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Shock of the New
by Robert Hughes
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (1988-04)
ISBN: 0394328000
EAN: 9780394328003
Paperback
SKU: 20511
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: Paperback. All pages unmarked and free of writing.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This authoritative, lively book, based on the BBC Time-Life television series, provides a comprehensive survey of the birth and development of modern art and an updated discussion of the European and American art movements in the 70s and 80s including minimalist and public art, 70s American painting, German Neo-Expressionism, art by women, and environmental art. "The Future that Was," the final chapter, is completely rewritten and updated. 75% of the 275 illustrations in the revised edition are in 4-color.
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Customer Reviews
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The Shock of the Used
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-09-10
0 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Even though the seller says it's used, it's often a shock to see all those underlines and highlights. It would be helpful to be specific about the condition of the book.
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outside the vacuum looking inward
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-02-28
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Robert Hughes book and companion documentary on the last hundred years or so on art and what has been produced is very observant. Sometimes I do not entirely agree with him and his view of what is ugly or attractive within art and the context he puts it in. That is no big deal. However, I greatly enjoy his social commentary on art, which I feel is usually right on the money. He is extremely opinionated art critic and a good one too. For those of you that are also very opinionated, to the point of not wanting to hear other points of view, stay away from this book and video.
He observes art, not just as something that gets produced in some whimsical Narnia-like land of closed inward looking groups, but rather, as reaction to the times and events that shape our lives and our world. Art has always been a product of the time in which it was created, it can not be made otherwise. He knows this better than anyone and nails all the hows and whys right on the head, even if, often times, the very artists themselves do not see the relation of the art they have produced as a reaction to the world in which they live and other artists around them. Hughes makes very obvious connection to things I never even considered. While today it is possible to paint or create art in any style ever dreamed up from over the course of human history, the art itself will not have the same value outside a limited number of "in" people, because the art itself is out of context. To be of today you must make art of today. The entire book and video is very forward looking and ends on speculation about the future. His assement of the future of art is a bit bleak but the book is many years old. Still he does hit on the one main point that art is commodity with monetary value beyond its own artistic value has forever changed the way art is perceived. This is key, and with this observation he lays waste to the entire use of art as currency. Because this is what has become of art in our time it has altered the goals and drive of many artists and art appreciators alike. The fact that he hits all this head on is very unique and refreshing. Even today, almost 30 years later this still holds true. Since time has passed I know there is much good art out there made by artists who do not have money on their minds as the driving force behind what they are creating. It's quite obvious today which artists have their hearts and minds in it and which just have money, fame and starry eyes. the soul of a piece is the last great divining rod.
Hughes also connects artist to artist and shows the logical associations artists make with one another and the inspired results that come of this. He also shows when an artist made a leap on his or her own and discusses isolation as well as working within a group. Nothing is left out.
Art can be and do a lot of things but Hughes sees that art, although often propped up, has rarely, if ever, produced huge sweeping social changes. Many of the utopian dreams within architecture are revealed as inhuman failures, empty vacant structures that look good on paper but do not take into account the very human nature they hoped to help.
I get a sense that Hughes loves and enjoys art greatly but he also puts it in it's place within the context of the world around it. This book is a great view into the art of our times. Although it does not cover the most contemporary up to the moment art it brings you up to speed so that you may take the next steps yourself. This is a good book for artists and art appreciators alike. I also recommend the companion video, although it is not available on Amazon.
One more thing I'd like to add is that Hughes teeters happily on the fence between critic and artist. At times I get the sense that he has his own voice to add to the world and uses the guise of the critic as a medium to contribute to art in his own special way. In the video (a medium in its own right) simple techniques are used to either imitate the artists in order to illustrate their intent, or at other times he will tell you flat out what he thinks even if it goes contradictory to an artists own recorded words. Here, often, I agree with him too. Many times artists know not why they are compelled to do something and when it is pegged as one thing or another they will deny it like a child who denies the obvious. Hughes does not shy off speaking his mind, and points out such contradictions because he is sure of himself and his observations. This works well for the viewer or reader of his critiques and observations of art. I am unsure, though, how well one would fare with him in one to one discussion. Lucky for us we will probably never meet him face to face in such a scenario, for were we to do so he would most likely steam roll right over any comment that ran contradictory to his own ideas. Perhaps.
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The story of Modern Art
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-04-12
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The art of the last century viewed through the eyes of one of its best critics. This book is lavishly illustrated, very easy to read, an invaluable introduction to modern and contemporary art (that is, until the early 1990's). Hughes is one of those few critics who know how to admit they can sometimes be wrong (see his mea culpa on Philip Guston's late works), but who is almost always right.
The book itself is divided into chapters which do not necessarily follow a chronology but rather distinguish different themes such as "the mechanical paradise" (Cézanne,cubism, futurism), "the faces of power" (expressionism, Dada, art under Communism or Fascism), or "the landscape of pleasure" (Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Louis, Noland), etc...up to "the future that was" with insights on contemporary art and the art market.
A book that has already become a classic, almost like Gombrich's "the Story of Art".
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The rise and fall of modernism
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-07-13
13 out of 15 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is based on the script for a BBC program. To be a good TV program, it should have a clear and plain storyline which could fit into limited timetable. You can identify such a feature in the form of book, though substantially enlarged. The author did his best to make a clear impression of what was modernism in the visual art on reader (and audience). The author begin the book with what modernist artists perceived as ¡®the new¡¯ in their time. They thought they lived in thoroughly distinct time from the tradition. The new age demanded the new art. Modernism is the logical upshot of their zeitgeist. To understand it, we should pay attention to the interaction between artists and the time.
In this regard, Hughes organized the book not in time order or changing styles but with keywords which summarize the zeitgeist of modernists like machine, power, pleasure, utopia, freedom, popular culture, or future, to endow the reader with the tangible vision to see into the deep question of modernism.
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Not For a Beginner
Rating  (2)
Date: 2002-05-21
10 out of 40 customers found this reveiw helpful
This book is very wordy, the author tends to use French and Italian phrases without translation. The book's cryptic explanations and definitions must be tediously read and re-read, since they do not appear to follow any pattern. Hughes is a pretentious attention seeker. This book is not for anyone outside art students.
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