but also in literature, music, video, photography, conceptual art, and installations. Poignantly and powerfully written, he calls for an end to the art world as we know it, a world governed by the trends of fashion, media, and popular entertainment, and proposes a return to aesthetics and a new inner-directedness in art.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful.......2003-03-09

Would that it were so - that artists today understood, or at least vaguely approached, the metaphysical impetus that spurred artists through the centuries, up to and including the first modernists such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Klee, and Brancusi. Only a rare few artists today remain on track and seem to know what being an artist entails -- Martin, Steir, Colomar, Laib, Marden.... The vast majority are occupying themselves in meaningless egomania. Art is focused on, at best, a quick, zippy, kitschy riff on popular culture, no more or less engaging that a mildly clever advertizing billboard. Robert C. Morgan is on target in his diagnosis that art has lost its way, that it no longer even knows enough to seek to strike a deep and lasting internal cord, and that the establishment of curators and critics generally are clueless to find and present weighty art.

Do It For Kicks.......2003-02-07

"To deal with serious art requires a certain preparation of the mind, a relaxed synthesis whereby the mind comes into contact with the body, where there is a rejuvenation of seeing, and where thought is required to pull the act of seeing into the sensorium of feeling..." - R.C.M.

It could hardly be better stated that body, head and heart must be up to the game of both making and perceiving art. Like Jed Perl's "Eyewitness", this book asks for a more personal art and art world, where the invisible threads of theoreticians no longer bind imagination, where art is done for kicks.

A sticky discussion of meta-critics (almost, but not quite, art philosophers) ends with the hope that criticism can help the quality of art by intervening between art and market/fashion manipulation. Morgan's guess for the future of art is more kitsch, but hopefully revealing rather than reinforcing market culture.

Average customer rating:

Wonderful book

Inspired reading!

Not bad book

Recommended reading for the serious, practicing artist.

The Artist's Quest of Inspiration (Aesthetics Today)
Peggy Hadden
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Quotable Artist

The Creative Artist: A Fine Artist's Guide to Expanding Your Creativity and Achieving Your Artistic Potential

Fearless Creating (Inner Workbook.)

Affirmations for Artists

The New Creative Artist: A Guide To Developing Your Creative Spirit

ASIN: 1581153589

Book Description

Updated to inspire a new generation of visual artists in their quest for creative growth, this book shows artists how they can experience a new awakening of creativity and add fresh meaning to their work by using simple techniques found in this inspirational guide. A working artist who has coped successfully with the daily challenge of facing a blank canvas shares her methods for overcoming creative blocks.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book.......2007-05-15

I have often been accused of having too much imagination.
But this book made me say wow a couple of times, due to its usefulness and simplicity.
I have to read this book in little bits because before long I am jumping up and running to my drawing table because inspiration has struck,or some idea has been presented that I MUST explore furthur.
That is what I call a gem of a book.
Even nicer is that it is a book that anyone who does creative work or hobbies can use.
I dont give a 5 lightly, but I'm doing it for this book.

Inspired reading!.......2005-01-11

The Artist's Quest for Inspiration is a book that will appeal to artists at many different stages of their career and in most artistic fields. If you are creative at any level this is a title that will help you find new ways of being inspired.

The author offers many suggestions to help you break through any creative blocks such as: journal writing, working with other artists, meditation, and music... just to name a few techniques! Throughout The Artist's Quest for Inspiration you will find highlighted ideas for you to try. One of them that I like in particular goes like this:

`I think creative responses are helped by singing old songs. I know it can lift my mood. Even in private, singing can help you remember incidents from your past that might have drifted off to a corner of your mind's attic.'

This is NOT a how-to book with step-by-step instructions in using various media or lessons in perspective etc. However, this is a book that will draw on your true creativity and individual offerings to the world that will truly reflect what you have to offer.

The author has done a fabulous job in providing you with a multitude of `block' busters that will help you break through any creative barriers you may be suffering from. Even if you don't suffer from this problem The Artist's Quest for Inspiration is bound to provide you with even more energising ideas than you already have! The language is easy to understand and friendly.

I would recommend this book to anyone involved in a creative pursuit - particularly if you are looking for new ideas - but also for those of you looking for a fresh approach. I must admit that I don't suffer from a shortage of ideas, but this title certainly gave me a lot more to think about!

Not bad book.......2002-09-01

Book has interesting exercises. Many which I had done.
There is one GLARING mistake in this book
The publishers printed twice the last two chapters,index and bibliography. !
One in the proper place an the mistake is starts at page 235
...
I would repurchase it if Allworth press came out with a new
edition.

Recommended reading for the serious, practicing artist........2000-03-05

Working artist Peggy Hadden shares her secrets for overcoming artistic blocks, from meditation to exercises designed to release artistic expression. Her book Artist's Quest For Inspiration reveals insights on how creativity is awakened, covering subjects ranging from working with other artists to revisiting childhood and creating an inspirational work and play environment. A fine gift for the practicing, serious artist.

The Dialectic of Decadence: Between Advance and Decline in Art (Asthetics Today)

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Don't Diddle Declares Kuspit

The Dialectic of Decadence: Between Advance and Decline in Art (Asthetics Today)
Donald Kuspit
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1581150520

Customer Reviews:

Don't Diddle Declares Kuspit.......2000-07-27

It can be read in several hours. It can be studied for several more. And it can be thought about for days on end. Donald Kuspit's The Dialectic of Decadence (129 pp.) is actually a republished essay. "Essay" comes from the French word "to try," and Kuspit does try to lay out the problems of contemporary art. We get to try to figure it out with him, since the book provides plenty of information besides the long essay: wonderful notes (themselves a concise education in art and esthetics), photos of the art mentioned in the book, and two Afterwords, one recently written by the author as an update.

Kuspit's theory is suggested in the subtitle of the book: Between Advance and Decline in Art. To quote a sentence from the Afterword: "In decadence, creativity ends neither with a bang nor a whimper, but with ideology, intimidation, and megalomania." Against the jingoism of much of the contemporary debate, with its Puritanism and ego-tripping, Donald Kuspit comes out strongly against narrowness, and for wholeness in creativity.

Such a wish is not exactly a new idea. What makes his wish so potent is the discerning way he sets it up. Calling on Freud, Semiotics, art critics, artists, knowledge of art history, and photographs of art, Kuspit lays out the historic development of the contemporary battle between (dialectic of) control and desire, between intellectualization and expressiveness. "In modernity, art remains fundamentally divided against itself, separating into semioticizing superegoistic and desiring expressive parts..."

Well, that takes care of Freudian and postmodern biases in one swoop! Usually however, Kuspit writes in a style that, while learned, is much more readable than much art writing. Although some of the ground he covers is not easy, he writes with clarity and without the dense prose of, say, ARTFORUM. Readers will have to bring their brains, but not dictionaries nor tolerance for a self-consciously erudite writer.

Kuspit clarifies the "dialectic of decadence" of the title by using examples. Donald Judd is the representative of high abstraction, with Sandro Chia and Baselitz Judd's main whipping boys. Judd becomes the bad guy, a prime example of dogmatic ideology. Kuspit quotes Judd (as he "enhances his own work") by linking Chia, Baselitz, and other artists to the dreaded "decadence." Here's Judd: "The public doesn't know, for example, that after Kirchner and Nolde, whom probably they don't know by name, there have been hundreds of painters flailing Expressionism, so that when they see Baselitz whipping a dead horse they expect it to stand up, or at least roll over." Kuspit also points out that the other side, figurative and/or expressive art, enters the dialectic by flinging at ideological art the barb "advanced abstraction is socio-communicatively inadequate." The book would have a pox on both their houses, although it is mostly upset with Judd. The author claims that each sect in art today is acting like a child, arrogating all goodness to itself, projecting all badness on the other, "decadent," side. The lack of wholeness, of real creativity, in this dialectic between the overly conceptual and the overly expressive is a bane of the contemporary scene.

Since the dialectic is not simple, Kuspit goes to some depth about decadence, about our human fear of it, about Freud's take on it, and the twisted way we need to see it in others to avoid our fears. He reveals the complexity of desire and its repression, and the dialectic of this in art and modern people. It all gets complex, but this IS an essay, and he and we are "trying" to understand, not being entertained.

On second thought, there are two problems with the book. The first is that terms are sometimes used confusingly. The terms "abstract art," "modern art," and "modernity" are over extended. With some art history background, the reader can set up his own dialectic with Kuspit about these terms. Still, they are never entirely clear.

There is a more important weakness. Kuspit quotes Nietzsche's view that "there is always anarchy among the atoms, disintegration of the will...Everywhere paralysis, distress and numbness, or hostility and chaos...The Whole no longer lives at all: it so composed, reckoned up, artificial, a fictitious thing." The book then agrees, "Such disintegration and artificial wholeness - the sum of decadence - is the only way of being modern..." Although in his Afterword Kuspit conditions this pessimism by saying there's no hope of being whole as a modern artist until the pursuit of novelty as novelty ceases, there is still an important point missed here. Are there really no models of de-fragmenting in contemporary existence? Doesn't the very atomistic state of science and nature also include an aspect of design and order in chaos, of wholeness? The scientist Edward O. Wilson uses the term "consilience," suggesting that apparent fragmentation might well have wholeness. And artists, looking closely at the world of nature from which they spring, likewise might find a sense of wholeness.

Overall though, The Dialectic of Decadence shines a bright light on the fragmented state of art. Kuspit is especially passionate and learned in lamenting how artists and critics use "decadence" to widen the divisions between what should be a harmony of heart and mind: art.

Average customer rating:

Too Easy

A superb survey of 20th century sculpture.

THE book on contemporary sculpture!

A unique work

This is the best--art, philosophy, history, at once!

Sculpture in the Age of Doubt (Aesthetics Today)
Thomas McEvilley
Manufacturer: Allworth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Sculpture | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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The Language of Sculpture, With 155 Illustrations

Modern Sculpture: A Concise History (World of Art)

Art and Discontent: Theory at the Millennium

ASIN: 1581150237

Customer Reviews:

Too Easy.......2002-09-05

This book has many fine insights and analyses of artworks, as has alreday been said in previous online reviews. But the theoretical construction of a "Modernism" as an "age of certainty" totally devoted to the dogmas og Kantian aesthetics is highly problematic. All interesting art since 1850 has posed questions and tread unknown ground. Scepticism and doubt is no new or postModern thing.

This is one of several of McEvilley's theoretical constructions where he goes about important issues way too easily.

A superb survey of 20th century sculpture........2000-03-03

Thomas McEvilley's Sculpture In The Age Of Doubt examines 20th century sculpture with an eye to considering the major issues surrounding modern styles and choices. This is the only modern critical work to examine the evolution of Modern sculpture's styles from early works to contemporary representations.

THE book on contemporary sculpture!.......1999-10-21

I am an artist and this book speaks directly to me. Not that it wouldn't be useful to others too--I'm sure it would. It is the most informative source on recent sculpture, and has the clearest and smartest way into it all. There is so much to learn that I am now reading it for the second time. I find it especially useful the way it puts the practice of sculpture into a larger context so I can gauge my own place in history. It's not primarily a picture book but still the pictures are ones you will remember--and often ones you wouldn't normally see. Plus, what it all gets down to is, it's both beautifully written and fun--a really good read.

A unique work.......1999-09-09

For sculptors there is simply no other work like this: a summary of 20th Century philosophy told through the sculpture of our time. It is a unique vehicle that someone should have thought of long before. Just the title alone is almost all we need to know about the social background against which we must devise the reflections of our times. It is a time of doubt, lacking a master narrative that we would elucidate as artists. McEvilley sees this not as a time of despair but rather similar to other times before wherein the lack of a master plan is something that is regarded as freedom. The book covers about two dozen prominent sculptors, everything from the Readymades of Marcel Duchamp to the poetic variations of Tony Cragg, the bizarreness of Dennis Oppenheim and the peaceful strangeness of James Croak. A good read. Heartily recommended.

This is the best--art, philosophy, history, at once!.......1999-09-01

McEvilley not only takes you more deeply into art than other authors, even more, he is the only one who can really relate art to philosophy, political history, and cultural theory in general. This book is very much about art, but also about so much more! He really explains where we are at, culturally, right now!

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