Hal Foster

Harold Foss "Hal" Foster (1955) is an American art critic and historian. He is Townsend Martin '17 Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton and co-editor of October.

Works

(in English unless noted)

Books

• The Mink's Cry, Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1982. A children's story; illustrated by Milo Mottola. [1]

• editor, The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983, xvi+159 pp, PDF; repr., New York: New Press, 2002. Essays by Foster (preface), Habermas, Frampton, Krauss, Crimp, Owens, Ulmer, Jameson, Baudrillard, Said. Reviews list.
  • La posmodernidad, Barcelona: Kairós, 1985, 238 pp., IA, ARG. (Spanish)
  • Han bigaku: posuto modan no shosō [反美学 : ポストモダンの諸相], Tokyo: Keisō Shobō, 1987, 308 pp. (Japanese)
  • Fan mei xue: hou xian dai wen hua lun ji [反美學 : 後現代文化論集], Xin dian shi: Li xu, 1998, 270 pp. (Chinese)

• Recodings: Art, Spectacle, Cultural Politics, Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1985, IA, ARG. A collection of criticism published 1982-85 mostly in Art in America and October, 9 texts, revised.
  • Recodificação: arte, espetáculo, política cultural, São Paulo: Paulista, 1996, 295 pp. (Brazilian Portuguese)

• editor, Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Number One, Seattle: Bay Press, and New York: Dia Art Foundation, 1987, 172 pp, OL, IA, ARG. [2] Based on a series of 6 weekly discussions organised by Foster at Dia Art Foundation in NYC, 10 Feb-17 Mar 1987. Texts by Crow, Rosler, Owens, Crimp, Kruger, Wodiczko, Fried, Krauss, Buchloh, Graham, Rankin, Kolbowski, Clifford, Dominguez, Minh-ha, Jardine, Feher.

• editor, Vision and Visuality (Discussions in Contemporary Culture, 2), Seattle: Bay Press, and New York: Dia Art Foundation, 1988, 134 pp., IA, ARG. [3] [4] Based on a day-long symposium held on 30 Apr 1988 at Dia's exhibition space in NYC. Texts by Jay, Crary, Krauss, Bryson, Rose.
  • Shikakuron [視覚論], trans. Kurenuma Norihisa, Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2000, 215 pp. (Japanese)

• Compulsive Beauty, MIT Press, 1993, 344 pp, PDF, IA, ARG. [5] A deconstructive reading of surrealism; based on author's dissertation. Reviews: Elkins (1994), Genova (1996), O'Brien (1997).
  • Belleza compulsiva, trans. Tamata Stuby, Buenos Aires: Adriana Hidalgo, 2008, 335 pp. Excerpt. Review: Eseverri. (Spanish)
  • Zoraki güzellik, trans. Şebnem Kaptan, Istanbul: Ayrıntı, 2011, 255 pp. (Turkish)

• The Return of the Real: Art and Theory at the End of the Century, MIT Press, 1996, 321 pp, ARG, Chs. 1-2, Chs. 5-7. [6] Suggests that after the models of art-as-text in the 1970s and art-as-simulacrum in the 1980s, we are now witness to a return to the real—to art and theory grounded in the materiality of actual bodies and social sites.
  • El retorno de lo real: la vanguardia a finales de siglo, trans. Alfredo Brotons Muñoz, Madrid: Akal, 2001, PDF, ARG. (Spanish)
  • Silchae ŭi kwihwan: 20-segi mal ui Abanggarŭdŭ, Pusan Kwangyŏksi: Kyŏsŏng Taehakkyo Ch'ulp'anbu, 2003, 362 pp. (Korean)
  • Le retour du réel: la situation actuelle de l'avant-garde, trans. Yves Cantaine, Frank Pierobon and Daniel Vander Gucht, Brussels: La lettre volée, 2005, 277 pp. (French)
  • Il ritorno del reale: l'avanguardia alla fine del Novecento, Milan: Postmedia, 2006, 255 pp. (Italian)
  • Gerçeğin geri dönüşü: yüzyılın sonunda avangard, trans. Esin Hoşsucu, Istanbul: Ayrıntı, 2009, 282 pp. (Turkish)
  • Powrót realnego: awangarda u schyłku XX wieku, trans. Mateusz Borowski and Małgorzata Sugiera, Kraków: Universitas, 2010, 281 pp. [7] (Polish)

• editor, with Gordon Hughes, Richard Serra, MIT Press, 2000, 205 pp. Essays by Buchloh, Michelson, Bois, Crimp, Krauss, Foster.

• Design and Crime (And Other Diatribes), Verso, 2002, 176 pp; Verso, 2010, 192 pp. Ch 2. [8] On "political economy of design: .. the marketing of culture and the branding of identity, the development of spectacle-architecture and the rise of global cities." Parts were first published in the London Review of Books. Reviews: Mudede (2002), Howard (2003), Atzmon (2006).
  • Design & crime, Milan: Postmedia, 2002, 141 pp. (Italian)
  • Diseño y delito y otras diatribas, trans. Alfredo Brotons Muñoz, Madrid: Akal, 2004, 176 pp. (Spanish)
  • Tasarım ve suç: müze - mimarlık - tasarım, trans. Elçin Gen, Istanbul: İletişim, 2004, 198 pp. (Turkish)
  • Dizajn i zločin (i druge polemike), trans. Goran Vujasinović, Zagreb: V.B.Z., 2006, 156 pp. (Croatian)
  • Design & crime, trans. Christophe Jacquet, Laure Manceau, Gauthier Herrmann, et al., Paris: Les Prairies ordinaires, 2008, 184 pp. (French)
  • Dezain to hanzai [デザインと犯罪], trans. Igarashi Kōji, Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2011, 267 pp. (Japanese)
  • Design & Verbrechen und andere Schmähreden, trans. Thomas Atzert, Berlin: Tiamat 2012, 222 pp. (German)
  • Design a zločin, Prague: Fra, forthcoming. (Czech)

• with Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, London: Thames & Hudson, 2004, 704 pp, PDF, IA; 2nd ed., rev., 2012, 816 pp. [9] Reviews: Bishop (2005), Collings (2005), Gewen (2005), Bryson (2005), Karmel (2005), Sá (2005 PT), Richard (LRB 2006), Dahlberg (2006).
  • Arte desde 1900: modernidad, antimodernidad, posmodernidad, trans. Fabián Chueca, Francisco López and Alfredo Brotons Mun̋oz, Madrid: Akal, 2006, 704 pp. (Spanish)
  • Arte dal 1900 : modernismo, antimodernismo, postmodernismo, trans. Elio Grazioli, Bologna: Zanichelli, 2006, 704 pp. (Italian)
  • Umění po roce 1900: modernismus, antimodernismus, postmodernismus, trans. Josef Hrdlička, Irena Ellis and Jitka Sedláčková, Prague: Slovart, 2007, 704 pp. (Czech)
  • Iskusstvo s 1900 goda: modernizm, antimodernizm, postmodernizm [Искусство с 1900 года: модернизм, антимодернизм, постмодернизм], trans. G. Abdushelishvili, et al., Moscow: Ad Marginem, 2015, 816 pp. [10] (Russian)

• Prosthetic Gods, MIT Press, 2004, 455 pp. Argues that two forms came to dominate modernist art above all others: the primitive and the machine; follows upon Foster's Compulsive Beauty. Reviews: Cohen (2005), Bowring (2005), Hopkins (2005), Cooper (2006).
  • Dioses prostéticos, trans. Alfredo Brotons Muñoz, Madrid: Akal, 2008, 383 pp. (Spanish)

• editor, with Mark Francis, Pop, London: Phaidon, 2005. [11]

• The Art-Architecture Complex, Verso, 2011, 316 pp, EPUB. [12] Argues that a fusion of architecture and art is a defining feature of contemporary culture; identifies a "global style" of architecture—as practiced by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano—analogous to the international style of Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies. Reviews: Moore (2011), Long (2012), Cava (2012), Home (2013), Petts (2014).
  • El complejo arte-arquitectura, trans. José Adrián Vitier, Madrid: Turner, 2013, 346 pp. (Spanish)
  • Sanat mimarlık kompleksi: Küreselleşme çağında sanat, mimarlık ve tasarımın birliği, trans. Serpil Özaloğlu, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2013, 365 pp. (Turkish)
  • Āto kenchiku fukugōtai [アート建築複合態], trans. Takimoto Masashi, Tokyo: Kajimashuppankai, 2014, 374 pp. (Japanese)

• with Rem Koolhaas, Junkspace / Running Room, Notting Hill Editions, 2013. [13]

• The First Pop Age: Painting and Subjectivity in the Art of Hamilton, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Richter, and Ruscha, Princeton University Press, 2012, 352 pp. [14] [15] Suggests that the work of Hamilton, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Richter and Ruscha in the mid-to-late 1950s registers most suggestively a shift in the status of image and subjectivity. Reviews: Wagner (LRB 2012), Ionescu (2014).
  • Daiichi poppu jidai : hamiruton rikutensutain uōhōru rihitā rushē aruiwa poppu āto o meguru itsutsu no imēji [第一ポップ時代 : ハミルトン, リクテンスタイン, ウォーホール, リヒター, ルシェー, あるいはポップアートをめぐる五つのイメージ], trans. Nakano Tsutomu, Tokyo: Kawadeshobōshinsha, 2014. (Japanese)

• Bad New Days: Art, Criticism, Emergency, Verso, 2015, 208 pp, PDF. Examines the evolution of art and criticism in Western Europe and North America over the last 25 years, exploring their dynamic relation to the general condition of emergency instilled by neoliberalism and the war on terror; and offers several paradigms for the art of recent years, which he terms “abject,” “archival,” “mimetic,” and “precarious.“ Reviews: Steven (Affirmations 2015), Dillon (Guardian 2015), Wetzler (ArtNews 2015).

Essays

• "The Problem of Pluralism", Art in America, Jan 1982; rev. as "Against Pluralism", in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 13-32.
  • Contra el pluralismo, trans. Desiderio Navarro, Valencia: Episteme, 1998, 24 pp; repr. in La Gaceta de Cuba 5, La Habana, Sep-Oct 2000, pp 34-39. (Spanish)
• "Between Modernism and the Media", Art in America (Summer 1982); rev. in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 33-58.
• "Subversive Signs", Art in America (Nov 1982); rev. in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 99-118.
• "The Expressive Fallacy", Art in America (Jan 1983); rev. in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 59-78.
• "The Art of Spectacle", Art in America (Apr 1983); rev. as "Contemporary Art and Spectacle", in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 79-98.
• "For a Concept of the Political in Art", Art in America (Apr 1984); rev. as "For a Concept of the Political in Contemporary Art", in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 139-156.
• "(Post)Modern Polemics", New German Critique 33 (Fall 1984); repr. in Perspecta 21 (1984); rev. in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 121-138.
• "The 'Primitive' Unconscious of Modern Art", October 34 (Fall 1985), pp 45-70; rev. as "The 'Primitive' Unconscious of Modern Art, or White Skin Black Masks", in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 181-210.
• "Readings in Cultural Resistance", in Foster, Recodings, 1985, pp 157-180.
• "The Crux of Minimalism", in Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945-1986, ed. Howard Singerman, Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art, and New York: Abbeville Press, 1986, pp 162-183; repr. as ch 2 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 35-70, n241-248; rev. as "Torn Screens", ch 7 in Foster, Prosthetic Gods, 2004, pp 256-301.

• "Armor Fou", October 56: High/Low: Art and Mass Culture (Spring 1991), pp 64-97.
• "Convulsive Identity", October 57 (Summer 1991), pp 18-54.
• "Postmodernism in Parallax", October 63 (Winter 1993), pp 3-20.
• "What's Neo about the Neo-Avant-Garde?", October 70 (1994), pp 5-32; repr. as "Who's Afraid of the Neo-Avant-Garde?", ch 1 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 1-33, n230-241.
  • "Co je nového na neovantgardě?", trans. David Kulhánek, Sešit 8, Prague, 2010, pp 58-94. (Czech)

• "The Artist as Ethnographer?", in The Traffic in Culture, eds. George Marcus and Fred Myers, University of California Press, 1995, pp 302-309; repr. as "The Artist as Ethnographer", ch 6 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 171-203, n274-283.

• "The Passion of the Sign", ch 3 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 71-96, n249-253.
• "The Art of Cynical Reason", ch 4 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 99-124, n253-260. [16]
• "The Return of the Real", ch 5 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 127-168, n260-274.
• "Whatever Happened to Postmodernism?", ch 7 in Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, pp 205-226, n283-292.

• "Death in America", October 75 (Winter 1996), pp 36-59.
• "The Archive without Museums", October 77 (Summer 1996), pp 97-119; rev. as "Antinomies of Art History", ch 6 in Foster, Design and Crime, 2002, pp 83-103, n157-165.
• "Obscene, Abject, Traumatic", October 78 (Autumn 1996), pp 106-124; rev. as "Abject", ch 1 in Foster, Bad New Days, 2015.
• "An Art of Missing Parts", October 92 (Spring 2000), pp 128-156.
• "The Great US Election Disaster: The 2000 US Presidential Election", London Review of Books 22:23, 30 Nov 2000, pp 36-37.
• "Blinded Insights: On the Modernist Reception of the Art of the Mentally Ill", October 97 (Summer 2001), pp 3-30.
• "The ABCs of Contemporary Design", October 100 (Spring 2002), pp 191-199.
  • "Voces en vanguardia. Pequeño diccionario de ideas del diseño actual", Arquitectura Viva 93, Nov-Dec 2003, pp 23-31. (Spanish)
  • "Un breve diccionario de las ideas actuales sobre diseño", trans. Invoca, Quintana 3 (2004), pp 57-70. (Spanish)
• "Archives of Modern Art", October 99 (Winter 2002), pp 81-95; rev. as ch 5 in Foster, Design and Crime, 2002.
• "On the First Pop Age", New Left Review 19, Jan-Feb 2003.
  • "Acerca de la primera era del pop art", New Left Review ES 19, Jan-Feb 2003, pp 68-87.
• "In New York: plans for Ground Zero", London Review of Books 25:6, 20 Mar 2003, pp 16-17. [17]
• "Dada Mime", October 105: Dada (Summer 2003), pp 166-176.
• "An Archival Impulse", October 110 (Fall 2004), pp 3-22; rev. as "Archival", ch 2 in Foster, Bad New Days, 2015.
• "Vision Quest: The Cinema of Harun Farocki", Artforum (Nov 2004), pp 156-161 & 250.
• "Yellow Ribbons: kitsch in Bush’s America", London Review of Books 27:13, 7 Jul 2005, pp 29-31. [18]
• "It’s Modern but is it contemporary?: The Trouble with MoMA", London Review of Books 26:24, 16 Dec 2004, pp 23-25.
• "The Medium is the Market: Business Art", London Review of Books 30:19, 9 Oct 2008, pp 23-24. [19]
• editor, "Questionnaire on the Contemporary", October 130 (Fall 2009), pp 3-124.
  • "Contemporary Extracts", e-flux 12 (1/2010).
• "Test Subjects", October 132 (Spring 2010), pp 30-42.
• "Savage Minds (A Note on Brutalist Bricolage)", October 136 (Spring 2011), pp 182-191.
• "Toward a Grammar of Emergency", in Thomas Hirschhorn: Establishing a Critical Corpus, ed. Thomas Bizzarri, Zürich: JRP/Ringier, 2011, pp 162-213; repr. as "Towards a Grammar of Emergency", New Left Review 68, Mar-Apr 2011, pp 105-118, [20]; upd. as "Precarious", ch 4 in Foster, Bad New Days, 2015.
  • "Hacia una gramatica de la emergencia", New Left Review ES 68, Mar-Apr 2011, pp 93-104. (Spanish)
• "The Last Column: Remnants of 9/11", London Review of Books 33:17, 8 Sep 2011, p 17. On the 9/11 Museum.
• "On Richard Hamilton", London Review of Books 33:19, 6 Oct 2011, p 37. [21]
• "Post-Critical", October 139 (Winter 2012), pp 3-8; repr. in The Brooklyn Rail, 10 Dec 2012; rev. as "Post-Critical?", ch 5 in Foster, Bad New Days, 2015. On Rancière and Latour.
• "Creaturely Cobra", October 141 (Summer 2012), pp 4-21.
• "After the White Cube", London Review of Books 37:6, 19 Mar 2015, pp 25-26. Asks what art museums are for.
• "Dailiness According to Demand", October 158, Fall 2016, pp 100-112.

More

• Essays in October
• Articles in Artforum
• Articles in London Review of Books
• Articles in New Left Review, (in spanish)

Conversations, interviews

• with Rosalind Krauss, Silvia Kolbowski, Miwon Kwon, and Benjamin Buchloh, "The Politics of the Signifier: A Conversation on the Whitney Biennial", October 66 (Autumn 1993), pp 3-27
• with Renée Green, Mitchell Kane, Miwon Kwon, John Lindell, and Helen Molesworth, "On Site Specificity: A Discussion", Documents 4-5, New York, 1994.
• with Benjamin Buchloh, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Denis Hollier, and Helen Molesworth, "The Politics of the Signifier II: A Conversation on the 'Informe' and the Abject", October 67 (Winter 1994), pp 3-21.
• with Rosalind Krauss, Denis Hollier, Annette Michelson, Silvia Kolbowski, Martha Buskirk, and Benjamin Buchloh, "The Reception of the Sixties", October 69 (Summer 1994), pp 3-21.
• with Silvia Kolbowski, Mignon Nixon, Mary Kelly, Liz Kotz, Simon Leung, and Ayisha Abraham, "A Conversation on Recent Feminist Art Practices", October 71: feminist issueS (Winter 1995), pp 49-69.
• with Tim Dean and Kaja Silverman, "A Conversation with Leo Bersani", October 82 (Autumn 1997), pp 3-16.
• with Denis Hollier, Silvia Kolbowski, and Rosalind Krauss, "The MOMA Expansion: A Conversation with Terence Riley", October 84 (Spring 1998), pp 3-30.
• with George Baker, Rosalind Krauss, Benjamin Buchloh, Andrea Fraser, David Joselit, James Meyer, Robert Storr, John Miller, and Helen Molesworth, "Round Table: The Present Conditions of Art Criticism", October 100: Obsolescence (Spring 2002), pp 200-228.
• with Malcolm Turvey, Chrissie Iles, George Baker, Matthew Buckingham, Anthony McCall, "Round Table: The Projected Image in Contemporary Art", October 104 (Spring 2003), pp 71-96.
• with Stan Allen, "A Conversation with Kenneth Frampton", October 106 (Autumn 2003), pp 35-58.
• with Yve-Alain Bois and Michel Feher, "On Forensic Architecture: A Conversation with Eyal Weizman", October 156 (Spring 2016), pp 116-140.

Reviews

Exhibition reviews

in Artforum (selection)

• "Preservation Society", Jan 2011. On Chaos and Classicism at Guggenheim.
• "September 2011. MoMA PS1, New York", Jan 2012.
• "Picasso: Sculpture. Museum of Modern Art, New York", Dec 2015.

in London Review of Books

• "At Dia:Beacon", 5 Jun 2003.
• "At the Guggenheim: Pop Surrealism", 18 Dec 2003.
• "At the Whitney: Ed Ruscha’s Hollywood Sublime", 2 Sep 2004.
• "In Central Park: The Gates", 3 Mar 2005.
• "In Venice: at the Biennale", 4 Aug 2005.
• "At the Guggenheim: Russian Art", 3 Nov 2005.
• "At the Guggenheim: David Smith", 9 Mar 2006.
• "At the Hayward: ‘The Painting of Modern Life’", 1 Nov 2007.
• "At the Grand Palais: Richard Serra", 22 May 2008.
• "At Inverleith House: Richard Hamilton", 14 Aug 2008. [22]
• "At the Hayward: Ed Ruscha", 19 Nov 2009.
• "At MoMA: Diego Rivera", 26 Jan 2012.
• "At MoMA: Cindy Sherman", 10 May 2012.
• "At MoMA: ‘Inventing Abstraction’", 7 Feb 2013.
• "At the Guggenheim", 20 Mar 2014.
• "At MoMA: Sigmar Polke", 19 Jun 2014.
• "At the Whitney: Jeff Koons", 31 Jul 2014.

Book reviews

• "Art Agonistes", New Left Review 8, Mar-Apr 2001, pp 140-149. Review of Newman's Challenging Art: Artforum. [23]

in London Review of Books

• "Slumming with Rappers at the Roxy", 21 Sep 2000. Review of Seabrook's Nobrow.
• "Hey, that’s me: Bruce Mau", 5 Apr 2001. Review of Mau's Life Style. [24]
• "Why all the hoopla?: Frank Gehry", 23 Aug 2001. Review of Cohen's Frank Gehry.
• "Bigness: Rem Koolhaas", 29 Nov 2001. Review of Koolhaas's Harvard Design School Guide and Great Leap Forward.
• "Andy Paperbag: Andy Warhol", 21 Mar 2002. Review of Koestenbaum's Andy Warhol. [25]
• "Expendabilia: Reyner Banham", 9 May 2002. Review of Whiteley's Reyner Banham. [26]
• "Pop Eye: Handmade Readymades", 22 Aug 2002. Review of Lobel's Image Duplicator. [27]
• "Nutty Professors: ‘Lingua Franca’", 8 May 2003. Review of Star's Quick Studies. [28]
• "Long Live Aporia!: William Gaddis", 24 Jul 2003. Review of Gaddis' Agapē Agape and The Rush for Second Place. [29]
• "Arty Party: from the ‘society of spectacle’ to the ‘society of extras’", 4 Dec 2003. Review of Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics and Postproduction and Obrist's Interviews I. [30]
• "Go, Modernity: Norman Foster", 22 Jun 2006. Review of two books of Foster. [31]
• "Wine Flasks in Bordeaux, Sail Spires in Cardiff: Richard Rogers", 19 Oct 2006. Review of Powell's books on Rogers. [32]
• "Global Style: Renzo Piano", 20 Sep 2007. Review of Jodidio's and Buchanan's books on Piano.
• "Crack Open the Shells: The Situationist Moment", 12 Mar 2009. Review of Debord's Correspondence.
• "I am the decider: Agamben, Derrida and Santner", 17 Mar 2011. Review of Derrida's The Beast and the Sovereign. [33]
• "Preposterous Timing", 8 Nov 2012. Review of Nagel's Medieval Modern and Powell's Depositions. [34]
• "What's the Problem with Critical Art?", 10 Oct 2013. Review of Rancière's Aisthesis.
• "Exhibitionists", 4 Jun 2015. Review of Obrist's Ways of Curating and Balzer's Curationism.

Interviews

• Marquard Smith, "Polemics, Postmodernism, Immersion, Militarized Space", Journal of Visual Culture 3 (2004), pp 320-335.
• "The Insiders", Interview Magazine, 5 Dec 2014. Foster answers questions from ten artists and writers each.
• John Douglas Millar, "After the Canon? An Interview with Hal Foster", Mute, 23 Nov 2015.

Links

• Dissertations adviced at Princeton
• Foster at Wikipedia