Richard Kostelanetz: Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes (1993–)

“This book elucidates, celebrates, enumerates, and sometimes obliterates achievers and achievements in the avant-garde arts. Although it runs from A to Z, it could as easily have been written from Z to A (or in any other order you might imagine) and may be read from front to back, back to front, or point to point. It is opinionated, as all good dictionaries should be, but it is also inclusive, because there can never be just one avant-garde.

Blake • Rimbaud • Apollinaire • Stein • Cage • Lichtenstein • Tatlin • Keaton • Captain Beefheart • Hologram • Text-Sound Texts • Strobe Light • Grotowski • Soho • Micropress • Electronic Music • Reinhardt • Pound • Performance • Postmodern • Duchamp • Fuller • Oldenberg • Paik • Armory Show • Reich • Cunningham • Copy Culture • Pattern Poetry • Bread and Puppet Theatre” (from the back cover)

With contributions by Richard Carlin, Geof Huth, Gerald Janecek, Katy Matheson, H.R. Brittain, John Robert Colombo, Ulrike Michal Dorda, Charles Doria, and Robert Haller.

Publisher A Capella Books, an imprint of Chicago Review Press, 1993
ISBN 1556522029
246 pages

PDF
2nd edition (2000, 47 MB, added on 2020-3-18)
New additions (2011) selected for Soanyway by Derek Horton (HTML)

Gyorgy Kepes: Language of Vision: Painting, Photography, Advertising-Design (1944–) [EN, ES, DE]

Noted painter, designer, theoretician Gyorgy Kepes analyzes the effect of visual language on the structure of human consciousness, in particular how the elements of line and form are perceived and how innovative types of perspective can lead to more dynamic representations in art. Over 300 photographs, drawings and illustrations.

With introductory essays by Siegfried Giedion and Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa
First published in 1944
Publisher Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1969
228 pages

Commentary: Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller (1999), Leigh Anne Roach (Ph.D. dissertation, 2010).

Language of Vision (English, 1944/1969, 33 MB, no OCR)
El Lenguaje de la visión (Spanish, trans. Enrique L. Revol, 1969, added on 2017-6-21 via Valericke)
Sprache des Sehens (German, trans. Renate Pfriem and Almut v. Wulffen, 1971, 20 MB, added on 2019-12-3 via ARCH)

Michel Foucault: Manet and the Object of Painting (1971–) [FR, ES, EN, RU]

“In this encounter between one of the 20th century’s greatest minds and an artist fundamental to the development of modern art, Michel Foucault explores Edouard Manet’s importance in the overthrow of traditional values in painting.

Originally delivered in Tunis in 1971 as part of a conference on Manet and here translated into English for the first time, this powerful critique takes the form of a commentary on 13 of Manet’s paintings. For the political-minded philosopher, the connection between visual art and power was clear: art is not an aesthetic pursuit, but a means to explore and challenge power dynamics. A precursor to Foucault’s later work on le regard, or the gaze, the text examines paintings like Un Bar aux Folies-Bergere, where Manet used the mirror to imply the multiple gaze of the waitress, the viewer, and the man at the bar, who may or may not be the artist himself. Foucault used Manet as a basis for a wider exploration of culture.”

English edition
Translated by Matthew Barr
With an Introduction by Nicolas Bourriaud
Publisher Tate, London, 2009
ISBN 1854378457, 9781854378453
80 pages

Commentary: James Polchin (The New Inquiry, 2011)
Bruno-Nassim Aboudrar (Critique d’art, 2004, FR).
Review: John Elias Nale (Foucault Studies, 2005).

Publisher (FR)
Publisher (EN)

Le noir et la surface & La peinture de Manet (French, manuscript with transcription, from Cahiers de L’Herne, 2011, pp 378-395 & 396-409). Audio excerpt (both links updated on 2021-2-3)
La pintura de Manet (Spanish, trans. Roser Vilagrassa, 2005)
Manet and the Object of Painting (English, trans. Matthew Barr, 2009, updated on 2021-2-3)
Zhivopis Mane (Russian, trans. A.V. Dyakov, 2011, added on 2014-6-6)

See also Georges Bataille: Manet: Biographical and Critical Study, 1955.