Art and Pluralism: Lawrence Alloway’s Cultural Criticism

538 Pages·2012·2.793 MB·English

by  Nigel Whiteley

Art and Pluralism
Lawrence Alloway’s Cultural Criticism
Value : Art : Politics welcomes proposals for books of all kinds
committed to the socio-historical study of the value and
meaning of art, past and present.
Series editor
Jonathan Harris
Editorial board members
Professor John Barrell Professor Fred Orton
Independent scholar Independent scholar
Professor David Craven Professor Griselda Pollock
University of New Mexico University of Leeds
Professor Albert Boime Professor Paul Smith
University of California, Los University of Warwick
Angeles
Professor John Tagg
Professor T. J. Clark Binghamton University, State
Independent scholar University of New York
Professor Stephen J. Eisenman Professor Anne M. Wagner
Northwestern University Independent scholar
Professor Jonathan Harris Professor Alan Wallach
University of Liverpool College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg
Professor Amelia Jones
University of Manchester
Art and Pluralism
Lawrence Alloway’s Cultural Criticism
Nigel Whiteley
LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS
art and pluralism
art and pluralism
First published in 2012 by
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Copyright © Liverpool University Press, 2012
Copyright © Liverpool University Press, 2012
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Contents
contents
List of Plates xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Section A: Introduction
1. Alloway and pluralism 3
2. Background 7
3. The British art scene 11
4. Early career 14
Section B: Continuum, 1952–1961
1. Art criticism, 1951–1952 21
2. The ICA in the early 1950s 25
3. The Independent Group: aesthetic problems 28
4. The Independent Group: popular culture 32
5. Art criticism, 1953–1955 38
6. Alloway and abstraction 43
7. Alloway and figurative art 47
8. This Is Tomorrow, 1956 50
9. Information Theory 53
10. Group 12 and Information Theory 56
11. Science fiction 59
12. The cultural continuum model 62
13. Writings about the movies 72
14. Graphics and advertising 78
15. Design 82
viii art and pluralism
16. Architecture and the city 86
17. Channel flows 91
18. Art autre 95
19. The human image 99
20. Modern Art in the United States, 1956 106
21. Action Painting 111
22. First trip to the USA 115
23. The New American Painting, 1958 118
24. Alloway and Greenberg 121
25. Cold wars 125
26. British art and the USA: The Middle Generation 128
27. A younger generation and the avant-garde 132
28. Hard Edge 138
29. Place and the avant-garde, 1959 141
30. Situation and its legacy 147
31. The emergence of Pop art 154
32. Alloway’s departure 159
Section C: Abundance, 1961–1971
1. Arrival in the USA and “Clemsville” 167
2. Junk art 171
3. American Pop 175
4. Curator at the Guggenheim 177
5. Six Painters and the Object and Six More, 1963 180
6. Other writings on Pop 186
7. Art as human evidence 189
8. Alexander Liberman and Paul Feeley 196
9. Systemic Painting, 1966 201
10. Abstraction and iconography 207
11. The communications network 213
12. Departure from the Guggenheim 220
13. Exile in Carbondale 223
14. Arts Magazine 227
contents ix
15. The Venice Biennale 231
16. Return to New York: SVA, SUNY, and The Nation 237
17. Options 239
18. Expanding and disappearing works of art 244
19. Alloway’s Nation criticism 248
20. Newness and the avant-garde 252
21. Post-Minimal radicalism 258
22. Historical revisions: Abstract Expressionism and Picasso 263
23. Mass communications 270
24. Film criticism 274
25. Violent America 279
26. Pluralism as a “unifying theory” 286
Section D: Alternatives, 1971–1988
1. Disorientation and dissent in the art world 291
2. Alloway and the politicization of art, 1968–1970 296
3. Changing values, 1971–1972 304
4. Artforum and the art world as a system 307
5. 1973 and a new pluralism 313
6. The uses and limits of art criticism 320
7. Criticism and women’s art, 1972–1974 326
8. Women’s art and criticism, 1975 334
9. The realist “renewal” 338
10. Photo-Realism 343
11. The realist “revival” 348
12. Realist revisionism 356
13. The decline of the avant-garde 360
14. “Legitimate variables” 364
15. Earth art 368
16. Public art 372
17. In praise of plenty 376
18. Crises in the art world: criticism 378
19. Crises in the art world: feminism 385