John Elderfield: Kurt Schwitters (1985)
Filed under book | Tags: · art history, avant-garde, biography, collage, constructivism, dada, machine
“Designed to accompany the Schwitters exhibitions in New York, London and Hanover, John Elderfield’s masterly study of Schwitters fulfils all the promise of his articles on that artist from the years 1969 to 1977 and surpasses any other academic work on the same subject in five major respects: first, in its attention to all phases of Schwitters’s work (the pre-1917 and post-1937 phases as well as the classically Merz period); second, in its judicious and balanced attention to all aspects of Schwitters’s multi-media work; third, in its refusal to reduce Schwitters’s artistic and theoretical work to one simple set of ideas or to privilege one mode of expression over another; fourth, in its generous sense of the rich artistic background (Cubism, Sturm, Dada, Constructivism) out of which Schwitters’s variegated work arose; and fifth, in its prodigious familiarity with the vast secondary literature dealing with the Modernist avant-gardes. The extent of Elderfield’s research is immensely impressive and the result of this is an authoritative, clearly-written book which combines a sure grasp of factual detail, a shrewd analytical sense vis-a-vis individual works, a complex understanding of the theoretical problems posed by Schwitters’s cpuvre and a fluid empathy with all of its levels. Quite apart from the 355 high-quality illustrations, the uniform excellence of Elderfield’s text makes the book indispensable for any serious student of German and European Modernism and effortlessly accessible to the non-specialist as well.” (Richard Sheppard’s 1986 review)
Publisher Thames and Hudson, London, 1985
ISBN 0500234264
424 pages
via MoMA
Reviews: Richard Sheppard (J Eur Studies, 1986), Dawn Ades (Burlington Mag, 1986).
Comment (0)Jennifer McColl Crozier: Carmen Beuchat: modernismo y vanguardia (2010) [Spanish]
Filed under book | Tags: · biography, choreography, dance
A book on the life of Carmen Beuchat (1941) as a postmodern dancer and choreographer, from Santiago to Valparaíso, with an important passage through New York from the late 1960s through the 1980s.
“‘Monja, salvaje, barroca, gozadora y penitente, ávida de conocimiento, rupturista consuetudinaria, deseosa de libertad, atada a los seres queridos vivos y muertos’. Tal es la complejidad de Carmen Beuchat, ícono nacional de la danza contemporánea posmoderna. La descripción es de Paula Tapia, profesora de danza que prologa Carmen Beuchat. Modernismo y vanguardia. El libro cuenta la vida de Beuchat como bailarina y coreógrafa, de Santiago a Valparaíso, con un importante paso por Nueva York. Leerlo es recorrer las alegrías y los sinsabores de quienes hacían arte de vanguardia en Estados Unidos y en Chile.”
Publisher Cuarto Propio, Providencia, Chile, 2010
ISBN 9789562605090
130 pages
via author
Alex Foti: General Theory of the Precariat: Great Recession, Revolution, Reaction (2017)
Filed under book | Tags: · ecology, economics, labour, marxism, precariat, precarity, work
“From the fast-food industry to the sharing economy, precarious work has become the norm in contemporary capitalism, like the anti-globalization movement predicted it would. This book describes how the precariat came into being under neoliberalism and how it has radicalized in response to crisis and austerity. It investigates the political economy of precarity and the historical sociology of the precariat, and discusses movements of precarious youth against oligopoly and oligarchy in Europe, America, and East Asia. Foti covers the three fundamental dates of recent history: the financial crisis of 2008, the political revolutions of 2011, and the national-populist backlash of 2016, to present his class theory of the precariat and the ideology of left-populist movements. Building a theory of capitalist crisis to understand the aftermath of the Great Recession, he outlines political scenarios where the precariat can successfully fight for emancipation, and reverse inequality and environmental destruction. Written by the activist who put precarity on the map of radical thinking, this is the first work proposing a complete theory of the precariat in its actuality and potentiality.”
Publisher Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2017
Theory on Demand series, 25
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
ISBN 9789492302182
155 pages